"Poking in Qinhuai" by Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty
The smoke is in the cold water, the moon is clinging to the sand, and I stay in Qinhuai at night near a restaurant.
Shang girls don’t know the hatred for the country’s subjugation, but they still sing the flowers in the backyard across the river.
"Back Court Flower" is originally the name of a kind of flower. This kind of flower grows in the south of the Yangtze River. Because it is mostly cultivated in courtyards, it is called "Back Court Flower". The flowers of the back garden flower are red and white, among which the white flowers make the crown of the tree as beautiful as jade when in full bloom, so it is also known as the "jade flower in the back garden". "Back Garden Flowers" is also called "Yushu Back Garden Flowers", named after flowers. It was originally a love song in Yuefu folk songs. Chen Shubao, the last emperor of the Chen Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, added a new poem, "Li Yu Fang Lin Du Gao Pavilion, New Makeup, Beautiful Quality, Allure the City". Yinghu Ningjiao didn't come in at first, but came out of the curtain to welcome him with a smile. The enchantress's face looks like a flower with dew, and the jade trees illuminate the backyard.
Chen Shubao is extravagant, lustful, indulging in sex, and is a typical foolish king. At that time, the powerful Sui Dynasty in the north was preparing to cross the Yangtze River and move south. Chen, a small dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River, was already facing annihilation. However, the empress Chen spent all day drinking, playing, and singing poems with his concubines Zhang Guifei and Kong Guiren. Chen Shubao's poetry writing skills are not very good, which can be seen from the poem "Flowers in the Backyard of Yushu". In this poem, empress Chen is using flowers as a metaphor for the two concubines Zhang and Kong. The artistic conception of this poem is not deep, it is just a disgusting praise of the concubine, and there is no skill at all. If it is not related to the subjugation of the country, it will not be passed down.
Although Chen Shubao's "Flowers in the Backyard of Yushu" was of low taste, it was praised by a group of treacherous ministers, and he himself became complacent. The army of the Sui Dynasty had already arrived at the city. The conquered king Chen Shubao was still singing "Flowers in the Backyard of the Yushu" with his concubines and poets. It was not until the enemy troops broke into the palace that he and his two concubines hid in a well. The soldiers of the Sui Dynasty "peeped at it and called out to it, but the master didn't respond. They wanted to get off the stone, but they heard the cry. They used a rope to lead it, but they were surprised that it was too heavy. When they got out, they rode up with Concubine Zhang and Guiren Kong." The ugly behavior of Empress Chen when the country was overthrown has become a joke through the ages, and his "Flowers in the Back Garden of Yushu" has also become synonymous with the country's ruin.