From: On the Tower of Youzhou by Don Chen Ziang.
Original poem:
Youzhou tower
Tang Dynasty: Chen Ziang
No one can see the ancient wisdom of the ancient king, only those wise men who can't see the afterlife can see it.
Only the boundless universe, boundless, can't stop the tears full of sadness.
Explanation:
We can't see the ancient holy king who accepted talents, nor can we see the wise king who was thirsty for talents in later generations.
I can't stop crying when I think that only the boundless world is infinite.
Before: In the past. Ancient people: Ancient sages could respect respectable men and women. After: the future. Newcomer: a wise monarch who attaches importance to talents in later generations. Read: I remember. Youyou: describes a long time and a large space. Chu: You look sad. Snuff: refers to tears in ancient times.
Extended data
This poem was written in 696 AD (the first year of long live Wu Zetian). Chen Ziang is a scholar with political knowledge and talent. The poet suffered many setbacks, and his ambition to serve the country was dashed, so he boarded the Jibei Building and generously wrote "Youzhou Tower".
The poet expressed infinite admiration for Yan Zhaowang's courtesy to Le Yi and Guo Kun and Yan Taizi Dan's courtesy to Tian Guang during the Warring States Period. However, like Yan Zhaowang, the sages of the previous generation are no longer visible, and the sages of later generations have no time to visit them. They are really out of place; When I stepped onto the stage and looked out, I saw the vast universe, which was eternal. I can't help feeling lonely, and my sadness comes from it, and I burst into tears.
Poets can't see the ancient sages, and the ancients didn't have time to see poets; The poet can't see the future Yingjie, and the future Yingjie can't see the poet. What poets can see, what they can see, is only the present era. This poem expresses the poet's frustrated situation and lonely and depressed mood in a generous and sad style.
The first two sentences are pitching the past and the present, writing for a long time; The third sentence is to look at architecture and write about the vastness of space; The fourth sentence is the poet's lonely and painful mood.
Chen Ziang's poems broke through the atmosphere of traditional frontier poems, taking pan-archaism as the theme, and at the same time satirized the disadvantages of Wuhou's internal affairs. In his poem "A saint does not cultivate himself", he accused Wuhou of carving Buddha statues and building Buddhist temples, wasting manpower and material resources.
In the poem "It is hard for a noble man to be proud", he even bravely satirized the style of trusting and killing his subordinates. From these realistic poems, we can see that his political ambition is closely related to his poetic innovation thought.
Chen Ziang also made achievements in prose innovation. Although there are still some parallel prose in his collection, those strategies and scripts are simple and fluent ancient prose, which was before the Tang Dynasty.