During the Shenlong Revolution, Wu Zetian's favored Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Zongchang were killed. Du Zhenyan was exiled to the extremely remote Fengzhou (in present-day Vietnam) in the south because of his association with Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Zongchang, and when he passed through Xiangyang, he climbed the Xiangyang City Tower, looked around, felt inspired, and wrote a poem "Dengyang City", the original text is as follows:
Travelers arrive in autumn, and the layer city looks around.
Chu Mountain came out horizontally, and Han Shui took the heavens back.
The crown cover is not a new li, and Zhang Hua is the old platform.
Xi Pond scenery is different, the return road is full of dust.
"Tourists three autumn solstice, layer city four look away", I traveled to other places, unconsciously arrived in late autumn; climb the Xiangyang City Tower to look around, the cascading city towers in front of the eyes spread out. From Chang'an to Fengzhou, there are thousands of miles away, this is a long journey, when the poet set out from Chang'an, it may not have been autumn, and after arriving in Xiangyang, it is already late autumn, and the change of timing makes the poet more bitter. Therefore, he climbed the Xiangyang City Tower, intending to stretch his arms in this way. The moment he ascended to the head of the city, the scenery of Xiangyang City was like a picture scroll, spreading out in front of the poet.
"Chu Mountains come out horizontally, and the Han River returns to heaven", the mountains of Chu Land are lying on the earth; the vast Han River is far away from the sky, and it flows forward in a twist and turn. Standing at the head of the city of Xiangyang, the poet wanders with his eyes, and the vast mountains rise up from the ground, endlessly; between the mountains, the Han River meanders and twists, and the river gushes forward. This scene is easy to make people feel that in front of the mountains and rivers in nature, time seems to have stopped, as if since ancient times, Chu Mountain has been standing here, and the river is gushing. In contrast, a person's life seems incomparably short.
"Guan Gai is not a new li, Zhang Hua is the old platform", Guan Gai Li is no longer the bustling residential area of that year, and Zhang Hua Tai has become an old pavilion. In this union, the poet's brushstrokes shift from nature to human affairs. In the Xiangyang area, the once prosperous Guangaili has become a settlement of ordinary people's families; the Zhanghuatai built by the King of Chu is no longer prosperous as before. Compared with the mountains and rivers in nature, everything in the world is dizzyingly changeable, and all human affairs cannot resist the carving knife of time.
"The scenery of Xichi is different, and the road is full of dust", the scenery of Xichi is different from the past, and the cars and horses taken by people who return from the Xichi tour bring up the dust of the streets. Xijiachi is a famous spot in Xiangyang, and when the Western Jin Dynasty celebrity Shan jian served in Xiangyang, he often went to Xijiachi to enjoy the tour, often drank until he was drunk, and returned immediately after dumping. At this time, the dust brought by the carriages and horses of the people who visited Xijiachi obscured the road, and the style of the celebrities of that year was no longer seen. Through the contrast between ancient and modern, the poet euphemistically expresses his admiration for his predecessors.
On the way to the derogatory, the poet ascends to the far horizon, travels the heavens and the earth, and thinks about the ancient and the modern, he is detached from the pain of self-deprecation, and the brushstrokes point directly to an ancient problem: the relationship between eternity and transience. In the face of time, why have the mountains and rivers not changed their appearance for thousands of years? Compared with the mountains and rivers, life is like a moment, why is this? What is even more sad is that those interesting souls have also disappeared into the river of time.