The moon has set, crows crow all over the sky, the maple trees on the river and the fishing fires on the boat make it difficult for me to sleep alone.
In Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City, the bell ringing in the middle of the night reached my passenger ship.
To annotate ...
Qiao Feng: Outside Nagato, Suzhou.
Berthing at night: To dock a ship at night.
Wuti: Speaking of crows, it is Wuti Town.
Frost all over the sky: frost can't cover the sky, and the word "frost" should be understood as severe cold; Frost is the image language of extremely cold air.
Jiang Feng: Generally interpreted as "the maple tree by the river", Jiang refers to Wusong River, which originates from Taihu Lake, flows through Shanghai and flows into the Yangtze River, commonly known as Suzhou River. Some people think it refers to "Jiangcun Bridge" and "Qiao Feng Bridge". "Qiao Feng" is located in the western suburb (Liuhe Gate) outside the south gate of Wuxian County. Its real name is "Qiao Feng", but it was changed to "Qiao Feng" because of this poem by Zhang Ji.
Fishing fire: generally speaking, "fishing fire" is the lamp on the fishing boat; Some people say that "fishing fire" is actually a fishing partner.
Worried about sleeping: the meaning of worrying about sleeping, this sentence personifies the words Jiang Feng and Yu Huo. However, people who don't understand poetry in later generations doubt how Jiang Feng can sleep on fire, so he attached a sentence saying that sleep on sorrow is the name of the mountain opposite Hanshan Temple.
Gusu: Suzhou is another name, named after Gusu Mountain in the southwest of the city.
Hanshan Temple: Near Qiao Feng, it was built in the Southern Liang Dynasty. According to legend, it was named after Hanshan, a monk who lived here in the Tang Dynasty. In Xifengqiao Town, Suzhou today. The real name is Miaoliping Pagoda, also known as Qiao Feng Temple; Another way of saying it, "Cold Mountain" refers to Cold Mountain, not the name of the temple. The temple has been rebuilt several times and is now newly built after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The temple bell was transported away by the Japanese army during World War II, and its whereabouts are unknown.
Midnight bell: Today's Buddhist temples ring bells in the middle of the night (Spring Festival), but they used to ring bells in the middle of the night, which is also called "impermanent bell" or "minute". Ouyang Xiu, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, once questioned: "Poets are so greedy for good sentences that it doesn't make sense. This is a problem in writing articles, such as Zhang Ji's poem "The Midnight Bell Knocks on a Passenger Ship". Although the sentence is good, is it reasonable to ring the bell at midnight? " However, after many people's field visits, I learned that Buddhist temples in Suzhou and surrounding areas have the custom of knocking at midnight. ▲
Creation background
An Shi Rebellion broke out in January of Tianbao 14th year. Because the political situation in Jiangnan was relatively stable at that time, many scribes fled to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to avoid chaos, including Zhang Ji. One autumn night, the poet anchored at Fengqiao outside Suzhou. The beautiful scenery of autumn night in Jiangnan water town attracted the traveler with travel worries and made him write this poem with clear artistic conception.