This is Wang Wei's later masterpiece of landscape poetry - the fourth of twenty poems in the "Wangchuan Collection" of Wujue Group. Luchai (Zhai) is the place name of Wangchuan.
The poem describes the quiet scenery in the evening in the empty mountains and deep forests near Luchai. The first sentence, "There are no people in the empty mountain," first describes the empty mountain in a positive way. Wang Wei seems to particularly like to use the word "empty mountain", but in different poems, the realm it expresses is different. "After the new rain in the empty mountains, the weather comes late in autumn" ("Mountain Dwelling in the Dark Autumn"), which focuses on expressing the clearness and cleanliness of the autumn mountains after the rain: "People are idle and the osmanthus flowers fall, and the night is quiet in the spring mountains" ("Birds in the Stream"), which focuses on expressing It is used to express the tranquility and beauty of spring mountains at night; while "empty mountain with no people" focuses on expressing the emptiness and tranquility of the mountain. Because there are no human traces, this mountain, which is not empty, seems empty and void to the poet's feeling, just like an ancient state. "No people in sight" concretizes the meaning of "empty mountain".
If you only read the first sentence, you may think it is relatively ordinary, but after "there is no one in the empty mountain" and then "but hear the sound of people's voices", the realm suddenly emerges. The word "danwen" is quite interesting. Under normal circumstances, although there are "no people in sight" in the silent empty mountain, it is not completely silent. Chirping birds, chirping insects, rustling wind, and gurgling water are all intertwined. The sounds of nature are actually very rich and colorful. However, now all this is silent, except for the occasional sound of human voices, but no one can be seen (due to the deep mountains and dense forests). This "human voice sound" seems to break the "silence", but in fact it reflects the overall and long-term emptiness with a partial and temporary "ring". When the sound is transmitted in the empty valley, the emptiness of the empty valley becomes clearer; when people speak in the empty mountain, the silence of the empty mountain becomes clearer. After the sound of human voices, the empty mountain returned to the realm of complete silence; and because of the burst of human voices just now, the sense of emptiness at this time was even more prominent.
The three or four sentences described in the previous picture describe the whispers in the empty mountain and then describe the reflection in the deep forest, which is based on sound and color. The deep forest is already dark, and the moss under the trees in the forest highlights the lack of sunlight in the deep forest. Although silence and darkness are respectively appealed to hearing and vision, they often belong to the same category in people's general impression, so silence and stillness are often connected in the same category. According to common sense, when writing about the darkness of a deep forest, one should focus on depicting the absence of sunlight. However, these two sentences specifically describe the scenery shining into the deep forest and reflecting on the moss. If you look at it suddenly, you will feel that this slanting light brings a ray of light to the dark forest, brings a touch of warmth to the moss in the forest, or in other words, brings a little business to the entire deep forest. But if you take a closer look, you will feel that it is exactly the opposite, no matter in terms of the author's subjective intention or the objective effect of the work. Blind darkness sometimes makes people unaware of its darkness, but when a ray of afterglow shines into the dark forest and the mottled tree shadows are reflected on the moss under the trees, that small piece of light and shadow and the large area of ??boundless darkness are composed of The strong contrast makes the darkness of the deep forest more prominent. Especially this "returning scene" is not only weak, but also short-lived. After the afterglow passes in an instant, a long period of darkness follows. If the first two sentences use sound to contrast the emptiness and silence, then the third and fourth sentences use light to contrast the darkness. The whole poem is like adding a little warm color to most of the pictures with cold colors, which makes the impression of cold colors more prominent.
Quiet beauty and sublime beauty are two types of beauty in nature, and there is no difference between them. However, it is quiet and almost empty, and it is secluded and slightly cold, which somewhat reflects the unhealthy side of the author's aesthetic taste. It also writes about "empty mountains" and also focuses on the expression of tranquility and beauty. "Mountain Dwelling in Autumn Twilight" has a bright tone, with an aura of tranquility floating on the quiet tone, and contains lively vitality; "Birdsong Stream" is very expressive of the tranquility of spring mountains. , but the whole artistic conception is not cold and empty. The clear moonlight, the fragrance of osmanthus, and the chirping of mountain birds all have the breath of spring and the tranquility of the night; while "Deer and Chai" cannot help but have the cold and empty feeling. The color is beautiful, although it is not so dark and lonely.
Wang Wei is a poet, painter and musician. This poem reflects the combination of poetry, painting and music. Silence without sound and darkness without light are easy for most people to detect; but silence with sound and darkness with light are less noticed by people. It is precisely with his unique painter's and musician's sensitivity to color and sound that the poet grasps the unique quiet realm displayed by the sound of people's voices in the empty mountain and the reflection in the deep forest. And this sensitivity is inseparable from his meticulous observation and tacit understanding of nature.