Original text of Saixiaqu:
Drinking horses crossing the autumn water, the water is cold and the wind is like a knife. The sun has not gone out in Pingsha, and I can see Lintao dimly. In the old days of the Great Wall Battle, Xian Yan was in high spirits. The yellow dust is enough for the present and the past, and the white bones are a mess of wormwood. Translation and annotation of Sai Xia Qu
Translation I led my horse to drink water and crossed the big river. The water was cold and the autumn wind was as sharp as a sword. The sunset has not yet set in the vast battlefield, and Lintao is seen in the distance in the darkness. There was a fierce battle at the Great Wall back then, and everyone said that the soldiers guarding the border were in high spirits. Since ancient times, this place has been filled with yellow dust, and the land is littered with white bones and weeds.
Notes 1. Drink (yin) horse: give water to the horse. 2. Pingsha: vast sand plain. 3. An: dark and blurry appearance. Lintao: The name of the ancient county was established in the Qin Dynasty. The administrative seat is now Min County, Gansu Province. It was named after its proximity to the Tao River. The Qin Dynasty built the Great Wall and started here in the west, so there is a saying of "the battle of the Great Wall in the past". 4. Past: One word is "dang". Long: One is "Dragon". 5. Foot: One means "leaking", the other means "is". 6. Basil: Weeds such as basil and wormwood. Appreciation of Saixiaqu
The conceptual characteristic of this poem is that it uses side description to express the theme. The poem does not describe the war in detail, but expresses the poet's views on the war through the description of the scenery outside the Great Wall and the relics of past wars. The first four sentences are based on what the sergeant saw and felt as he drank his horse and crossed the river, describing the bitter and cold scene in the dry wilderness outside the fortress. The poet chose the time of description in the late autumn dusk, which is more conducive to expressing the content he wrote. To write about the bitter cold, I only chose water and wind, the two scenery that best express the characteristics of the environment. The writing is simple and can achieve good artistic effects. The person who "drinks the horse" in the first sentence is the sergeant. The "water" in the poem refers to the Tao River, and Lintao City is located on the bank of the Tao River. To "drink a horse" you need to lead the horse into the water, so the feeling of "water cold" may seem casual, but in fact it is a work of ingenuity. In the Central Plains or areas south of the Central Plains, the autumn wind only makes people feel cool, but the autumn wind outside the Great Wall is already "like a knife". It shows that the wind is not only strong, but also cold. Only the cross is used to vividly depict the characteristics of the region. Three or four sentences describe the scene of Lintao from a distance. "Pingsha" means desert land. Lintao, the ancient name of the county, got its name because the county seat is located near the Tao River. Today's Min County in eastern Gansu is the starting point of the Great Wall. In the Tang Dynasty, it was the administrative seat of Minzhou on the Longyou Road, and wars often occurred here. The dusk was vast, the vast desert could not be seen, a golden sunset hung on the horizon, and Lintao City loomed far away in the dusk. The realm is vast and the momentum is magnificent.
The Lintao area was a battlefield that was frequently fought in the past dynasties. According to the old and new "Book of Tang: Biography of Wang Hui" and "Biography of Tubo" and other books: In the tenth month of the lunar calendar in 714 AD (the second year of Kaiyuan), Tubo came to Tao with 100,000 elite soldiers. Xue Na and others combined their forces to resist, and successively defeated the Tubo at Dalaigukou, Wujie, Changzi and other places. They killed tens of thousands and captured 200,000 horses and sheep. The Tubo dead lay on their pillows and the Tao River stopped flowing. The "Battle of the Great Wall" mentioned in the poem refers to this war. "In the old days when the Great Wall was fought, I was in high spirits." This is what everyone said. In this regard, the poet does not directly refute or comment from the front, but uses the scenery and war relics here to answer: "Yellow dust is enough for the present and ancient times, and white bones are tangled with wormwood." "Foot" means full. "White bones" are the bones of those who died in battle. "Jingu" runs through two sentences, including the upper and lower sentences; it not only refers to the past to the present, but also includes the four seasons of the year, every month and every day. This means that the desert area in Lintao is filled with yellow dust all year round, and the bones of the war dead are scattered among the basil in confusion. This has been the case from ancient times to the present. The "white bones" here include the soldiers who died in the "Great Wall Battle" in the second year of Kaiyuan, as well as the soldiers who died in previous battles. There is not a word of discussion here, but the cruelty of war is extremely profoundly revealed. This is discussion and reasoning, but this kind of discussion and reasoning is completely expressed in vivid images, so it has the power to shock people's hearts, and the technique is extremely superb.
This poem focuses on the hardships of military life and the cruelty of war, which contains the poet's opposition to military war.
Poetry work: Saixiaqu Poetry author: Wang Changling of the Tang Dynasty Poetry classification: Three Hundred Tang Poems, War, Yuefu