Source: Qu Yuan in the Warring States Period "Nine Chapters Involved in the River"
Selected paragraph:
Looking back on Hubei bamboo and enjoying the artistic conception of autumn and winter. Across the horse, across the mountain, across the car, across Fang Lin. Go to Yuan by boat, and Qi Wubang will be defeated. The ship can't get in, and the backwater is suspicious.
Translation:
Landing in Ezhu, looking back at the capital, sighing the cold wind in autumn and winter. Let my horse walk slowly up the hill and let my car come to Fang Lin. Take a boat up the Yuan River! The boatmen rowed together. The ship refused to move slowly and always stayed in the swirling current.
Appreciation of nine chapters on the river
This article was written by Qu Yuan in his later years, not after his funeral. One of the most outstanding features of this poem is that there is a long paragraph in it.
This passage describing the scenery of the Yuanshui River Basin has become the earliest excellent travel poem in China, which has had an impact on the creation of similar poems in later generations. The organic combination of scenery description and emotional expression in the poem has reached a perfect state.
In the second paragraph of the poem, through the description of the itinerary, scenery, seasons and climate, and the expression of the poet's mind and thoughts, we seem to see the image of an old poet who has been through many vicissitudes and is lonely and helpless, and we also seem to see a boat struggling in a torrent vortex. The mood of chasing ministers on board is the same as this boat, and we have endless feelings.
In the third paragraph of the poem, the description of the deep forest after entering Xupu highlights the poet's loneliness and grief, and also makes readers lament. The use of symbolism in this metaphor is also very skillful.
At the beginning of the poem, the poet used symbolism, expressing his ambition by wearing strange clothes, wearing spears, cutting clouds, the bright moon in the sky and wearing treasures, and symbolizing his lofty ambition by driving a young man to Bai Chi, visiting the Jade Garden and eating jade and English. The last paragraph uses phoenix, phoenix and vanilla to symbolize integrity and nobility; The metaphor of swallows, blackbirds and fishy smell is a metaphor of evil forces, which fully expresses the poet's deep feelings about the current society.