“The sound of the bells ringing at the Hanshan Temple outside Suzhou City reached the passenger ship at midnight” expresses the meaning of “The lonely and quiet ancient Hanshan Temple outside Suzhou City, the sound of the bells ringing in the middle of the night reached my passenger ship.”
Source of the work
The work comes from a traveling poem written by Zhang Ji, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, when he passed by Hanshan Temple - the seven-character quatrain "Mooring at Maple Bridge at Night".
Original text of the work
Night Mooring at Maple Bridge
[Tang Dynasty] Zhang Ji
The moon is setting, crows are crying, the sky is full of frost, and the rivers and maples are facing the fishing fire. Chou Mian.
At Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City, the bell rang at midnight to reach the passenger ship.
Creative background
In the twelfth year of Tianbao (753), Zhang Jixian passed the Jinshi examination. And in January of the fourteenth year of Tianbao, the Anshi Rebellion broke out. In June of the fifteenth year of Tianbao, Xuanzong rushed to Shu in a hurry. Because the political situation in Jiangnan was relatively stable at that time, many scribes fled to the present-day Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas to escape the chaos, including Zhang Ji. One autumn night, the poet was boating on Maple Bridge outside Suzhou. The beautiful scenery of the autumn night in the Jiangnan water town attracted this guest with travel worries, allowing him to appreciate a kind of poetic beauty with lasting appeal, and he wrote this short poem with a clear and far-reaching artistic conception.
In this poem, the poet accurately and delicately describes the observations and feelings of a night-berker on a passenger ship about the late autumn night sceneries in the south of the Yangtze River, and outlines the crows of the moon, frosty cold nights, river maples, fishing fires, and lonely boats. Guests and other scenes are full of scenery, emotions, sounds and colors. In addition, this poem also fully expresses the author's thoughts about traveling, worries about home and country, and concerns about being in troubled times and not having a destination. It is a representative work of writing about sorrow.
Appreciation of the work
This poem's seven unique poems are unified by the word "sorrow". The first two sentences are densely packed with images: the falling moon, crows, the sky full of frost, river maples, fishing fires, and sleepless people, creating an aesthetic situation with rich meaning. The images in the last two sentences are scattered: city, temple, boat, bell, which is an ethereal and distant artistic conception. On the autumn night, fishing fires are lit by the riverside, and travelers lie down listening to the sound of bells in the quiet night. All scenes are selected with unique discernment: one is still, one is moving, one is bright, one is dark, and on the river bank, the combination of scenery and the mood of the characters have reached a high degree of tacit understanding and blending, and together they have formed this artistic realm that has become a model for later generations. .
The first sentence of the poem describes three closely related scenes at midnight: moonset, crows, and frost-covered sky. The first quarter moon rose early and had set in the middle of the night, leaving only a gray shadow in the sky. The crows on the tree were probably awakened by the change in light before and after moonset and crowed several times. The moon sets deep in the night, and the frost condenses darkly. In a dark and quiet environment, people become particularly sensitive to the coolness of the night. The description of "the sky is full of frost" does not conform to the reality of the natural landscape (frost is on the ground but not in the sky), but it is completely consistent with the poet's feelings: the chill that penetrates the flesh and bone in the middle of the night surrounds the poet's boat at night from all directions. It made him feel that the vast night air outside was filled with frost. The whole sentence describes what I saw when the moon fell, what I heard when the crows cried, and what I felt when the sky was full of frost. It clearly reflects a sequential process of time and feeling. And all of this is harmoniously unified in the quiet and cold atmosphere of the autumn night in the water town and the lonely feeling of the travelers. From here we can see the meticulousness of the poet's thinking.
In addition, some people think that the first line of the poem describes the scene in the early morning: the crow crows, the moon goes down, the sky breaks, and there is white frost everywhere. The last three sentences use a flashback method to write that the poet was in a state of insomnia throughout the night.
The second sentence of the poem goes on to describe the characteristic scene of "Mooring at Maple Bridge at Night" and the traveler's feelings. In the hazy night, only a vague outline of the trees on the riverside can be seen. The reason why it is called "Jiang Maple" may be an inference caused by the place name Maple Bridge, or the image of "Jiang Maple" is chosen to give readers a sense of Autumn colors and hints of detached thoughts. "There are maples on the water of the Zhanzhan River, and the eyes are thousands of miles away and the heart of spring is sad", "There is no sorrow on the green maples", these ancient poems can illustrate the emotional content deposited in the word "Jiang Maple" and the associations it gives to people. Through the foggy river surface, you can see a few scattered "fishing fires". Due to the dim and misty surrounding background, they are particularly eye-catching and moving. "River Maple" and "Fishing Fire", one is still and one is moving, one is dark and one is bright, one is by the river, the other is on the river. The combination of scenery is quite thoughtful. After writing this, I point out the travelers at Bozhoufeng Bridge. "Shou Mian" refers to the travelers lying on the boat with the sorrow of traveling. The word "dui" in "Dui Chou Mian" contains the connotation of "companion", but it is not as explicit as the word "companion". There is indeed the lingering sadness of a lonely traveler facing the river maples and fishing fires on a frosty night, but at the same time, it also contains a fresh feeling of the beautiful scenery of the journey.
The scenery in the first part of the poem is very dense, with fourteen characters describing six scenes, but the second part is particularly sparse. The two lines of the poem only describe one thing: the night bell of Wowenshan Temple. This is because the most vivid, profound and poetic impression that the poet got while staying at Maple Bridge at night was the midnight bell of Hanshan Temple. Scenes such as the setting moon, the crow of the blackbird, the frosty sky and the cold night, the river maple fishing and the fire, the lone boat and the passengers, etc., have shown the characteristics of Maple Bridge Night Mooring in all aspects, but they are not enough to fully convey its charm. In the dark night, human hearing rises to the top of the list of perceptions of external things and scenes. And the sound of bells in the quiet night leaves a particularly strong impression on people. In this way, the "midnight bell" not only brings out the tranquility of the night, but also reveals the depth and loneliness of the night, and the poet's various indescribable feelings while lying listening to the sparse bells are all self-explanatory.
It seems that "Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City" cannot be ignored here. Hanshan Temple is located one mile west of Fengqiao. It was first built in the Liang Dynasty. Hanshan, the poet monk in the early Tang Dynasty, lived here, hence its name. The poetic beauty of Maple Bridge, with this ancient temple, has taken on the color of history and culture, making it even richer and more moving. Therefore, the "midnight bell" of Hanshan Temple seems to echo the echo of history, permeated with religious sentiments, and gives people a sense of quaintness and solemnity. It seems that the reason why the poet uses a poem to point out the origin of the bell is not without reason. With the stroke of the midnight bell of Hanshan Temple, the charm of "Mooring at Maple Bridge at Night" is most perfectly expressed. This poem no longer remains at the level of a simple autumn night scene painting of Maple Bridge, but creates It creates a typical artistic conception of scene blending. Although the custom of midnight has been recorded in "Southern History" as early as "Southern History", it was Zhang Ji's creation to write it into the poem and become the key point of the poem's artistic conception. Although there were many poets who described midnight at the same time as Zhang Ji or later, they never reached the level of Zhang Ji, let alone created a complete artistic conception.
About the author
Zhang Ji (about 715~about 779), courtesy name Yisun, Han nationality, was from Xiangzhou (now Xiangyang, Hubei). A poet of the Tang Dynasty, little is known about his life. According to various records, we only know that he was a Jinshi in the twelfth year of Tianbao (AD 753). In the Dali calendar, Wai Lang, a member of the Jixiao Temple, was the salt and iron judge of Hongzhou (now Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province). His poems are hearty and exciting, without any refinement, deep in metaphor, and both logical and logical. They have a great influence on later generations. But unfortunately, less than 50 songs have been handed down. His most famous poem is "Mooring at Night on Maple Bridge".