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Chapter 12 Section 2 Poems of the Tang Dynasty

Chinese poems and songs 刘耕路 6457Words 2018-03-20
At the beginning of the 8th century AD, the so-called "Kaiyuan Prosperity" appeared in the Tang Dynasty, and the economy and culture reached their peak.There are also a large number of outstanding poets in the field of poetry creation, who have written poems with extremely rich content.Among them, pastoral landscape poems and poems describing the frontier war accounted for a considerable proportion, and Li Bai and Du Fu also appeared at this time.A brief introduction is given below. The most famous author of this kind of poetry is Wang Wei.Wang Wei, courtesy name Mojie, was an official to Shangshu Youcheng, and he was also called Wang Youcheng by custom.Influenced by Buddhist thoughts, he was tired of bureaucratic life and lived in seclusion in Wangchuan for a long time. He loved nature and was familiar with the countryside. He wrote poems in a quiet and leisurely way, with a static beauty.Such as "Weichuan Tianjia":

The afterglow of the setting sun shines on the village (village), and the returning cattle and sheep pour into the alleys of the village.The old man was thinking about his grandson who had gone to herd herds, and leaning on a cane, he waited outside the chai gate for his return.Amidst the crowing of pheasants, the ears of wheat have grown, and the silkworms that have eaten enough mulberry leaves begin to sleep.The harvest year is just around the corner, and the farmers who have returned from the lotus hoe meet each other and talk about their daily routines emotionally.This beautiful scene made the poet think of the disgusting infighting in the officialdom, and felt how quiet and comfortable it would be to live in seclusion in such a rural area; when he was melancholy, he couldn't help but recite the poem "declining, declining, Hu Bugui?" It's getting dark, it's getting dark, why don't you go home?), which shows his desire to retreat to the countryside.Wang Wei is proficient in music, painting and calligraphy, and has profound artistic accomplishment; Su Dongpo commented that there are paintings in his poems and poems in paintings.The above poem can be said to be an idyllic painting.

The poet who is as famous as Wang Wei is Meng Haoran, who was originally from Xiangyang (in present-day Hubei Province), and is often called Meng Xiangyang.It is said that he met Tang Xuanzong by chance at Zhang Jiuling's official office.Xuanzong knew the title of his poem and ordered him to read it aloud.He recited "Return to Nanshan at the end of the year", in which there is a sentence "If you don't have talent, you will abandon it" (I lack talent, so the sage monarch doesn't use me). I won't let you be an official, how can you blame me!" Later, he was not admitted in the Jinshi examination, and he did not officially become an official. He roamed and lived in seclusion for a long time, and was famous for his landscape poems.His poem "Passing the Old Man's Village" is the most widely circulated:

An old friend killed a chicken for cooking, and invited him to the village as a guest.From a close look, the dense green trees tightly surround the village; from a distance, the green mountains stretch into the distance.Opening the window, you can see the yard piled with grain and the green vegetable garden; holding a wine glass, chatting about the growth and harvest of mulberry with great interest.How happy and comfortable it is to drink wine, eat delicious food, and talk and laugh with friends in such a natural picture!After drinking, the friends were still reluctant to part with each other, and they agreed to come back for a happy reunion on the Double Ninth Festival of September and Nine, to drink wine and enjoy the chrysanthemums.

Chu Guangxi is also a frustrated hermit. His "Fishing Bay" describes the taste of seclusion:
The sky is shaded by greenery, falling flowers are floating on the ground, the bottom of the clear pool is bottomed out, the lotus moves and the fish scatter, and the fisherman doesn't care about the fish. This beautiful scenery alone is the best enjoyment.Stop fishing at sunset and wait for good friends (lover) to meet in the green poplar grass. Isn't such a carefree life equal to a fairy?In fact, their lives will not be free from troubles and troubles. However, when writing poems, they should temporarily put them aside, grasp a certain beautiful scene and emotion, and play and exaggerate them to the fullest. The poet satisfies the desire for creation and brings beauty to the readers. To enjoy is called poetry.

In the foreign wars of the Tang Dynasty, many literati participated in the frontier fortresses and military life, and they wrote poems describing the desolate frontier fortress scenery, praising the bravery of the soldiers, or cursing the disasters brought about by the war. , So there is the Frontier Poetry School.The famous poet Cen Shen's "Traveling on the Horse and Sending Off to the West" is representative:
"Zoumachuan", "Luntai", "Jinshan", and "Cheshi" in the poem are all common place names in the northern or western regions. They are used as code names for place names here, not actual references, so you don’t need to seek truth when reading poems. Only pay attention to understanding poetic poetry.From the very beginning of this poem, it vividly described the harsh environment of the Western Regions with strong winds and flying sand and rocks.The Xiongnu (representing the powerful northern nation) invaded, and the smoke was everywhere; the general led his troops to the battlefield to meet the enemy.The weapons of the night march collided with each other. Although the cold wind was like a knife, the snow-falling five-flowered horses were still hot and sweaty, and soon icy.In the tent, I drafted a call to action against the enemy (war letter), but before I finished writing it, the ink in the inkstone had frozen into ice.Such a hard-working and brave army will surely make the enemy fearful and dare not fight; then let us wait for the news of victory and triumph at the west gate of Cheshi!The optimistic and heroic spirit expressed in the poem is the embodiment of the spirit of the times in the heyday of Tang Dynasty.Li Qi's "Ancient Congjun March" is also very famous:

During the day, the army had to go up to the top of the mountain to watch the beacon fire alarm, and at dusk they hurried to Jiaohe (in Turpan, Xinjiang, a place with water in this generation, not really referring to it) to drink the war horses.Diao Dou is a copper pot that is used for cooking during the day and as a watchdog (tuo tuo) at night.The soldiers carried Diao Dou on their backs and marched hard in the dark wind and sand. At this time, it must be full of resentment to think of the pipa music played by the princess who married Wusun King from this road in the Han Dynasty.Camping overnight in a desolate place, the heavy snow that filled the sky and the earth, and the desert in the distance became misty.In the autumn night, the wild geese flying south screamed sadly and sadly, and Hu Bing, who was on the other side, couldn't bear the hard life and shed tears.Hearing that the imperial court has issued an order not to retreat, I can only risk my life to follow the general (General Qingche is the official name) to fight to the death.Yumen was blocked, that is, it was not allowed to retreat into Yumen Pass. The allusion in "Historical Records: Dawan Biography" was used: Li Guangli, the general of the second division, failed to attack Dawan and retreated to Dunhuang. He asked the imperial court to withdraw his troops. Envoys (send envoys) to cover the Yumen Gate, saying: Anyone who dares to enter will be killed!" The result of desperately moving forward, nine out of ten is the death in battle, and countless people throw their bones to the deserted foreign land every year, the only result. It is grapes (rose apples) introduced from the Western Regions to the Central Plains to be planted for the rich and honored to enjoy.Although the poem reveals mournful emotions, the tone is still high-spirited and aggressive.

War is brutal.In 714 A.D., the army of the Tang Dynasty fought a battle with Tubo near the Long Castle in Lintao, killing tens of thousands of Tubo.Wang Changling's "Song of the Next Song" wrote about this war: Many years after the war, the battlefield is still bleak and desolate, with long yellow dust, messy wormwood, and bones scattered among it, forever forgotten by people.No matter which side the deceased belonged to, it was a tragic tragedy for him and his family. Li Bai (701-762 A.D.), whose style name was Taibai, was named Qinglian Jushi.His ancestral home is Longxi (now Gansu), and his ancestors lived in the Western Regions. When Li Bai was five years old, he moved to Changlong, Sichuan (now Jiangyou County), where he spent his youth.Li Bai's family was well-off, and he read hundreds of books when he was young, showing extraordinary literary talent.At the same time, he likes to make friends, is influenced by friends and society, likes to talk about cultivating Taoism and becoming a fairy, yearns to be a chivalrous hero, generous and ambitious, and has a bold and uninhibited personality. At the age of 25, he left his hometown, roamed around the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the north and the south, made friends with celebrities, and gained a high social prestige with his poems.In the first year of Tianbao (742 A.D.), he was recommended by a friend. Tang Xuanzong summoned him and appointed him as the emperor's attendant literati. He lived in Chang'an for nearly three years, which gave him a direct understanding of the court and aristocratic society.Due to the exclusion of powerful officials, he left Chang'an in the third year of Tianbao (745 A.D.) and began to roam around again.In Luoyang, he met Du Fu, who was 11 years younger than him, and forged a lifelong friendship.When the Anshi Rebellion began, he was 55 years old and was in Xuancheng (in today's Anhui).During the Anshi Rebellion, with the feeling of serving the country, he was invited by Yong Wang Li Lin to work in his shogunate; later, Li Lin was eradicated by Emperor Suzong Li Heng, and Li Bai was exiled to Yelang (in today's Guizhou), and was pardoned halfway. Living between Jinling (now Nanjing) and Xuancheng, Baoying died of illness in Dangtu (now Anhui) in the first year of Baoying (762 AD) at the age of 62.

Li Bai dreamed of displaying his ambitions all his life, and did a great cause of world-renowned.This can be seen everywhere in his poems.In the poem "Shang Li Yong", it is said:
He compared himself with the roc who stirred up the sea in the novel, and he was full of confidence in his political ability. He was ridiculed by the world, and he justified himself with the words of Confucius (Xuanfu) that "the younger generation is awesome".The poet is very naive in politics, but in fact he may not have the talent of a politician. It is not surprising that his "big words" are ridiculed.However, as a poet, he is a talent of the sky, a big roc that roams the sky and sea.He has been a poet all his life and has done nothing in politics. In his own opinion, it is unfortunate, but for Chinese literature, it is a great fortune.If there is no Li Bai in Tang poetry, it would be a great pity to take out a pillar of the gorgeous building.

Li Bai has a considerable number of poems that expose and criticize social injustice, such as one of "Fifty-Nine Poems of Ancient Style":
This is a sycophantic figure who satirizes the power around the emperor.They swaggered through the city in their luxurious carts, stirring up dust all over the sky.Some eunuchs (zhonggui) had so much money that they built magnificent houses.The cockfighters who were happy for the emperor also showed off their power in a chariot with a canopy.Their nostrils are turned upside down, and the breath they exhale seems to blow the clouds in the sky (extremely arrogant), and passers-by on the road are frightened and dare not approach.In the end, the poet lamented that there are no more sages like Xu You (Xilweng) in society. Who can distinguish the good (Yao) from the bad (Zhi)?Legend has it that Tang Yao, the ancient sage, wanted to give up the throne to Xu You. After hearing about it, Xu You thought he had polluted his ears, so he ran to the river to wash his ears. He was considered a sage who disliked fame and fortune.Zhi is the legendary "thief" in ancient times, and of course it is synonymous with bad guys.In the later period of Tang Xuanzong's political corruption, the dynasty went downhill. Li Bai was sensitive to this, and exposed and satirized it in his poems.There are not many poems that directly describe the suffering of the people by Li Bai, but his poems are very wonderful, such as "War City South":

This poem uses the title of Yuefu poems of the Han Dynasty, intending to learn the tradition of Yuefu poems, but it is more vivid and profound than the poem "Zhancheng South" of the Han Dynasty. "Sanggan", "Conghe", "Tiaozhi" and "Tianshan" are all frontier place names. Soldiers in the Tang Dynasty went to these places far away from their homeland to fight, and often never returned. How many people died in the desert. The place where the Great Wall was built in the Qin Dynasty to guard against the Huns is still fighting and fighting. The place where the Great Wall was built to guard against the Xiongnu ("Han family", Tang people used to use "Han" to call "Tang", actually refers to the Tang Dynasty) is still fighting and fighting. Defeated The horse screamed on the battlefield looking for its owner, but the owner was eaten by crows and eagles, and his intestines were hung on the branches of dead trees. The soldiers died in battle, and the general who led the army was busy with nothing. In the end, the poet used the words of the ancient military book: War is not a fun thing. A virtuous monarch only uses it when he has to. Tang Xuanzong was so happy that he fought for years and the people suffered. This poem is written for this reason. Li Bai wrote many poems describing the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, most of which are masterpieces.His poems of this kind are different from those of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran. If the landscape poems of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran are meticulous meticulous paintings, Li Bai's landscape poems are freehand brushwork with flying brushes.He often does not depict every plant and tree, but absorbs the charm of nature from a macro perspective.The great river of the Yangtze River, craggy (chan cicada) rocks and cliffs, thousands of miles of wind and clouds, secluded stones and ancient trees, immediately fly into motion as soon as they come into his pen, driven by him, creating a mythical world that coexists with good fortune.For example, the scenery of Lushan Mountain is written in "Lushan Ballad to Lu Shiyu Xuzhou": What a grand momentum this is!Only Li Bai's mind can hold such momentum, and only Li Bai's magic pen can write such momentum.Another example is a passage from the famous "The Road to Shu": This is a wonderful landscape depiction.The poet used extremely exaggerated language to write about the difficulty and steepness of the Shu road: the sun god drove the six dragons' chariot here and had to turn back, and the rushing river would also hit back;The famous Qingniling road is winding and dangerous. Pedestrians can touch the stars Sanxing and Jingxing in the sky with their hands. They are so tired that they all pat their chests and lament.On the deep ancient trees in the mountains, the chirping of various birds adds to the mysterious and terrifying atmosphere.It is difficult to pass the Shu road to the blue sky, not to mention passing it, even hearing people talk about it will make your face turn pale with fright.The majestic and majestic scenes on the road to Shu described by the poet can really open up readers' minds and minds, and make people shudder and sigh.The whimsy and bold and unrestrained style of this line are the unique characteristics of Li Bai's poems. Zhao Yi, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, commented on Li Bai's poems: "The inaccessibility of poetry lies in the super-stretch of the mind, coming and going suddenly, disdain to carve chapters and sentences, and not toil on carving out the heart and bone, and have your own The power of the sky and the sky cannot be restrained." ("Oubei Shihua" Volume 1) This passage summarizes the artistic style of Li Bai's poems.Li Bai consciously inherited the romantic spirit of Qu Yuan's poetry, coupled with his genius and diligence, created a unique Li Bai style.The first characteristic of his poems is the strong passion.He has a pure heart, an open mind, and a clear distinction between what to hate and what to love. When he is happy, he sings with wine and laughs at the sky; Laughing and scolding, there is nothing to avoid.The second characteristic is the incomparably rich imagination.Poetry thoughts come like lightning, go like a gust of wind, vertical and horizontal changes, ups and downs, according to his lyrical needs, up and down ancient and modern figures, knowledge of astronomy and geography, real history, and illusory myths come to his pen at any time, inject verses, and serve him. Serve.The third characteristic is that exaggerated language is often used to express passion; extremely exaggerated lines such as "white hair three thousand feet", "Yanshan snowflakes are as big as a mat", "a wind blows down the mountain in three days", etc., are everywhere in his poems. yes.Only its exaggeration is so vivid, but the extremely inaccurate language expresses his feelings extremely accurately. Du Fu (AD 712-770), styled Zimei, was born in Gong County, Henan Province, in a well-educated family. His grandfather Du Shenyan was a famous poet.When he was young, he was in the "Golden Age of Kaiyuan", and traveled from Wu and Yue in the south to Qi and Zhao in the north. At the age of 35, he went to Chang'an to apply for an official. After 10 years of poverty, he finally got an eighth-rank official.The Anshi Rebellion broke out, and Chang'an fell. Du Fu once fell among the bandits, and then escaped and went to Suzong Li Heng, who served as Zuo Shiyi. At the age of 49, he abandoned his official position and moved to Sichuan with his family, and settled down in a thatched cottage in the outskirts of Chengdu. He was recommended by his friend Yan Wu to serve as a member of the Ministry of Inspection and Engineering (so he is often called Du Gongbu).He lived in Sichuan for eight years. He left Sichuan at the age of 57 and moved to various places in Hubei and Hunan. At the age of 59, he died of illness on a small boat near Yueyang. Li and Du are equally famous, but their personalities and poetic styles are very different.Li Bai is like a wild and unrestrained steed, and Du Fu is like a hard-working bullock, each with its own demeanor and value.Du Fu's poetic style is mature and stable, tending to realism.All his poems, on the one hand, reflect the life experience of an honest intellectual, and at the same time, they are also a true portrayal of the history of the Tang Empire from prosperity to decline.Du's poems are also called "poetry history" by later generations, which is based on this. The Anshi Rebellion was the most painful experience in Du Fu's life, and it was also an important content he wrote into his poems.Although the poems of this period also lament about personal poverty, more poems focus on the suffering of the common people.In 756 AD, Tang Prime Minister Fang Guan led an army of 40,000 to 50,000 to fight fiercely with the Anshi rebels in Chentao. Due to improper command, almost the entire army was wiped out.Du Fu wrote a poem "Sad Chen Tao" for this: In the early winter (Meng Dong) season, the blood of the sons of good families recruited from more than a dozen counties after the First World War was sprinkled in the water of Chen Tao.The wilderness was silent under the blue sky, and all 40,000 soldiers were killed in one day.The barbaric Hu Bing's arrowheads were dripping with the blood of kind people, singing Hu songs that people couldn't understand, drinking and carousing in Chang'an market.The people in Chang'an City turned their heads to Chen Tao's direction and wept bitterly, hoping day and night that the Tang army would come back and restore their former peaceful life.The grief and indignation of the poet is exactly the grief and indignation of the people, and he is crying out for the people.The famous "three officials" and "three farewells" in Du's poems fully reflected the deep suffering brought by the Anshi Rebellion to the people.Let's look at "No Home": This is written in the first person, and the "I" in the poem is a young farmer who has returned from the army.After the Anshi Rebellion in the 14th year of Tianbao (755 A.D.), the countryside generally declined, and the rural houses were desolate.The soldier who returned from the defeat saw that his hometown was completely changed. The neighbors fled to their deaths.The village became a paradise for foxes and the like. They turned their backs on the hostess and bristled in anger, blaming the young man's cries for disturbing their tranquility.Amid boredom, the farmer began to hoe the land and irrigate the garden in order to survive, doing his part as a farmer.However, he still couldn't live in peace. The county magistrate knew that he was back and called him to train soldiers.This time I was serving as a local soldier, and I didn't leave Honshu. I turned around and looked at my home, but there was nothing I could carry.A little consolation is that although I am alone, it is better to be in the local area than to be far away from home.But thinking about it again, there is nothing left in my hometown, and I have nothing to miss, and the distance is the same, so it doesn't matter.He also thought of his mother who had been dead for five years. The son was not filial, and both mother and son left deep-seated resentment.Life has reached such a level of homelessness, how can the people survive? The "three officials" and "three farewells" make people think: who brought the people to this point?Naturally, it was caused by the corruption of those in power.Before the news of the Anshi Rebellion reached Chang'an, Du Fu wrote a long poem "From Beijing to Fengxian, Yonghuai Five Hundred Characters", which pointedly exposed the extravagant and lustful life of the supreme ruling group headed by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, pointing out their Pleasure is based on the cruel exploitation of peasants: "The silk that Tongting divides is originally from cold women; whip her husband's family and collect tribute from the city." , the road is frozen to death; the prosperity and withering are so close, the melancholy is hard to describe" the poem.At the end of this poem, the poet wrote about his return to his home in Fengxian County: "The youngest son has died of hunger when he heard about it at the beginning." His own child also starved to death!In addition to his grief, he thought that as a petty bureaucrat, he neither paid taxes nor joined the army to fight, and his life was full of bitterness and bitterness, so the suffering of those ordinary people was even more conceivable.In the third year after the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, Du Fu wrote the famous long poem "Northern Expedition". He was deeply worried about the national turmoil of "the world is full of scars", expounded his views on the current situation, and earnestly hoped for the revival of the country and his love for the country and the people. Full of poetry. Du Fu's poems about sincere feelings between relatives and friends are also very touching, such as "Gift to the Eight Priests of the Guard": Shen and Shang are two stars that appear one after another and never appear at the same time, which is a metaphor for friends who rarely meet each other.On a beautiful night, the poet and his old friends who had been away for many years gathered under the light to express their love; the youth time passed by, and each other saw that each other's sideburns were gray.The poem describes the surprise of meeting, the courtesy of children, the enthusiasm of hospitality, the enjoyment of drinking, and finally the melancholy of parting, revealing beautiful and sincere emotions everywhere.Middle-aged and elderly people with considerable social experience are more likely to be moved when reading this poem. Du Fu's regulated poetry has achieved the highest achievement and has always been recognized as a model of regulated poetry.We read the first of his "Eight Poems of Autumn Happiness": This was written by Du Fu when he was stranded in Kui (kui puppet) state in his later years.It was autumn, and the dead leaves of the maple forest fell after the frost and dew. The Wushan Wu Gorge, which was hidden from the sky and the sun, was cold and clear, and became more desolate and gloomy.Waves surged in the Yangtze River, and the long-awaited Saibei world was still full of wars.The poet has seen the chrysanthemums bloom twice when he came here, and now he thinks of the scene of crying over the flowers last year; the lone boat that was firmly tied to the shore made the poet think of the situation where he wanted to return to his hometown but could not leave, and felt infinitely sad.The women here are busy cutting cotton-padded clothes for the winter with their knives and rulers, and the sound of anvils pounding clothes in Baidi City, all of which stir up the poet's deep-rooted nostalgia and cannot be released.In the past, people often used the four words "depressed and frustrated" to evaluate Du Fu's Qilu style. This poem is a typical example. In Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage in Chengdu hangs a pair of couplets written by Guo Moruo: “The world is devastated, but the sages are in the poem;Du Fu's poems embody the conscience of ancient outstanding intellectuals.Standing among the masses, sharing sorrows and joys with the people, calling out for the people, pleading for orders for Li Shu, in this respect he is a permanent model of Chinese intellectuals.He has devoted all his life to writing poems, and his poems have solid content, pure enthusiasm, deep anger, and dignified style. In this respect, he is also a role model for poets to learn from.He "reads thousands of volumes", is good at learning and inheriting traditions; "the language is not amazing and endless", and he writes poems with a serious attitude. Both ancient and modern poems are in the realm of beauty and transformation.The so-called "poet sage" refers to a sage in the field of poetry. Du Fu is the only one who has won this honor in the history of Chinese poetry for more than 3,000 years.
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