Among the many images of classical poetry, the emotional element of "sunset" is the thickest. For example, In Ma Zhiyuan's "Tianjing Sha Qiusi", "The sunset is setting in the west, and the people who break the intestines are at the end of the world", which has spawned the nostalgia of wandering in detention. Li Shangyin's "Dengle Youyuan" in the "sunset is infinitely good, but it is near dusk", doubling the sadness of the short life, Xin Abandoned Disease's "Yongyule Jingkou Beiguting Huaigu" in the "slanting grass trees, ordinary alleys and strange, humane slaves have lived", but also witnessed the vicissitudes of the world.
This article allows us to see how the "sunset" imagery in classical poetry witnesses the vicissitudes of the world through a famous poem by the Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi, "Wuyi Lane". "Wuyi Lane" is the second poem in Liu Yuxi's huaigu group poem "Five Questions of Jinling", the main content of which is to use the Suzaku Bridge on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing and the ancient and modern changes of Wuyi Lane on the south bank to lament the vicissitudes of the world. And the one who witnesses the vicissitudes of the world in the poem is the "sunset" at the mouth of wuyi alley.
"Wuyi Lane"
Wild grass flowers by the Suzaku Bridge, the sunset at the mouth of Wuyi Lane.
In the old days, Wang Xie Tang Qianyan flew into the homes of ordinary people.
First of all, the first sentence of the poem, "Wild Grass Flowers by the Suzaku Bridge", is a description of the environment of the Suzaku Bridge, that is, it is overgrown with wild grasses and wildflowers. According to records, the Suzaku Bridge was a bridge across the Qinhuai River outside the Suzaku Gate in the south of Jinling during the Six Dynasties, and it was the only way to Wuyi Lane, where the Daguan nobles lived. For example, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the two major families of Wang Dao and Xie An lived in Wuyi Lane. Therefore, liu Yuxi's prominent "wild grass flowers" here shows that the prosperity of the Suzaku Bridge is no longer there.
Of course, for Liu Yuxi of the Tang Dynasty, he only witnessed the desolate decay of the Suzaku Bridge, and did not experience the prosperity of the Six Dynasties. Therefore, in the second sentence "The sunset slope of Wuyi Lane", Liu Yuxi leads out the eternal sunset to witness, that is, what has not changed is the sunset that still slopes west to the mouth of Wuyi Lane. In addition, the "sunset" image itself has a sense of loneliness and bleak atmosphere, which is very close to the changes of Suzaku Bridge and Wuyi Lane.
Then, it seems that with the witness of the "sunset", Liu Yuxi felt that it was not enough for people to lament this vicissitudes of the world, so he had three or four sentences, "In the old days, Wang XieTang Qianyan flew into the homes of ordinary people", giving Yanzi the identity of a historical witness. It means that the swallows that used to nest in front of the lobbies of Wang Xie's two families are now flying into the homes of ordinary people.
From the perspective of time, the swallow is very short relative to the sunset, which is not enough to witness historical changes, but the swallow as a migratory bird has the characteristics of perching the old nest, which makes it easy to imagine the prosperity of wuyi lane in the past, which has played a role in highlighting the contrast between the past and the present.
Looking at Liu Yuxi's "Wuyi Lane", although it is only a short four sentences and twenty-eight words, through the testimony of "sunset" including "swallows", it cleverly highlights the vicissitudes of history and reality, thus guiding people to seriously think about the development of the times and the changes in society, which has a far-reaching impact.
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