I don’t know if you have noticed that there is such a strange phenomenon in the history of Chinese classical poetry. That is, a certain line of poetry, or a certain poem is so famous that you can even recite it backwards and forwards. But you don't have a big impression on the author of the poem. For example, the two lines of the poem "The sea is full of sunshine and the night is over, and the river is springing into the old year" are particularly famous, but its author, Wang Wan, is relatively less famous.
The two poems mentioned above come from Wang Wan's representative work "Under the Cibeigu Mountain". This poem is a five-character rhyme poem written by Wang Wan in late winter and early spring of one year, when he was traveling eastward along the Yangtze River from Chu to Wu, and parked his boat at the foot of Beigu Mountain in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province. Its main content is to describe the magnificent scenery seen at the foot of Beigu Mountain in accurate and concise language, and also express Wangwan's deep homesickness.
Among them, the neck couplet "The sun is rising in the sea and the night is dying, and the spring in the river is entering the old year" has always been widely recited. The prime minister at that time, Zhang Shuo, admired these two poems very much and even wrote them himself and hung them in the prime minister's political hall as a model for literati to learn from. Zheng Gu, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty, commented on it: "He Ruhai lives day and night, and one sentence can be passed down forever." In the Ming Dynasty, Hu Yinglin commented on it in "Shi Sou Nei Bian": "It describes the scenery and is wonderful throughout the ages." It can be seen that this poem has always been very famous.
"At the foot of Cibeigu Mountain"
Traveling outside the green mountains, boating in front of the green water.
The tide is flat, the banks are wide, the wind is blowing and the sail is hanging.
Hai Ri is born and the night is over, and Jiang Chun is entering the old year.
Where can I get the hometown letter? Return to Yanluoyang.
In the first couplet, "The guest travels outside the green mountains, and the boat rides in front of the green water", Wang Wan starts with a couplet, which is extremely beautiful. And click on the "Beigu Mountain" in the question and tell the destination. It means that the Wangwan boat is sailing on the green river water, heading towards the green Beigu Mountain. Although you can see beautiful green mountains and green waters in these two lines of poems, the word "guest road" undoubtedly expresses the wandering feeling of Wangwan people in a foreign land and longing for their hometown. It echoes the "Xiangshu" and "Guiyan" in the last couplet.
The couplet "The tide is flat and the two sides are wide, the wind is blowing and the sail is hanging" is what you see when Wangwan reaches the foot of Beigu Mountain. It means that when the spring tide rises, the space between the two banks appears wider, and the wind blows gently, and a white sail hangs high. From these two lines of poetry, it can be seen that the boat sailing in Wangwan was smooth sailing, and it showed the magnificent scene of a straight river with calm waves, which was written magnificently.
The neck couplet "Hai Ri is born and the night is gone, Jiang Chun is entering the old year" has always been popular. It means that when the remaining night has not completely subsided, a red sun has already risen from the sea. While the old year has not yet passed, there is already a sense of spring on the river. You can imagine what a magnificent picture this is. At the same time, these two poems represent the alternation of time sequences, which will undoubtedly induce homesickness for the poet in a foreign land.
In addition, the beauty of these two poems is that they contain a kind of rationality. That is to say, new and beautiful things will inevitably replace old things, which is similar to Liu Yuxi's "Thousands of sails passing by the side of the sunken boat, and thousands of spring trees in front of the diseased trees". They all give people optimistic, positive and upward artistic inspiration. Therefore, these two poems combine description of scenery, emotion and theory into one. It is worthy of the famous saying "to describe the scenery, it will be wonderful through the ages".
The last couplet "Where can I get the hometown letter? Return to Yanluoyang", which focuses on expressing Wang Wan's homesickness. It means that Wang Wan saw a group of geese returning from the north flying across the clear sky, so he remembered the story of "the wild geese passing the message with their feet", and wanted to trouble the geese to bring a greeting to their families when they flew over Luoyang. The question "Where can I get the hometown book?" can be seen as a dialogue between the poet and the wild geese, which is quite creative. "Xiangshu" and "Guiyan" echo the "Kelu" in the first couplet.
Looking at this poem by Wang Wan, although it is famous for "the sea sun fades into the night, and the river spring enters the old year", the whole poem is also a harmonious and beautiful landscape masterpiece.