Jinling Nostalgia
Dynasty: Tang Dynasty
Author: Liu Yuxi
Original text:
Chaoman Yecheng In Zhu, the sun is setting at Zhenglu Pavilion. The new grass in Caizhou is green, and the old smoke of the shogunate is green.
The ups and downs are determined by personnel, mountains, rivers and empty terrain. There is a song of flowers in the backyard, and the resentment is unbearable to listen to.
Appreciation
In the winter of 826 AD (the second year of Baoli), Liu Yuxi returned to Luoyang from Hezhou and passed through Jinling. Judging from the description of the scene in the poem, this poem may have been written in the early spring of the following year.
"The tide is full of Yecheng and Zhu, and the sun is setting at the imperial pavilion." The first couplet writes about the morning scene and the evening scene. The poet came to the riverside in search of the ruins of Yecheng, the place where Soochow was smelted. It happened that the morning tide was rising, the water and sky were wide, and the river was full of wind and waves. Where is the ancient site of Yecheng, famous for the smelting of Wu knives and Wu hooks? The poet wandered around looking for it, but he looked around at a loss. There was only the sound of the waves lapping the shore and the desolate scene along the river. It seems to tell people: Yecheng, like the Wu Kingdom's ambitious hegemony, has long disappeared without a trace in the long river of time. In the evening, the Zhenglu Pavilion stood lonely in the setting light, accompanied by nothing more than a long black shadow cast on the ground. The lively scene where the noble families of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Wang Xie and his family once bid farewell to each other have long since disappeared. . Although the pavilion and the sunset remain the same, the human affairs have completely changed. In the first two sentences of the poem, the contrast between ups and downs is cleverly expressed in the language of scenery, so that the poem can closely follow the title as soon as it is written, and naturally reveal the feeling of paying tribute to the past and regretting the present.
"The new grass in Caizhou is green, and the old smoke in the shogunate is green." Although the two sentences in the couplet still describe scenery, the scenery written here is not only a tribute to historical relics, but also witnessed by the majestic and beautiful mountains and rivers. Lyrical, to vividly express the poet's insight on a certain historical issue. Lo and behold, although the time is in the cold spring, Caizhou, the unsinkable warship in the middle of the river, has already grown a piece of green new grass; the Shogunate Mountain, known as the gateway to Jinling, is looking majestically towards the river, and green smoke rises from the top of the mountain. , the situation remains the same. Facing the surging river, the poet recalled that Su Jun, a warlord of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, once attacked Jinling in an attempt to establish hegemony by relying on dangers. Soon Tao Kan and Wen Qiao raised troops to attack the rebels here, and their 40,000 fleet troops arrived at Caizhou. For a while, the boats and boats looked at each other, their flags covered the sky, and they fought fiercely for many days. Finally, they defeated Su Jun and put the Jin Dynasty in danger. He also remembered that Shogunate Mountain was named because Prime Minister Wang Dao once established a shogunate garrison here. But once upon a time, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was still replaced by the Liu Song Dynasty, and Liu Yiji, the king of Hengyang, served as the governor of South Yanzhou. This mountain has since become the ancestral home of the new nobles of the Liu Song Dynasty. The mountains, rivers and scenery have not changed in the long history of change. What the poet sees is still: the spring grass is green every year, and the old smoke is green every year. This connection integrates ancient and present events with the immediate future. The six characters "new grass is green" and "old smoke is green" are vivid and vivid, and the scenes blend together, paving the way for the following emotions.
"The rise and fall depends on personnel, and the mountains, rivers, and empty terrain." The neck couplet carries on the previous two couplets and turns into discussion. The poet revealed the secrets of the rise and fall of the Six Dynasties in extremely concise language, and warned the world: Where did the prosperity of the Six Dynasties go? Where are the powerful people at that time now? The dangerous mountain and river situation did not provide guarantee for their long-term peace and stability; the rise and fall of the country should originally depend on personnel! In this couplet, the poet thought about thousands of miles away, wrote great poems by himself, and put forward the outstanding insight that the existence of the country "depends on virtue but not on danger". Later, two of the four poems from Wang Anshi's "Jinling Nostalgia": "Heavenly soldiers marched south to this bridge river, and the enemy country pointed Gu Jiang at that time. The mountains and rivers are majestic and empty, and the king's divine power is unparalleled." This is how it was transformed. This shows the high level of discussion and outstanding knowledge.
The last couplet is "The song "Flowers in the Back Garden" is full of resentment and unbearable to listen to." The emperors of the Six Dynasties relied on natural dangers and indulged in pleasure and their countries perished. Have the lessons of history been learned by future generations? The poet used the still popular "Flowers in the Backyard of Yushu" to imply that the rulers of the Tang Dynasty today relied on the dangers of hundreds of mountains and rivers in Guanzhong and indulged in sensual pleasures, following in the footsteps of the Six Dynasties, and the consequences were unimaginable. "Flowers in the Back Garden of Yushu" is recognized as the sound of the country's subjugation. The poem implicitly embodies the warning of national subjugation in a musical phenomenon, which is profound. Du Mu, a poet of the late Tang Dynasty, wrote the poem "Porting Qinhuai": "The merchant girl did not know the hatred of the country's subjugation, but she still sang "Flowers in the Back Garden" across the river", which was born out of this.
"Zhen Yizhai Poetry" says: "When chanting an epic poem, you don't have to refer to the facts. It can be seen from the famous works of the ancients." This is the case with Liu Yuxi's poem. The first couplet sways from the front of the title, and the last couplet comes from the title. Then he meandered away. The first two couplets only point out the scenic spots and historic sites in Jinling related to the Six Dynasties to hint at the reasons for the rise and fall of the ages, rather than to commemorate one dynasty, one emperor, one event, or one thing. The last two couplets use discussion and emotion to draw on the past and satirize the present, revealing the theme of the whole poem. This technique is quite clever when used in epic poems and nostalgic poems.