Appreciation of Yang Wanli's Poems

"Four quatrains when I first entered Huaihe River" was written by Yang Wanli when he was sent to Jin in the 16th year of Song Xiaozong. The Huaihe River in the poem is the dividing line between Song and Jin Dynasties stipulated in the "Shaoxing Peace Talks" in Song Gaozong period, and the vast Central Plains north of the Huaihe River was all ceded to the State of Jin. When the poet crosses the Huaihe River in the north, he will naturally feel this split situation: he laments the bleak situation of half occupation and half peace, cherishes the broad masses of people in the occupied areas in the north, and resents the rulers of the Southern Song Dynasty for betraying their country and seeking security. His feelings are rich and profound.

The first song analyzed here shows these contents in a more subtle way. "The boat is far from the beach in Hongze, and people don't want to go to Huaihe River." As soon as the poet left the sandy shore of Hongze Lake and entered the Huaihe River, his heart became restless. This is because the flowing water of the past has become the boundary line of today. These two sentences describe the unique psychological changes of people in the Southern Song Dynasty when facing the Changhuai River. "Why is the mulberry stem far away, and the middle stream is the end of the world?" Here is the word "dissatisfied" to write my deep feelings. This feeling is aimed at people's frontier concept before the fall of the Central Plains in the former Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty. Tao Yong, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem "Crossing Sanggan River" that "Southerners are not familiar with Saibei, and only geese fly back every year", indicating that crossing Sanggan River means "Saibei" in China. When the Soviet Union sent Khitan back to China in the Northern Song Dynasty for five years and left the Liao territory, he wrote in the poem "Crossing Sanggan": "The Hu people can't bear to go, and they have been in the Central Plains for a long time and are easy to lean on. I will send mulberry branches every year and want to talk about Baigou. " It is precisely because the predecessors have such a concept of boundary that the author now says "why", which seems to be dissatisfied with the predecessors' views. In fact, it is through this tone of discontent that the poet expresses his sorrow for half the country and his resentment for the court's partiality, which is a euphemism. The poet said that Sanggan used the word "far" and Zhunhe used "Tianya". On the one hand, he emphasized the border concept of Huaihe River, on the other hand, he played up the remoteness of Huaihe River. This kind of exaggeration can make us feel the author's psychology of abandoning the north and fleeing to the south in the Southern Song Dynasty, his policy compromise and surrender, his grief and dissatisfaction with the ruin of the country and the death of the people in the Central Plains. The same meaning as Yang Wanli's poems is often found in the works of other literati in the Southern Song Dynasty, such as Lu You's Drunk Songs: "The poor side refers to flying, and Luo Jing is regarded in a foreign land." Compared with Lu You's two sentences, the last two sentences of Yang Wanli's poems are more subtle and emotional. ...