From: Hebei native Wang Anshi [Song Dynasty]
Hebei people, born near both sides, have a long hard time.
Every adopted son learned to farm and weave, but he lost to officials and businessmen.
This year's drought is thousands of miles red, and counties are still urging river affairs.
All ages come to the south, and southerners have no food in good years.
Sadly, the world during the day is dim, and passers-by have no color.
Your life is not as good as being in Zhenguan, and there is no soldier to fight for money!
People in Hebei have a hard life. They live in the frontier and have connections with Liao and Xixia. Every family has boys and girls who learn to farm and weave, and grain and silk are given to the court and then presented to the enemy. This year's drought is thousands of miles away, and state and county officials are still arresting able-bodied men to bear hard labor. The old man and the young man helped each other escape to the south. Although Henan has a bumper harvest, the people are also short of food and rice. The worries of the border people are like clouds, and the sky is dark. Pedestrians are gloomy and can't be born in Zhenguan years. At that time, a few pence bought a bucket of rice, and there was no war!
Appreciate Wang Anshi's early poetry creation, learn from Du Fu's realistic spirit of caring about political consultation and sympathizing with people's sufferings, and his poetic style is also derived from Du Fu's poetry.
This poem is quite representative in Wang Anshi's early poems. It reflects the tragic life of Hebei people under the double destruction of natural and man-made disasters, and every word is full of blood and tears, revealing the poet's inner pain and anxiety of drowning others. This is a bit close to the "depression" in Du Fu's poems. The ups and downs brought by the poet's turning point, deepening step by step, and comparing gifts can be said to be from the "frustration" of Du Fu's poems.