100 ancient poems must be memorized in primary school - 37 "Jiang Xue"

original

A thousand mountains and birds are extinct, and thousands of paths of people are extinguished.

Lonely boat, fishing alone in the cold river and snow.

Translations

On all the mountains, the figure of the bird has disappeared, and there is no trace of people on all roads.

On a lonely boat on the river, an old man wearing a bamboo is fishing alone in the wind and snow.

exegesis

Never: None, no.

10,000 paths: false fingers, referring to thousands of roads.

Human Tracks: Human footprints.

Lonely: Lonely.

蓑笠 (suō lì): 蓑衣 and bucket 笠 笠: A hat made of bamboo fences.

Germany: Original.

Appreciation

Liu Zongyuan's landscape poems have a significant feature, that is, they write about the objective realm more secluded, while the poet's subjective mood seems more lonely, and even sometimes it is inevitable that it is too lonely, too deserted, and does not bring a little earthly fireworks. This poem "Jiang Xue" is exactly like this, the poet only uses twenty words to paint a quiet and cold picture: on the snowy river, a small boat, an old fisherman, fishing alone in the cold river.

　　What the poet shows the reader is this: the heaven and earth are so pure and silent, spotless and silent; The life of the fisherman is so high, and the character of the fisherman is so lonely. In fact, this is a fantasy realm created by Liu Zongyuan because he hated the Tang Dynasty society that was going downhill day by day, and compared to the characters in Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Garden", I am afraid it seems ethereal and far from the earthly world. The poet's specific description is very simple, but it is a small boat, an old fisherman in a coat and hat, fishing on the snowy river, and so on. However, in order to highlight the main object of description, the poet does not hesitate to devote half of the space to its background, and to make this background as vast and as vast as possible. The larger the background, the more prominent the main subject of the depiction is.

　　First of all, the poet uses the words "thousand mountains" and "ten thousand paths" in order to foil the pictures of "lone boat" and "solo fishing" in the following two sentences. Without the words "thousand" and "thousand", the words "lonely" and "alone" below will be bland and have no appeal. Secondly, birds flying on the mountains and people on the road are originally very common, and they are also the most general images. However, the poet places them under the "thousand mountains" and "ten thousand paths", and adds the words "absolute" and "extinguish", which suddenly turns the most common and generalized dynamic into extreme silence, absolute silence, forming an unusual scene. Therefore, the following two sentences originally belonged to static descriptions, but because they were placed against this absolutely quiet and absolutely silent background, they appeared delicate and clear, and they became vigorous and floating and active on the screen. It can also be said that the first two sentences were originally a foil vision, according to the general understanding, as long as you outline it, you don't have to work hard to carve it carefully. The poet, however, does not deal with it this way. It's like making a movie, with close-ups magnified many times, to explain and reflect every corner that belongs to the background. The more specific and detailed the writing, the more generalized and exaggerated. The next two sentences, originally intended by the poet to highlight the object of description, turned out to use a long-distance lens, but instead shrunk it by many times, giving the reader a sense of ethereal, visible and unattainable. Only by writing in this way can we express the thoughts and feelings that the author urgently hopes to show the reader, free from the worldly and detached from the solitary arrogance. As for the formation of this long-distance feeling, it is mainly the effect of the author placing a "snow" character at the very end of the whole poem and connecting it with the word "Jiang".

　　The word "snow" envelops the poem. "Thousand mountains" and "ten thousand trails" are all snow, which makes "birds fly away" and "people disappear". Even on the canopy of the boat, on the fisherman's caste, of course, there is snow. However, the author does not clearly associate these scenes with "snow". On the contrary, in this picture, there is only Jiang, only Jiang Xin. The river, of course, does not store snow, it will not be covered by snow, and even if the snow falls into the river, it will immediately turn into water. However, the author prefers to use the three words "cold river and snow" to connect the two images of "river" and "snow" that are most distant, which gives people a feeling of being relatively empty, more distant, and relatively narrowed, which forms a long-distance shot. This makes the main object of the poem more focused, more dexterous, and more prominent. Because even the river seems to be full of snow, and even the places where there is no snow are full of snow, this completely writes out the situation of the snow falling thick, dense, thick and thick, and completely bakes out the atmosphere of water and sky, up and down. As for the use of the word "cold" above, of course, it is to point out the climate; But the poet's subjective intention is to quietly write about the spiritual world of the fisherman. Just imagine, in such a cold and silent environment, the old fisherman is not afraid of the cold, not afraid of snow, forgetting everything, concentrating on fishing, although the body is lonely, but the character seems high and arrogant, and even a little awe-inviolable.

　　This illusionized and beautified image of a fisherman is actually the sustenance and portrayal of Liu Zongyuan's own thoughts and feelings. It can be seen that the three characters of "cold river and snow" are the "finishing touch", which organically links the two parts before and after the whole poem, not only forming a condensed and summarized picture, but also shaping the complete and prominent image of the fisherman. Use specific and detailed techniques to imitate the background, and use long-distance pictures to describe the main image; Elaborate and extremely exaggerated generalizations, intricately unified in one poem, are the unique artistic characteristics of this small landscape poem.

About the author

Liu Zongyuan (773-819), known as Zihou, was a native of Hedong (present-day Yuncheng, Shanxi) during the Tang Dynasty, an outstanding poet, philosopher, Confucian scholar and even an accomplished politician, and one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties. Famous works include more than 600 articles such as "Eight Records of Yongzhou", which were compiled into 30 volumes by later generations, entitled "Liuhe East Collection". Because he is from Hedong, he is known as Liuhedong, and because he finally took office in Liuzhou, he is also known as Liuzhou. Liu Zongyuan was born in the Liu clan of Hedong, and was called "Liu Liu" with Liu Yuxi, "Han Liu" with Han Yu, and "Wang Meng Weiliu" with Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and Wei Yingwu. Liu Zongyuan left more than 600 poetry works in his lifetime, and his literary achievements are greater than poetry. There are nearly 100 essays, with strong prose arguments, sharp writing, and satirical and spicy.