Original text of Palace Ci: Three Thousand Miles from the Homeland:
Three Thousand Miles from the Homeland, Twenty Years in the Palace. With a cry of He Manzi, tears fell in front of you. Palace Ci·Homeland Three Thousand Miles Translation and Annotation
Translation My hometown and relatives are thousands of miles away. I have been cooped up in this deep palace for twenty years. When I listen to the song "He Manzi", I can't help but Live in tears.
Notes 1 Homeland: Hometown. 2 He Manzi: A famous singer during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. It is said that she offended the emperor for some reason and was pushed out to death. Before her execution, she opened her mouth and sang loudly, the tune was so sad and angry that "the sky and the sun were eclipsed." As a result, the emperor heard about it and finally issued a decree to suspend the work because he regretted that his skills were rare. Because of He Manzi's outstanding skills, the great poets Yuan Zhen, Bai Juyi, Du Mu, etc. all wrote poems about him one after another. Among them is the palace poem "He Manzi" by Zhang Hu: "The homeland is three thousand miles away, and it has been in the palace for twenty years. The sound of He Manzi brings tears. "Before Luojun" is the most touching. This palace poem was later widely circulated, and it sounded extremely sad and sorrowful when sung. It is said that during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty, there was a talented man from Meng who, feeling that Emperor Wuzong wanted him to die for his love, sang a song "He Manzi" for the dying Emperor Wuzong. After singing, he died of anger. One piece is "He Manzi", the name of the dance. The title is also "Gong Ci". Bai Juyi's poem "He Manzi": "It is said that Manzi is a person's name, and the song was composed just when he was about to play. A four-word song with eight stacks, starting from the beginning is the sound of heartbreak." "He Manzi" has a sad tone. "Yuefu Collection" quotes Bai Juyi's autonote to the poem "He Manzi" and says: "He Manzi, a singer from Cangzhou in the Kaiyuan Dynasty, had no choice but to compose this song to atone for his death." 3 Jun: refers to the emperor. This refers to Tang Wuzong. According to "Chronicles of Tang Poems", Zhang Hu's "Palace Ci": "When the palace was banned, Emperor Wu was very anxious, and Meng Cairen said: "I won't hear anything, what can you do?" Pointing to the sheng bag, weeping and saying: "Please hang yourself with this. ” The emperor responded with pity and said: “I want to sing a song to express my anger.” He then sang “He Manzi” and said: "The pulse is still warm but the intestines are gone." Later, Zhang Hu wrote a unique poem "Meng Cairen's Lament", which goes like this: "Occasionally, because of the singing style, it is said that the twelve springs in the palace are singing. But the sound is full, It is necessary to pay tribute to old talents when going down to the spring. "Gong Ci·Appreciation of Three Thousand Miles of the Homeland
Generally short palace resentment poems written in the style of quatrains always reveal only a corner of the picture of life, allowing readers to learn from it. A fragmented scene shows the tragic life of the palace people; at the same time, it is often written euphemistically and implicitly, leaving some content to the readers' own imagination and play. This poem is different. It shows a complete picture of life, and it directly tells the story and writes the emotion.
Shi Zong*** has only twenty words. In the first half of the poem, the author condenses the entire experience of a palace man far away from his hometown and living in a claustrophobic palace into just ten words with the power of writing with ease and simplicity. The first sentence, "Three Thousand Miles from the Homeland," is written from the perspective of space, writing about the distance from home; the second sentence, "Twenty Years in the Palace," is written from the perspective of time, writing the length of time in the palace. These two lines of poems are not only highly generalized, but also highly contagious; not only do they display the heroine’s sorrows and hatreds in one go, but they also express them twice as much and further. Her sorrow. It is already tragic enough for a young girl to be unfortunately selected into the palace, separated from her family, isolated from the outside world, losing her happiness and freedom, not to mention that her hometown is three thousand miles away and it has been twenty years. Readers feel that his fate is more tragic and his life experience is more sympathetic. Similar to these two lines of poetry, there is a couplet in Liu Zongyuan's poem "Farewell to Brother Zongyi", "I traveled six thousand miles to the country, and died in the wilderness for twelve years", which also uses the distance and the length of time to express the distance. The state investment shortage is extremely sad. This is done by doubling and adding another layer of writing to increase the weight and depth of the poem.
The second half of the poem turns to resentment. With a sad song and the fact that both tears fell, it directly expresses the deep and long-buried emotions in the poem. of resentment. These last two lines of poetry also win with intensity, not with subtlety. In the past, some poetry commentators said that implicit poetry is more important than directness and music is more taboo, but this is not absolute. It should be said that whether a poem is melodious or direct, implicit or strong, it must obey its content. The first half of this poem has already described the tragic situation of the people in the poem to the extreme, and has accumulated enough power to force out the resentment. Therefore, in the second half of the poem, the resentment of the people in the poem is bound to burst out and pour out. Soon. Only in this way can the whole poem appear strong and powerful, and achieve an artistic effect that impresses readers. Here, one point worth mentioning is that some poems about palace resentment state that the reason for the resentment of the palace people is that they cannot see the emperor or fall out of favor with the emperor, which is not advisable; this poem does the opposite, The resentment written in it burst out "in front of the emperor", when the song and dance of the person in the poem was appreciated by the emperor. This resentment, when viewed in conjunction with the first two sentences, is definitely not due to being out of touch or falling out of favor, but rather a desire for being deprived of happiness and freedom. This is exactly what Liu Zao said in his poem "The Revenge of the Nagato": "It's not that I miss you, but that I hate you."
This poem also has two characteristics. One is: among the four lines of the poem, the first three lines are all noun sentences without predicates. Xie Zhen once pointed out in "Siming Poetry Talk" that "if there are many real words in a poem, the meaning will be simple and the sentence will be strong." The examples he cited of "all using real words" are noun sentences. The reason why this poem is particularly concise, concise, and powerful is related to the use of this special verse structure.
Another characteristic is: in the four lines of the poem, "three thousand miles" is used to indicate the distance, "twenty years" is used to indicate the time, "one sound" is used to describe singing, and "two tears" is used to describe weeping. Numerals are used in every sentence. . Numbers often have a special role in poetry. They can express a thing or a problem more clearly and accurately, giving readers a deeper impression, and also make the poems particularly concise and powerful. These two artistic form characteristics of this poem are in harmony with its content and complement each other.
Du Mu, a poet at the same time as Zhang Hu, admired this poem very much. In a poem to Zhang Hu, there is a sentence: "My poor motherland is three thousand miles away, and I sing the lyrics in vain to fill the six palaces." This shows that Zhang Hu's poem expressed the bitterness of the palace people and what they wanted to say. It was introduced to the palace at that time and was widely sung by the palace people. The creative background of Gongci·Three Thousand Miles of Homeland
According to the "Chronicle of Tang Poems", Li Yan, Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty, favored Meng, a talented singer and songwriter. Later, when Emperor Wuzong was seriously ill, Meng Cai was at his side. Wu Zong asked him, "If I don't hold back, what will you do?" Meng Cairen said to him, "If your majesty lives forever, you will never be able to live again." At that time, Wu Zong ordered him to sing "He Manzi" in front of his sick bed. , the tone is pitiful, and those who hear it burst into tears. Soon after, Emperor Wu died, and Meng Cai mourned for several days and died. Zhang Ku wrote three poems about Meng Cai's death in love, one of which was entitled "Meng Cai's Lament" and the other two poems were a group, collectively titled "Gong Ci".
Poetry works: Palace Poems·Three Thousand Miles from the Homeland Poetry author: Zhang Hu of the Tang Dynasty Poetry classification: Three Hundred Tang Poems, Palace Resentment