The Anshi Rebellion, which lasted for eight years, ended in the first year of Guangde (763). Tubo and Uighur took advantage of the situation and the buffer region took over the army. Because of the war, it was difficult to revive the Tang Dynasty. When Yanwu died, Du Fu lost his livelihood in Chengdu, so he went downstream and stayed in Kuizhou. The poet was ill in his later years, his intimate friends were scattered, his ambition was hard to pay, and his mood was very lonely and depressed. This group of poems "Prosperous Autumn Colors" embodies the gloomy autumn colors, sad autumn sounds, old and sick sufferings, deep affection for the country's destiny, tragic desolation and profound artistic conception in Kuizhou.
There are many comments on this group of poems by predecessors, among which Wang Siyuan's Du Yi is the most appropriate. He said: "there are eight poems in autumn, the first one is the first one, and the last seven capitals are in my heart;" Or bearing, or going up and down, or sending each other, or echoing from afar, will always be words ... "It can be seen that the eight poems are well-structured and well-organized, and should not be opened or reversed. On the whole, judging from Kuizhou, where the poet lived, he was associated with Chang 'an. Wandering from the old days to the river, facing the gloomy scenery, lamenting the rise and fall of the country and personal experience; Based on the recollection of Chang 'an's victory in the prosperous times, it comes down to the poet's lonely situation in reality and the sadness of comparison between the past and the present. This kind of worry can not be regarded as an accidental trigger of Du Fu, but a concentrated expression of his concern for the country, the people and the country since the chaos. Seeing that the country is ruined, but unable to make a difference, the poet can't bear to say it clearly, nor can he say it all. That's why he looked at Chang 'an and wrote Chang 'an, lamenting tactfully and repeatedly.
In order to understand the structure of this group of poems, it is necessary to explain their contents briefly. The first poem is the prelude to a series of poems. Through the image description of autumn scenery's autumn sound in Wuxia, Wushan, the gloomy and turbulent environment atmosphere is set off, which makes people feel that autumn scenery's autumn sound is shocking and shocking, and expresses the poet's feelings of worrying about the country and the people, loneliness and depression. This song is straight to the point, lyrical, majestic and strong. Poetry is reflected in two sentences, "Congju tears at another day, and the lonely boat is the heart of hometown", and the second and third songs were opened. The second poet is in an isolated city, sitting from sunset to midnight, looking at the north, staying up all night, should be the first. The last two sentences, focusing on my loneliness in Qiu Jiang, the places I have been in my twilight years, I am sick, I am in Jiannan, and deep down, "every Beidou Wangjing flower" shows my deep homesickness for Chang 'an. The third song is about Kuifu in the morning, which is an extension of the second song. The poet sits alone at the bottom of the river every day. The autumn is crisp and the river is quiet, but this silence has troubled the author. Faced with all kinds of contradictions, I deeply sigh that things in life backfire. The fourth poem is a transition from front to back. The melancholy and anxiety of the first three poems are getting closer and closer, which reveals its central content and touches the core of "every Beidou Wangjinghua": Chang 'an struggles for this and that, like "playing chess", repeatedly uncertain. The change of personnel, the collapse of law and discipline, the successive invasion of Uighur and Tubo made the poet deeply feel that the national fortune is not what it used to be. For Du Fu, Chang 'an is not an abstract geographical concept. He lived in the political center of the Tang Dynasty for ten years, and he was deeply impressed by his attachment, admiration, laughter and "hidden sadness" everywhere. The country is ruined, Qiu Jiang is cold and silent, and familiar Chang 'an scenes emerge one by one. Choose the following four songs from the sentence "My home is peaceful and thoughtful". The fifth song depicts the majestic Chang 'an Palace, the solemnity of the early scenes, and my "honored" memories so far. When Cangjiang fell ill, it was already late autumn, which touched his feelings of worrying about the country. The sixth song is about the prosperity of Qujiang, a place where emperors used to sing and dance. The royal banquet attracted endless "border worries", singing and dancing, ruined the "ancient imperial country", and implied reprimand in infinite regret. The seventh memory of Chang 'an Kunming Pool shows the prosperous national strength, magnificent scenery and rich products in the Tang Dynasty. The eighth poem shows the poetic sentiments of the poets Kunwu, Su Yu and Sepi. "The crayons used to be dry" is an unforgettable impression.
Eight poems are an inseparable whole, just like a large lyric music with eight movements. The theme of this lyric song is the patriotic thought of worrying about the rise and fall of the country, and the keynote is the bleak autumn scenery of Quiff, the poet's sick old age, the lost life experience, and especially the heavy mood of caring about the safety of the motherland. In the meantime, there are lively and cheerful lyrical expressions, such as "beauty meets Cui Chun and asks each other, and fairy couples move in the same boat late"; There are magnificent flying and passionate descriptions, such as memories of Chang' an Palace Que and Kunming Pool Water; There are generous expressions of grief and indignation, such as "students and teenagers are not cheap, and the five tombs are light and fat"; There are very depressing sighs, such as "the sky is only a bird's road, and the rivers and lakes are full of fishermen" and "the bald head sings down". In expressing the poet's loneliness and anxiety, its tone is different. "The waves between the river and the sky are rough, and the clouds are covered with fog." Write sadness boldly and broadly; "Loyal officials and fishermen are still vague, and swallows fly in the clear autumn", which makes the uneasy mood of "cutting without stopping" beautiful and quiet. In a word, each capital in the eight poems expresses the thoughts and feelings of the keynote from different angles with its own unique expression techniques. The eight songs support each other and form a whole. This not only makes the whole lyric complex and rich, but also cadences, opens and closes well and highlights the theme. Wang Chuanshan said to this: "If eight poems are changing into a seven-tone palace, they will become a chapter of their own, or they will be merged into one, then they will lose their manners." (Volume IV of Selected Poems of Tang Poetry written by Chuanshan)
In Eight Poems of Autumn Prosperity, Du Fu not only used strong contrast techniques, but also repeatedly used cyclical lyric methods to bring readers into the realm of poetry. The outline of the poem is "Looking at Chang 'an from Kuifu"-"Looking at China from Beidou". The fulcrum of poetry is "Qujiangtou at the mouth of Qutang Gorge, and Wan Lifeng meets Su Qiu in smoke". It's a long way from the mouth of Qutang Gorge to the source of Qujiang. The word "Jie" is used in the poem to interweave all kinds of complex feelings of visiting Shuwangjing, remembering the past and worrying about the country and the people into a profound and magnificent artistic realm. The first song is related to "Hometown" and comes from the opening of "Chrysanthemum". The meditation on "hometown" was interrupted by the sound of anvil everywhere at dusk in Baidicheng. There is a round trip from Kuifu to Chang 'an and from Chang 'an to Kuifu. The second song, the ancient city of Kuifu, looks at Chang 'an in the direction of Beidou, listens to apes in the gorge and thinks about "painting incense burners". This is two round trips. Memories of reminiscence were awakened by the sadness of the ancient city of Quefe. This is the third round trip. Although the third song mainly expresses grief, it contains "Five Tombs, Clothes and Horses, Light Fate", and there is still a shuttle between Kuifu and Chang 'an. The fourth and fifth songs, one about the unrest in Chang 'an for more than ten years and one about the grand occasion of Chang 'an Palace Que, all started from the memory of Chang 'an, and the last two sentences returned to Kuifu. The sixth song, from the mouth of Qutang Gorge to Qujiangtou, reminds me of the prosperity of song and dance in the past from the smog in Wan Lifeng. The seventh song, I miss the martial arts of the Tang Dynasty in Kunming, and return to the current neglect of "combining heaven with birds". The eighth song, from Chang 'an's Kunwu ... "to the reality of" growing old together ",is reciprocating. Riding is the basic performance of Qiu Xing, and it is also its characteristic. No matter from Kuifu to Chang 'an, or from recalling Chang 'an, it all comes down to Kuifu. From different angles, deepening layer by layer, not only has no sense of repetition, but also plays a role in deepening feelings and enhancing artistic appeal. It can really be described as "no regrets, no waves" ("Zheng Shiyun").
The harmony and unity of scenes is an extremely important aspect in lyric poetry. Eight Poems of Autumn Prosperity can be said to be an excellent example. For example, "the waves between the river and the sky are rough, and the clouds cover the fog." The waves are rough, as if the sky is also turning; Wushan Fengyun, down to the ground, seems to be connected with underground Yin Qi. The former sentence is from bottom to top, and the latter sentence is connected from top to bottom. The waves are monstrous, the clouds are filled, and the breath of Xiao Sen permeates the Wushan martial arts in autumn. We think these two sentences are powerful in image, rich in content and broad in artistic conception. The poet does not simply reproduce what he has seen and heard, nor does he simply describe the appearance of the rushing rivers, clouds and the Three Gorges in late autumn. The poet grasped their inner spirit and endowed rivers and clouds with certain characteristics. This is a traffic jam between heaven and earth and between rivers, full of waves and turbulence. Depression is gloomy and dark. This vividly shows the poet's extreme anxiety, ups and downs of anxiety and the injustice in Yu Bo's chest, and also symbolizes the bleak world and the restless future. The two poems include the late autumn in the canyon, the poet's personal life experience and the chaos of the country. This kind not only captures the characteristics of the scenery, but also incorporates the deepest feelings in his own life experience. It is expressed in the most vivid and summarized language, which makes the scenery alive and the feelings that the author tries to express are beautiful. Love is due to the scene, and the scene is due to the deep feelings. The language is simple and complex, and the artistic conception is gloomy and open (meaning not cramped or narrow). Su Dongpo once said: "Poetry must be this poem, and you must know that you are not a poet" ("Two Paintings in the Master Book of King Yanling"), which is really knowledgeable and experienced.
When Du Fu lived in Chengdu, he said in Jiangcun that "the swallows will come to the hall when they go", and the swallows living in the thatched cottage will come when they go, which shows the quiet summer environment at the head of the village where the poet lived and the relaxed mood when the poet temporarily settled down after wandering. The third song of Qiu Xing is also a swallow, but the poet said, "Swallows fly in clear autumn." The poet sits alone in the Jiang Lou every day, watching the swallow jump around in boredom, and Yan's words are back, as if he were deliberately mocking the poet for not coming back, so he said it flew around on purpose. The word "reason" shows the poet's anxiety. Another example is "Qutangxia mouth Qujiangtou, Wan Lifeng smoke every autumn", Qutangxia is in the east of Kuifu, close to where the poet is, and Qujiang is in the southeast of Chang 'an, which is a place of thinking. Huang Sheng's "Du Shi Shuo": "Two sentences clearly miss each other here, but only write about the scenery. Du Fu's poems are refined and the scenery is emotional, which can be regarded as refined language. To the point where "the calyx clamps the city to cure the gas, and the lotus garden is worried about entering the country"; Autumn scenery's "Lonely Fish Dragon and Cold Qiu Jiang" is a self-metaphor; Look at the vines on the stone. The flowers in front of the continent have been reflected. "Pure writing is the scenery, and feelings are among them. Examples of this blending of scenes can be found everywhere in eight songs.
The above-mentioned blending of scenes is the consistency of scenes, which effectively reveals the artistic effect produced by the poet's rich and complicated inner world. In addition, Du Fu is good at expressing deep sadness with magnificent and colorful words. In Autumn Prosperity, Chang 'an's former prosperity is described so colorful and full of pride, and the poet's early happiness is so gratifying and exciting. Some descriptions of Chang 'an not only adapt to the artistic conception in memory, but also become a unified, inseparable and mutually set off whole with the poet's desolate feelings in reality. This helps readers to realize the great sadness and anguish of the poet when his country was ruined and his family died and he drifted in his twilight years. The more passionately the poet praises the past, the more people feel that the poet is deeply worried about the country despite his advanced age, and the greater the pain of his "dishonesty".
Eight poems about autumn prosperity are intertwined with the coldness and desolation of late autumn, the loneliness and desolation of mood, and the decline and ruin of the country. According to the usual writing, we should always use some words such as Qing, sadness, disability and bitterness. But in this group of poems, Du Fu used more flowery words to write the sadness of autumn. At first glance, it seems completely different from the artistic conception in the poem, but under the ingenious drive of the poet, they more effectively contrast the depression of the late autumn scenery and the desolation of the artistic conception. Such as Penglai Palace Que, Yaochi, Ziqi, Yunyi Tail, Sunrao Longlin, Pearl Curtain Embroidered Column, Jinya Mark, Wudi Banner, Weaver Silk, Beauty Picking up Vegetables, Fairy Couple in the Same Boat, etc. But in Du Fu's works, these words are used to set off desolation and loneliness, and the courage to use words is out of common sense, and the depth of artistic conception makes people feel that common sense is everywhere. This uncoordinated coordination and unification not only does not damage the integrity of image and artistic conception at all, but also often produces stronger artistic effect than writing with coordinated words. Just as it is much more difficult to write sadness with laughter than with tears, if you write well, your thoughts and feelings will be more profound and powerful. When Liu Xie talked about duality in Li Ci in Wen Xin Diao Long, he pointed out that "opposition" is better than "right opposition". Its superiority lies in the combination of reason, difference and interest, and it has a positive effect of complementing each other, deepening interest and enriching content. Expressing sadness and anguish with luxurious words and scenes is also a kind of "combination of reason and interest", which can also be said to be a blending of scenes on a higher basis. The harmony between them is also the unity under the deeper and more complicated ambivalence.
Some people think that after Du Fu entered Shu, poetry no longer had the magnificent and intense feelings of the previous period. In fact, poets in this period were not depressed, but their life circumstances were different and their thoughts and feelings were more complicated and profound. In terms of artistic expression, after long-term life training and accumulation of creative experience, it has been further improved or enriched compared with the previous period, as evidenced by Qiu Xing.