Liu Yuxi (772-842), a native of Pengcheng in the Tang Dynasty, was a famous writer, poet and philosopher in the Tang Dynasty, and was known as the "poet". . He used to supervise the censor and was a member of the Wang Reform School. Liu Yuxi's "Looking at Dongting" chose the perspective of moonlit night, taking a panoramic view of the Dongting, grasping the most representative lakes and mountains, and reappearing the beauty of the Dongting with rich imagination and clever metaphors, which not only expressed his love for nature and broad mind, but also showed the poet's amazing artistic creativity. The whole poem is as follows:
The lake and the moon set each other off, and there is no wind mirror on the pool surface.
Look at the Dongting landscape. There is a green snail in the silver plate.
This is a seven-character quatrain. The first sentence is "moonlight on the lake", and "harmony" means harmony and integration. Here, the color of water blends with moonlight. This poem is the poet's combination of lake light and autumn moon from two aspects, depicting the beautiful scenery of Dongting Lake under the bright moon in autumn night. Among them, the word "autumn" points out the season and also implies the poet's inner sadness. In particular, the clever use of the word "harmony" in the poem not only shows the characteristics of the integration of moonlight and calm lake water at night in Dongting Lake area, but also creates an ethereal and vast aesthetic realm for the poem.
Next, "there is no wind on the lake and the mirror is not polished" inherits the previous sentence "two in one" and depicts a calm and foggy scene of the lake. "Pool surface" refers to the lake surface. As we all know, the ancient mirrors were made of copper and the ground. In this sentence, the poet used figures of speech to compare Dongting Lake to a "mirror" and described it as "the mirror is not polished", which not only vividly described a mirror with dim luster because it was not polished, but also implied the unique landscape of Dongting Lake's vast water surface formed by the sunset and hazy moonlight. It can be said that this sentence also describes the picture of the previous sentence "moonlight on the lake".
Then the third sentence "Looking at the Dongting Mountains and Waters", here, the poet's line of sight shifted from the vast Pinghu to Junshan. The word "Yao" not only shows the change of the poet's sight from near to far, but more importantly, the poet painted a magnificent picture of Dongting Lake under the bright moon from a far perspective. One of the words "color" makes people feel the unique beauty of greener mountains, clearer water and mountains and rivers in the moonlight. In this way, in the extremely high visual atmosphere, it not only broadens the artistic conception of poetry, but also lays a further foundation for the later description.
Then the poet wrote, "There is a green snail in the silver plate." "Silver Plate" is a description of Dongting Lake, hazy and ethereal. "Green snail" is a kind of dark green spiral ink, which was often used by ancient women to thrush. This is used to describe Junshan Mountain in Dongting Lake. This sentence comes from the third sentence. The poet compares the images of Junshan and Dongting Lake in the moonlight with the images of small and exquisite green snails in a silver plate, which not only vividly highlights the green of Junshan in the moonlight, but also depicts the vast misty realm of Dongting Lake and its surrounding areas. What is more commendable is that the poet's use of this metaphor not only makes the tone elegant-that is, "white" and "green" are in harmony and unity in opposition, but also condenses the endless Dongting landscape into a beautiful artistic and technological treasure. In this way, not only through exaggeration and metaphor, the vast natural landscape is placed in the landscape like a bonsai, but also through comparison, it shows the poet's broad mind. At the same time, this description also shows the poet's superb aesthetic ability and artistic expression ability.
In a word, Liu Yuxi's landscape poems, on the surface, are purely about landscapes. In the great artistic tension and majestic momentum, it not only shows the poet's broad mind, but also feels his romantic whimsy in his poems, especially his tolerance and extraordinary artistic talent of "comparing the small with the big".