Jiang Xue

Jiang Xue

Jiang Xue is a five character quatrain written by Tang Dynasty poet Liu Zongyuan in Yongzhou. In the poem, the typical generalization technique is used to select the typical scenery of thousands of mountains and thousands of paths, people and birds disappearing, which can best express the severe cold in the mountains, depicting the picture of heavy snow and freezing weather; then the image of the fisherman fishing alone in Hanjiang River is outlined, so as to express the poet's unyielding and lonely mood after being hit. The whole poem has unique conception, concise language and rich connotation.

Original works

Jiang Xue

birds of thousand mountains fly away, thousands of paths follow, and people disappear. I'm alone in fishing for snow in the cold river.

Note translation

Word notes

① Jue: No, No. Wanjing: refers to thousands of paths. human trace: human footprints. Solitary: solitary. (5) coir raincoat: coir raincoat and bamboo hat. Coir: clothes used to prevent rain in ancient times; Li: hats used to prevent rain in ancient times, made of bamboo strips. Alone: alone.

Vernacular translation

The birds in the mountains are out of sight, and there are no people on all the roads. An old man in a coir hat is fishing alone on the cold river.

Creative background

The poem Jiang Xue was written during Liu Zongyuan's exile in Yongzhou (805-815). In the first year of Yongzhen (805), Liu Zongyuan took part in the Yongzhen reform movement launched by Wang Shuwen group, and carried out the political measures of restraining eunuchs inside, controlling vassal towns outside and maintaining the unity of the country. However, due to the joint opposition of the reactionary forces, the reform soon failed. Liu Zongyuan was demoted to Yongzhou Sima and exiled for ten years. In fact, he lived a life of "detention" under control and house arrest. The vicious environment did not crush him. In the political disadvantage, he put the value of life and ideal interest, through poetry to show. This poem is one of the representative works.

Appreciation of works

Appreciation of literature

The poet only used 20 words to describe a quiet and cold picture: on the snowy river, a boat, an old fisherman, fishing alone in the cold river. What the poet shows the readers is such contents: the world is so pure and silent, spotless and silent; the fisherman's life is pure and lofty, and the fisherman's character is aloof. As a matter of fact, this is a fantasy realm created by the poet because he hated the declining society of Tang Dynasty at that time. Compared with the characters in Tao Yuanming's Peach Blossom Land, it is more illusory and far away from the world. What the poet wants to describe is very simple, just a small boat, an old fisherman in coir raincoat and hat, fishing on the snowy river, that's all. However, in order to highlight the main description object, the poet does not hesitate to use half of the space to describe its background, and makes the background as vast as possible, almost boundless. The wider the background is, the more prominent the main objects are. First of all, the poet uses the words "Qianshan" and "Wanjing" in order to set off the images of "lone boat" and "lone fishing" in the following two sentences. Without the words "Qian" and "Wan", the following words "Gu" and "Du" would be plain and uninspiring. Secondly, birds flying on the mountain and people on the road are very common things, and they are also the most general images. However, the poet put them under "thousand mountains" and "ten thousand paths" and added the words "Jue" and "Mie", which turned the most common and general dynamic into extreme silence and absolute silence, forming an unusual scene. Therefore, the following two sentences originally belong to the static description. Because they are placed in this absolutely quiet and absolutely silent background, they appear exquisite, lively and floating on the screen. The last two sentences, originally intended to highlight the object of description by the poet, use a long-distance lens instead, reducing it by many times, giving the reader a kind of ethereal, visible and unreachable feeling. In this way, it expresses the lofty and aloof thoughts and feelings that the poet is eager to show readers. As for the formation of this sense of distance, it is mainly the effect of the poet putting the word "Snow" at the end of the poem and connecting it with the word "River". in this poem, the thing that covers everything is snow. It is snow on the mountain and on the road. Besides, the "thousand mountains" and "ten thousand paths" are all snow, which makes "birds fly away" and "people disappear". Even on the canopies and the rainbows of the fishermen, of course, there was snow. However, the poet did not associate these scenery with "Snow". On the contrary, in this picture, there is only the river, only the middle of the river. River, of course, will not store snow, will not be covered by snow, and even if the snow falls into the river, it will immediately become water. However, the poet just used the word "cold river snow" to connect the two farthest related images of "River" and "Snow", which gives people a feeling of emptiness, remoteness and narrowing, which forms a long-distance lens. This makes the main objects described in the poem more concentrated, 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 describes the situation that the snow is heavy, dense and thick, and completely sets off the atmosphere that the water and the sky are indistinguishable and the sky are vast. 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 write down the fisherman's spiritual world quietly. In such a cold and quiet environment, the old fisherman was not afraid of the cold weather and the heavy snow. He forgot everything and devoted himself to fishing. Although he was lonely in shape, his character was aloof and even a little awe inspiring. In fact, this illusory and beautified image of the fisherman is the sustenance and portrayal of the poet's thoughts and feelings. From this, we can see that the word "cold river snow" is just the finishing touch. It organically connects the two parts before and after the whole poem, forming not only a concise and general picture, but also a complete and prominent image of the fisherman. the unique artistic feature of this landscape poem is that it depicts the background with specific and meticulous techniques and describes the main images with long-distance pictures; it is intricately integrated into one poem with exquisite carving and extreme exaggeration.

Comments on celebrities

Su Shi's Dongpo inscriptions and postscripts: Liu Zi Hou Yun: "birds in thousand mountains are flying away..." There is a gap in human nature! It's a gift from heaven. It's out of reach. Fan Xiwen's night talk to bed: there are five characters and four sentences in Tang Dynasty. Except for Liu Zihou's "fishing for snow", there are few excellent ones. Wang Zhifang's "notes on the poems of guisou": Zheng Guxue said: "when you come to the painting place late on the river, the fishermen will return home in a raincoat." The language of this village school is also like Liu Zihou's "thousands of birds are flying away, thousands of people are disappearing, the boat is covered with rainbows, and the river is covered with snow". This letter is also true, and the poet should take it as the standard. Gao's collection of Tang poetry quotes Liu Chenweng as saying that the only way to gain heaven's interest is to write down a five character poem. Gu Li's comments on the sound of Tang Poetry: a masterpiece, the snowy scene is at present. Guo Jun's revised commentary on the sound of Tang Poetry: good snow scenery, wonderful sentences (the last sentence below). In Hu Yinglin's shisou, there are 20 words of "birds flying in a thousand mountains". The sentence style is natural. However, with the works of Wangchuan, they feel too noisy. Qinglian "the moon comes out of Tianshan Mountain, between the vast sea of clouds.". Long wind tens of thousands of miles, blowing through the Yumen pass ", hunxiong, how much leisure and elegant. Xu Zeng's "Er'an talking about Tang poetry": I said that this poem was written by Zi Hou when he was demoted. When the road is poor and the days are short, you can go back, but you still depend on it. Is it a government official? An officer is as tasteless as fishing for fish in the cold river. He has nothing to gain in the end. How can I be like this man! Wu Ruirong's notes on Tang Poetry: Liuzhou has a long history of Qi and bone, so it is not easy to imitate Tao and Wei. Li Ying's a brief record of the changes of poetic methods: the first two sentences are not stained with the word "Snow", but are actually snow scenery, which can be called ethereal, and the last sentence is just enough. Ruan Ting's comments on the predecessors' Snow poems are still regretful, which is even more difficult. Sun Zhu's three hundred poems of the Tang Dynasty: twenty words can be divided into twenty layers, but they are unique. Zhu Tingzhen's notes on poems in Xiaoyuan: Ruan Ting is most appreciative of the unique poem "Zhongnan Yinling show" sung by Zu, but it can't help smelling so close. Ruan Qiaozi's poem, which means "a bird is born far away from the mountain", has the opposite meaning. It is not a public opinion that people are tired of reciting. Wang Yaoheng's interpretation of ancient Tang Poetry: when the river is cold and the fish are falling, how can we get it? Why does the old man sit in his boat? The state of the world is cold, and the official sentiment is lonely and cold. It's like fishing for fish in the cold river. Zihou is a kind of self-contained person. Liu Yongji, a classical writer, "the essences of the Tang Dynasty's quatrains": there is chill in reading this poem.

About the author

Liu Zongyuan (773-819), a native of hedongjie (now Yuncheng, Shanxi Province), is known as "liuhedong" in the world. Zhenyuan nine years (793) Jinshi, granted Jixian Dian Zhengzi, tune Lantian Wei, pay homage to censor. After the failure of "Yongzhen innovation", he was demoted to Sima of Yongzhou for joining Wang Shuwen group. Ten years later, he moved to Liuzhou as a governor, so he was also called Liuzhou. I'm on duty. Liu Zongyuan and Han Yu jointly advocated the ancient prose movement, and called it "Han Liu". His poems and Wei Yingwu are called "Wei Liu". There is a collection of liuhedong.

Chinese PinYin : Jiang Xue