The whole poem is as follows:
There is a dark snow-capped mountain in Qinghai, with long white clouds and a lonely city looking at Yumenguan.
Yellow sand wears golden armor in hundreds of battles, but the loulan is not returned.
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Readers of frontier fortress in Tang Dynasty are often confused by the ancient and modern miscellaneous names and spatial separation involved in poems. Some people doubt that the author is not familiar with geography, so they don't seek a good solution, and others write for it. This is the case with this poem.
The first two sentences mentioned three place names. Snow Mountain is Qilian Mountain in the south of Hexi Corridor. Qinghai and Guan Yu are thousands of miles apart, but they appear on the same picture, so these two sentences have various interpretations. Some people say that the first sentence is looking forward, and the next sentence is looking back at home. This is very strange. Qinghai and Snow Mountain are in front, and Yumenguan is behind. Then the hometown of the lyric hero should be the Western Regions west of Yumenguan, not the Han soldiers, but Hu Bing. On the other hand, the second sentence is an inverted sentence of "Looking at Yumenguan, an isolated city", and the object of looking at it is "the dark snow mountain in Qinghai". There are two misunderstandings here: one is to interpret "looking from afar" as "looking from afar", and the other is to misunderstand the general description of the northwest border region as what the lyric hero sees. The former misunderstanding is due to the latter misunderstanding. One or two sentences can be imagined as a picture of a vast area: over Qinghai Lake, there are long white clouds; To the north of the lake, there are snow-capped mountains thousands of miles across the cotton pavilion; Crossing the snow-capped mountains, it is an isolated city, standing in the desert of Hexi Corridor. Further west, it is the Yumen Pass, a military fortress far away from the lonely city. This long scroll, which condensed things thousands of miles away, was a typical environment for soldiers living and fighting in the northwest frontier at that time. It is a bird's eye view and a summary of the entire northwest border. As for the reason why Qinghai and Guan Yu were specifically mentioned, it was related to the national war situation at that time. The strong enemies of the west and the north in the Tang Dynasty were Tubo and Turkic. Our special envoy's task in Hexi is to cut off the traffic between Tubo and Turkic, and take care of the two powerful enemies in the west and north within one town, mainly to defend Tubo and protect the Hexi Corridor. "Qinghai" area is the place where Tubo and Tang Jun fought many times; Outside Yumenguan, it is the sphere of influence of Turks. Therefore, these two sentences not only describe the scene of the whole northwest border, but also point out the extremely important geographical situation that the "isolated city" rejects Tubo in the south and defends Turks in the west. The strong enemies in these two directions are the heart of the soldiers guarding the "lonely city", so Qinghai and Guan Yu should appear on the screen. This is not so much what the soldiers see, but rather what emerges in their minds. These two sentences are permeated with rich and complex feelings while writing the scenery: the frontier soldiers' concern for the frontier situation, their pride and sense of responsibility for their tasks, and the loneliness and hardship of frontier life are all integrated in the tragic, open and misty scenery.
"There are dark snow-capped mountains in Qinghai, and the lonely city looks at Yumenguan" means: from the lonely city in the frontier, it is the border defense line from Qinghai Lake to Yumenguan via Qilian Mountain. The sky is overcast, the smoke is rolling, and the silvery snow-capped mountains are dark. It not only depicts the scenery of the frontier defense, but also renders the tense atmosphere of the upcoming war, full of desolate and tragic emotional appeal. These two poems are inverted sentences, which make the color of the poems appear at once. At the same time, geographically, standing on the "isolated city", people can't see the thousands of miles of defense lines connected with Yumenguan, Qilian Mountain and Qinghai Lake with the naked eye. Here, a "vision" and its three places with distant space are presented in the same picture, which is both imaginative and exaggerated to make it "see through Wan Li"
Three or four sentences changed from environmental description with scenes to direct lyricism. The phrase "Yellow sand can't come back after a hundred battles, and Loulan can't be returned" has made a concentrated expression and description of the fighting life and mental journey of the soldiers guarding the border. This means that in the desolate desert, the soldiers have fought many battles, and even their helmets and armor have worn out, but as long as the troubles at the border are not eliminated, they will never disarm and go home. The main rivals of the West in the Tang Dynasty were Tubo and Turkic. Qinghai Lake is the border of many wars and fierce battles between the Tang Dynasty government forces and the Tubo aristocratic forces. The Yumenguan area is adjacent to the Turks in the west, and this area is also filled with smoke and war for years. "Yellow sand wears golden armor in hundreds of battles" is a powerful summary of this fighting life. This is a poem with strong generalization. The length of the border defense, the frequency of wars, the hardship of fighting, the toughness of the enemy and the desolation of the border are all summed up in these seven words. The word "yellow sand" is not only a real scene, but also shows the typical environment of the frontier fortress battlefield and the desolation of the frontier court. The word "hundred battles" vividly illustrates the long time soldiers have been guarding the border and the frequent border wars; The word "wearing golden armor" exaggerates the hardship and fierceness of the battle, and also shows how heavy the soldiers paid, even sacrificed, to defend their country. However, the shining armor is fragile, and life can be discarded, but the will of the strong men guarding the border to serve the country will not be reduced. "Don't break Loulan, don't give it back" is a direct confession of their inner passion. Here is the allusion of Loulan. Hanwang Loulan colluded with the Huns, repeatedly intercepting and killing the envoys of the Han Dynasty to the Western Regions. In 77 BC, General Huo Guang sent Fu Jiezi, the Pingle supervisor, to Loulan to outwit the king of Loulan and returned home in triumph, clearing an obstacle for the Silk Road. This refers to the authorities of Tubo and Turkic nobles. The soldiers in the poem don't feel tired after a long battle. In order to defend the security of the motherland, they ignored their personal interests and faced the great enemy, and resolutely said that they would continue to fight to the end. Hit floor's forceful words of "Never Return Loulan" have successfully created a number of heroic images with magnificent souls, which make people feel poetic and solemn. In a word or two, the realm is broad and the feelings are tragic and rich; There is a turning point between three or four sentences, and the two sentences are in sharp contrast. Although the phrase "yellow sand" describes the hardships of war, the actual feeling of the whole image is majestic and powerful, not deep and sad. Therefore, the last sentence is not a sigh of returning home without a day, but a more firm and profound oath issued on the basis of a deep understanding of the hardships and protracted war.
The tone of this poem is tragic and desolate, which has a lot to do with the clever use of colors in the poem.
"Qinghai Changyun Dark Snow Mountain", the sparkling Qinghai Lake, is clear and green; Snow mountain, dancing like a silver python; Clouds are flying and ink is coming. Here, the three colors of "green", "black" and "white" come together to form a distinctive Chinese painting. In this Chinese painting, the poet not only gives full play to the contrast of colors, but also highlights the role of light and shade. Yin Hui, a snow-capped mountain, presents a kind of white and pure beauty. The dark characters behind the "Long Clouds" are painted with light black. Through the contrast between light and dark, the picture forms a gloomy atmosphere of war and a desolate realm. Wang Changling can interweave "color" and "light" and use dim light to render the desolation of cool colors. Therefore, the color light here is not only the attribute of natural scenery, but also the description of color light not only plays a role in beautifying the picture. They incorporate rich feelings and emotions, and the color has actually risen from the attribute of the image to an independent image. In fact, the phrase "there are dark snow-capped mountains in Qinghai" is a kind word to express feelings with colors and achieve a harmonious scene.
The poet accurately grasped the rhythm of the soldiers guarding the border and endowed them with appropriate colors and light, which made the artistic picture of the poem magnificent and open, the artistic conception tragic and profound, and vividly reflected the spiritual characteristics of people living in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
An important ideological feature of the excellent frontier poems in the prosperous Tang Dynasty is that while expressing the lofty sentiments and ambitions of the frontier guards, they do not shy away from the hardships of war. This article is an obvious example. It can be said that three or four sentences are not empty and superficial lyricism, but only one or two sentences of rich environmental description are needed. The high unity of typical environment and characters' feelings is a prominent advantage of Wang Changling's quatrains, which is also clearly reflected in this paper.