Appreciation of Wei Zhuang's "Taicheng"
The river is raining and the grass is flowing, and the six dynasties are like birds in a dream. The most ruthless willow is Taicheng Liu, still smoked ten miles away from the embankment.
Taicheng, formerly located in the south of Jiming Mountain in Nanjing, was originally the Houyuan City of Wu State during the Three Kingdoms period and was rebuilt during the reign of Emperor Cheng of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. From the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the end of the Southern Dynasties, Taicheng has always been the seat of the imperial court (that is, the central government) and the imperial palace. It was the center of politics and the place where emperors lived for debauchery and enjoyment. After the Southern Dynasty disappeared, Taicheng also declined. By the time Wei Zhuang, a poet of the late Tang Dynasty, appeared in front of it, it was already in dilapidated condition.
The seven-character quatrain "Taicheng" by Wei Zhuang, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, is an ancient poem in tribute to Taicheng.
However, the poem does not directly show readers the dilapidated situation of Taicheng. On the contrary, it presents a picture with a Jiangnan flavor. The river is raining, the river is full of grass, and the six dynasties are like birds singing in the sky. The most ruthless willow is Taicheng Liu, still smoked ten miles away from the embankment. The river is raining, and the grass grows long on the river bank; the birds are chirping as if in a dream, and the willows on the embankment are like smoke cages. The combination of these four scenery is a typical Jiangnan scenery.
However, when we taste it carefully and notice several "keywords" that can reflect the poet's emotional attitude, we will find that the connotation of this poem is not just "coloring the scenery".
Let’s look at the word “empty” first: The Six Dynasties are like birds singing in the sky in a dream. It is most likely to remind us of the "good sound of the oriole in the sky across the leaves" in the "Xiang of Shu" by the poet Du Fu. Why "empty"? Du Fu said "empty" because no one came to worship at the Prime Minister's Ancestral Hall. Although the oriole's cries were beautiful, no one came to listen. He then said: Although Zhuge Wuhou's achievements are great, they have been forgotten by others. Wei Zhuang's word "empty" is because the prosperity of the Six Dynasties has long since disappeared "like a dream", people and things are no longer there, and although the cry is beautiful, no one comes to listen. This word "empty" immediately points out the desolate state of Taicheng.
Then the word "ruthless": the most ruthless person is Taicheng Liu. Grass and trees are ruthless, so why accuse them of being ruthless? It can be seen that the poet actually wrote about Taicheng Liu as a sentimental thing. From the perspective of the traditional use of objects, "willow" is indeed related to human feelings: breaking willows and giving them to each other at parting means the word "remain", and seeing willows after parting will make you feel sad, and the decline of the "Six Dynasties" is the symbol of an era. bid farewell.
In Wei Zhuang's eyes, Liu, who had witnessed the departure of the Six Dynasties, should "grow old", but he was "still a smoke-caged ten-mile embankment" with lush branches and leaves. It should be noted that the word "still" in this sentence forms a contrast between the past and the present, and contains the poet's deep feelings about "the changes in the world." Perhaps it is precisely because of the special function of "willow" in traditional objects that the poet used the word "most is". The normal word order of "the most ruthless thing" is "the most ruthless thing". The purpose of the inversion is self-evident. While strengthening the "ruthlessness" of Taicheng Liu, it also highlights the character of a poet who looks back on history with a bit of "resentment". image.
The poet Wei Zhuang paid homage to the ancient ruins of Taicheng and looked back on the past events of the Six Dynasties. He could not help but lament that looking at the past now is better than looking at the present later. The ominous premonition of national subjugation lingered in the heart of the poet Wei Zhuang when he wrote the poem "Taicheng".