The poem chants "Returning Geese". Geese are migratory birds. They fly to the south to spend the winter in late autumn and fly back to the north in the warm spring. The ancients believed that swan geese could not fly south to Hengyang. To the north of Hengyang was the Xiaoxiang area. The poet grasped this point, but ignored the habit of migratory birds returning north in the warm spring. As if to explore the underlying reasons, he suddenly asked at the beginning: Downstream of Xiaoxiang, the water is clear, the sand is clear, the scenery is beautiful, and the food is rich. Why do you leave so casually? What about returning to the north?
The poet asked a strange question, and the swan geese answered even more strangely: The scenery in Xiaoxiang is beautiful and the food is rich. It was possible to live here permanently. However, Xiang Ling plays the harp on a moonlit night, and the tone that comes out of the twenty-five strings is so desolate and sad! My feelings were simply unbearable, so I had to fly back to the north.
When Qian Qi was admitted to the imperial examination, his poem title was "Xiang Ling Drum and Psalter". One of his poems has been passed down to this day and is regarded as a masterpiece among examination poems. In the middle, it is written that Xiang Ling (legendary to be Emperor Shun's concubine) played the harp because she missed Emperor Shun, with a bitter and clear tone, as if resentment and admiration. The ending of "The song ends with no one seen, and there are several green peaks on the river" which has a lingering aftertaste. This poem Qijue describes the "Xiang Ling drum and harp" as the reason for the swan geese returning north. The idea is novel, the imagination is rich, the writing is clever, the lyrics are tactful, the geese are used to personify people, and the words are intertwined with questions and answers. The words are meaningful and thought-provoking, opening up unlimited ways to chant poetry.
Qian Qi was from Wuxing (now part of Zhejiang). After taking office, he has been serving as an official in Chang'an and Gyeonggi. He saw the wild geese flying south in autumn, and once wrote the poem "Send Off the Wild Geese": "The autumn sky is thousands of miles quiet, and they are marching south alone... Looking into the distant sky with despair, the nostalgia is vivid." This poem "Returning Wild Geese" was also written in the north. , but the song is about the spring geese returning from the south.
The ancients believed that geese flying south in autumn do not cross Huiyan Peak in Hengshan Mountain, Hunan. They fly to the north of the peak and inhabit the lower reaches of the Xiangjiang River, and then fly back to the north after winter. Based on this understanding, the author thought of the Xiangjiang River, the habitat before their return, from the returning geese, and from the Xiangjiang River, he thought of the myth that the goddess of the Xiangjiang River was good at playing the harp. Then, based on the harp song "Guiyan Cao", he combined the harp and the harp with the wild geese. The return of the poem is connected, thus forming the whimsical thoughts in the poem.
Based on this artistic conception, the author went against the common practice of poets of all dynasties in taking spring geese’s return to the north as a matter of course, and deliberately expressed his confusion about the return of the wild geese, using two sentences in a row to ask questions. : "Why are you waiting to return to Xiaoxiang? The water is clear and the sand is bright with moss on both sides." I asked Guiyan why he was willing to leave the Xiangjiang River with beautiful environment and abundant water and grass and come back? This sudden inquiry immediately leads the reader's thoughts to the track arranged by the poet - ignoring the habits of the wild geese, and exploring the reasons for the wild geese's return.
The author responded on behalf of Yan in the third and fourth sentences: "Twenty-five strings play the moon at night, and resentments fly over." The goddess of the Xiangjiang River plays the harp (twenty-five strings) under the moonlit night. , the sad and sad sound, the wild geese couldn't bear to listen any more, so they flew back to the north.
In this way, the poet uses rich imagination and beautiful mythology to show readers the desolate state of the Hunan God's drum and harp, and deliberately creates the image of the wild goose who is sentimental and knowledgeable about music. However, why is the Xiang God's drum and harp described by the poet so desolate? Why are the wild geese so "overwhelmed with grudges"? In order to understand the thoughts and feelings expressed by the poet, you might as well take a look at his famous work "Xiang Ling Drum and Psalter", which made him a Jinshi. In that poem, the author uses the line "Cangwu comes to complain" to point out that the reason why the Xiangshui River God Gusel is sad is because she places her longing for her husband, Shun, who died in Cangwu in the music. . At the same time, there is also a line in the poem "Chu guests can't bear to hear it", which expresses the unbearable feeling of the "Chu guests" who were demoted to the Xiangjiang River to the mournful sound of the whistle.
Comparing "Xiang Ling Gu Xi" with "Gui Yan" allows us to understand: the sentence "Unbearable resentment but flying" in "Gui Yan" turns out to be from "Chu Ke can't bear it" The author created the image of the traveling geese living in the Xiangjiang River based on the "Chu guest" who was demoted to a different place. Therefore, he made the traveling geese hear Xiang Ling's mournful whistle, which made them feel homesick and unbearable. They resolutely left the beautiful and rich Xiangjiang River and flew back to the north. "Although I believe in beauty rather than my land, how could I stay so little?" These two famous quotes from Jian'an writer Wang Can's "Ode to the Tower" reveal the feelings of a guest. They can be used to explain the traveling geese in the poem "Returning Wild Geese". Listening to Se's "mood" when flying back, the poet used the traveling geese full of guest sorrow to tactfully express his thoughts of traveling to a foreign land. This poem has a novel concept, rich imagination, ethereal writing style, tactful lyricism, and implicit meaning. With its unique artistic features, it has become one of the most eye-catching and famous poems about chanting wild geese.