Wang Yuanliang
I went to Pengzhou to have a drink, and the remaining Confucians spoke sadly to each other.
The nine temples that crossed the river returned to dust, and the three palaces that left the fortress sat in the snow and frost.
Looking at the vast and empty road, I feel sad about the ups and downs.
This trip has gone through many difficulties, but the bright moon is the prosperous Jinxiang.
Pengzhou, namely Pengcheng, is now Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province. In the third month of the second year of Deyou (1276), the second year of Emperor Gong of the Song Dynasty, Boyan, the commander-in-chief of the Yuan army, led his troops to capture Lin'an, and captured the Song emperor Zhao Yu, the emperor, the queen, the queen mother, the emperor, the maids, the courtiers, the music officials, etc. and went north. The poet Wang Yuanliang was also among those accompanying him. This poem was written while passing through Pengzhou.
The beginning of the poem clearly states the title. Yiru refers to the accompanying ministers of the Song Dynasty. They arrived at Pengcheng on their way north and drank to relieve their fatigue. "Desolation" is their common topic, and it is also the poetic eye that leads the whole poem.
The couplet "Crossing the river and returning to the dust in nine temples, leaving the fortress and sitting in the snow and frost in the three palaces" is a summary of all their desolate words. After the Jingkang disaster (1127), Kang Wang Zhao Gou came to the throne and established the Southern Song Dynasty. "Nine Temples" means that ancient emperors built seven temples to worship their ancestors. Later, Wang Mang added the Taichu Ancestral Temple of the Yellow Emperor and the Zhao Temple, the ancestor of the Yu Emperor, to create nine temples. This sentence means that after the Southern Song Dynasty established its capital in Lin'an, it took one hundred and fifty years for the foundation established by the ancestors to be destroyed. What is even more sad is that San Gong went north and had to be captured in the cold areas outside the Great Wall and endured the torment of snow and frost. "Three Palaces": used to refer to the emperor, the empress dowager and the queen. This refers to the Song Emperor Zhao Yu, the empress dowager Xie Daoqing and the empress dowager Quan who were exiled to the north.
The neck couplet shifts from narrative to lyrical: "Looking at the vastness of the road, I feel sad about the rise and fall." On the road ahead, we will reach the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. I don't know how it will be dealt with after arriving, and its good or bad luck. How, that is completely unimaginable. Thinking of the many rises and falls in history, as well as the various circumstances that led to rise and fall, I am really sad and heartbroken!
The last couplet "This trip has gone through many difficulties, and the bright moon is the prosperous Jinxiang" . "Jinxiang" is an abbreviation for "returning to one's hometown in glory", referring to Pengcheng. Xiang Yu once established his capital in Pengcheng and named it Western Chu. He once said, "Wealth and honor do not return to their hometown, but they walk at night like brocade clothes." He borrowed Jinxiang to replace Pengcheng. These two sentences mean that this trip was difficult and difficult, and it was finally possible to reach this prosperous place. It would be better to stay a few more days. This seems to be a pretense of explanation, but it is actually a bitter remark. Although Jinxiang is nice, I’m just passing through. They were escorted by Yuan soldiers, and their future was uncertain. Even if this place was prosperous and worthy of nostalgia, what was the use? It contains deep love for the homeland and strong patriotism, which makes people sad when reading it!
< p> The whole poem is filled with tears, expressing the grief of the country's subjugation. No one like Wang Yuanliang who has personally experienced the suffering of the country's subjugation can write this kind of poem.