In the Year of the Tiger, let's read the poem St. Du Fu's Tiger Poem.
Du Fu is known as the "Poet Saint", and he is a great artist who expresses the fate of the people and the fate of the times. Du Shi is the representative of realism in Tang poetry, known as "poetic history", which is a highly artistic historical record. The chaos of the times cast Du Fu into the treacherous nature, and the great poet faithfully recorded what he saw and heard.
During the refuge of the Anshi Rebellion, Du Fu's poems mentioned the tiger several times. These tigers appeared in present-day Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and Chongqing provinces. These tiger-infested areas, between the Qinling Mountains, daba Mountain and the Sichuan Basin, have been richly forested and humid since ancient times, producing the most tigers in the country. These tiger poems are connected in chronological order, which becomes a history of Du Fu's refuge, which is the history of personal refuge, the history of artistic refuge, and the history of refuge of the country.
The First Tiger: Quan Tang Poetry Volume 217 Du Fu's Peng Ya Xing:
Remembering the beginning of avoiding thieves, the north walked through dangers and hardships. In the middle of the night, Peng Ya Road, the moon shines on the white water mountain.
……
The idiot girl was hungry and biting me, crying out in fear of the tiger and the wolf. Cover his mouth in his arms, and the reverse voice will become more and more disgusted.
This poem was written by Du Fu in the second year of Emperor Suzong of Tang (757), recalling the fifteenth year (755) of Emperor Xuanzong Tianbao's escape from the Anshi War to Baishui County, Shaanxi. "Gaoyang County" was the present-day Heyang County of Weinan City, Shaanxi Province, and its northwestern part was Baishui County, Weinan City. "Moon shines on The White Water Mountain", Baishui County was peng yayi of the qin state in the spring and autumn, and in the twenty-eighth year of king Xiang of Zhou (625 BC), the jin state defeated the qin state in the battle of Peng ya. In the twelfth year of the Warring States period (350 BC), Duke Xiao of Qin set up Baishui County. In the Tang Dynasty, it was still Baishui County, and it was the same prefecture as Guoyang County.
In the great era of war and chaos, the fate of individuals is really tragic. In order to escape the chaos of the war, Du Fu's family fled to pengya ancient road late at night. In the miserable moonlight, the poor little daughter was already hungry, biting her father's hand and crying. But even if it is the only cry that can vent emotions, adults do not dare to let their daughters speak out, because they are afraid of being heard by tigers and wolves. "Tiger wolf" here means a pun, referring to both the hungry wolf and the rebellious enemy. Du Fu had no choice but to take his daughter in his arms and cover her hungry mouth. The poor little daughter struggled, and the whimpering voice was even more miserable! Who has no home, who has no love, and who in the world, as a parent of man, reads such a verse, who does not have heartache?!
The Second Tiger: Quan Tang Poetry Volume 217 Du Fu's Northern Expedition:
Emperor Ii Zai Autumn, leap August early auspicious. Du Zi will march north, and Cang Mang asks the family room.
The outskirts of the country go into the ground and splash in the water. The tiger stood in front of me, and the cliff roared and cracked.
Potuo looks at the mountains, and the rock valleys are infested with each other. I have walked by the water's edge, and I have served the woods.
This poem was written by Du Fu in the leap month of the second year of Emperor Suzong's reign (757), and records his journey from Fengxiang County, the seat of the imperial court at that time, to the north to The Prefecture of Shaanxi, where his family was located. "Fengxiang County" was the seat of government of Fengxiang Province, which is now Fengxiang County. The territory under the jurisdiction of Fengxiang Province corresponds to the cities and counties of present-day Baoji, Qishan, Linyou, Fufeng, Yuxian and Zhouzhi in Shaanxi. "邠郊" refers to the outskirts of Yingzhou, which was changed to Ying prefecture in the thirteenth year of the New Century (725 AD), and the seat of government was Xinping (新平, in modern Bin County, Xianyang City). "Jingshui" is an important tributary of the Yellow River, originating in Jingzhou (泾州, in present-day northern Jingchuan, Gansu), flowing southeast to the border of Yingzhou, and reaching Gaoling to join the Wei River.
Picture: Lu Yushao's "Du Fu's Poetic Intention Book" "I have walked on the water's edge, my servant Yu Mu Mo"
The Third Tiger: Quan Tang Poetry, vol. 218, Du Fu's "Stone Niche":
The bear barked at me east, and the tiger and leopard numbered me west. I screamed after the ghost, and I cried in front of me.
It's cold and dark, and the mountains are far away from the road fans. Driving under the stone niches, midwinter sees rainbow neon.
In the second year of Emperor Suzong's reign (759 AD), Du Fu, deeply aware that the Anshi rebellion stemmed from the corruption of the imperial court, resolutely abandoned the minor officials who joined the army in Huazhou Sigong, and with the frustration of his career, began a wandering life for the rest of his life, at the age of 48.
Du Fu first went to Chengji County in Qinzhou (present-day Tianshui City, Gansu Province) to join relatives, and in the early autumn of that year, Du Fu came to Qinzhou with his family. However, due to the difficulties of life, they went south again three months later, preparing to settle in Tonggu County, Chengzhou (present-day Chengxian County, Longnan City, Gansu Province). The stone niches, on the way from Nariki to Tonggu, were located at the Eight Peaks Cliff in the south of present-day Xihe County. The poem takes the reader into a thrilling environment: cold weather, dark and dark, surrounded by mountains and illegible roads. At this time, the roar of the bear came from the east, the trumpet of the tiger and leopard sounded from the west, and not far behind him, somehow it seemed to be a ghost, and the dark shadow in the bushes in front of it shook and the marmoset made a sad cry. This is not a horror movie, nor is it a nightmare, this is the real experience of Du Fu's family in a cold winter before 1263 years ago, who were naked and hungry.
The Fourth Tiger: Quan Tang Poetry Volume 218 Du Fu's "MupiLing":
The first road is Li Ting West, still want to phoenix village. Ji Dong took the child and went to Shumen with hard work.
Lean on the plug Daming and lean into the crack thick Kun. Smell the tiger and leopard fighting again, and repeatedly stomp on the wind and water.
In the winter of the second year of Emperor Suzong's reign (759 AD), Du Fu's family came to Tonggu County, but at this time the soldiers were in chaos, and Tonggu became a border city heavily defended by the imperial court in preparation for tubo (the following year Tonggu fell to Tubo). Life in Tonggu was even more difficult, and Du Fu said in the first song of the "Seven Songs of Tonggu" written by Li Ting that "the years of picking oak chestnuts follow the snipers, and in the valley of cold days and twilight", they lived a famine-stricken life of picking up wild oak chestnuts (commonly known as woolly chestnuts) in the cold and frozen valley. As a last resort, in the cold winter, the poet "Ji Dong took the child and went to Shumen with hard work", and the family went to Chengdu to rely on distant friends.
Du Fu and his family headed south, and at the end of December, they came to Mupiling. The Mupi Ridge spans the two counties of Longyou, twenty miles east of Tonggu County, and ten miles west of Hechi County (present-day Hui County, Longnan City), named after the magnolia tree (also known as Xinyi tree, whose skin is called Houpu in Traditional Chinese medicine) on the ridge. The Mupiling Mountains are majestic and steep, with clouds and smoke stacks, stretching across the mountain, relying on each other with the surrounding mountains, forming a natural barrier and becoming the main point of entry and exit.
"Smell the tiger and leopard fighting again, repeatedly stomping on the wind and water", in the mountains the poet heard the terrible roar of tigers, leopards and other wild beasts fighting, and saw the mountain wind stirring the clouds and smoke drifting in the dim. "Tiptoe" means to bend over and hunch over, from the "Book of Poetry, The First Month": "The sky is high, do not dare not tiptoe; the ground is thick, do not dare not stomp." "Although the sky is high, it has to bend over; although the ground is thick, it has to take small steps. Du Fushi borrowed the mood in the poems to describe his situation as embarrassing and dangerous. At the end of the second year of the Qianyuan Dynasty, Du Fu finally arrived in Chengdu.
The Fifth Tiger: Quan Tang Poetry, vol. 220, Du Fu's "Fa Lang Zhong":
Before the poisonous snake after the tiger, the creek traveled all day without a village dock. The river breeze is xiaoxiao and the clouds are blowing on the ground, and the mountains and trees are miserable and rainy.
The female sick wife is worried about the speed of return, and the autumn flower jinshi who is plural. Other families get a book in March, and avoid when to avoid sorrow.
This poem was composed by Du Fu when he set out from Langzhong to Zizhou in the winter of the first year (763) of Emperor Guangde's reign. His daughter was sick, and she was living in a different place, and her feelings were very bitter. The year before, in the first year of Emperor Daizong's reign (762), Du Fu's friend Yan Wuzhen served as the envoy of Chengdu Yin and Jiannan Jiedushi, and funded Du Fu to expand the caotang on the banks of Huanhua Creek in Chengdu. Soon after Yan Wu was promoted and left, Xu knew that he was in Chengdu, so Du Fu drifted to Zizhou and Langzhou. Langzhong (阆中, in present-day Langzhong, Sichuan) was located in the northeastern part of the Sichuan Basin, in the middle reaches of the Jialing River. In 314 BC, the Qin state of Ba County was placed in langzhong county. "Lang" is the meaning of gaomen, because the mountains around Langzhong resemble high gates, and the Jialing River surrounds the city on three sides, so it is called Langzhong, and the middle section of the Jialing River is therefore also called Langshui. In the first year of Tang Wude (618), it was ruled by Longzhou, and in the first year of the new century (713), it was changed to Langzhou, with jurisdiction over 9 counties in Langzhong. Zizhou was located between Chengdu and Langzhou, and the prefecture was governed by present-day Santai County, Sichuan Province.
Picture: Lu Yushao and Shen Qiwen co-painted "Double Tiger Diagram"
Text/Writer-in-residence Chen Xiaobin