Author: Du Fu
The wind is strong, the sky is high, the apes are screaming in mourning, and the white birds are flying back from the clear sand in Zhugong.
The endless falling trees rustle, and the endless Yangtze River rolls in.
The sad autumn of thousands of miles is often a guest, and the one who has been sick for a hundred years appears alone on the stage.
Hard and bitter, I hate the frost on my temples, and my wine glass becomes muddy when I am depressed.
Translation:
The wind is strong and the sky is high. The cries of apes are very sad. The birds are circling over the river island with clear water and white sand.
The endless trees are slowly dropping their fallen leaves, and the endless Yangtze River is rolling in.
Sad to the autumn scenery, I have been wandering thousands of miles and have been a guest all year round. I have been plagued by illnesses throughout my life and now I am alone on the high platform.
After going through all kinds of hardships, I regretted that my gray hair had grown all over my temples. I was so poor that I stopped drinking wine to drink my sorrow.
Appreciation of "Denggao"
This poem was written by Du Fu when he was in Kuizhou in the autumn of the second year of Dali (767). At that time, the poet was ill in Kuizhou, which is located on the bank of the Yangtze River. The whole poem, through the scenery of the Autumn River seen from a high altitude, expresses the poet's complex emotions of wandering around for many years, being old, sick and lonely. It is impassioned and touching. Yang Lun praised this poem as "the first seven-character verse in Du's collection" ("Du Shi Jingquan"). Hu Yinglin's "Shi Sou" even praised this poem as the best seven-character verse in ancient and modern times.
The first four sentences describe the experience gained from climbing high. First couplet. The poet focused on the specific environment of Kuizhou and used the word "fengji" to drive the whole couplet. From the beginning, he wrote a good sentence that has been passed down through the ages. Kuizhou is famous for its large number of apes, and the Xiakou is famous for its strong winds. It's a crisp autumn day, but it's windy here. The poet climbed to a high place, and the sound of "the high ape roaring" kept coming from the gorge, which had the meaning of "the sound is heard in the empty valley, and the sorrow lasts for a long time" ("Shui Jing Zhu·Jiang Shui"). The poet moved his gaze from the heights to the river and Zhouzhu. On the background of clear water and white sand, there are dotted with flocks of birds flying in the wind and constantly circling. It is really a beautiful picture. Among them are the sky, the wind, the sand, the river, and the roar of the ape. Birds fly, created by heaven and earth, and naturally come into pairs. Not only are the upper and lower sentences corresponding, but there are also self-contrasts within the sentences, such as "sky" vs. "wind" in the previous sentence; "gao" vs. "ji"; "sha" vs. "Zhu", "white" vs. "qing" in the next sentence. It reads rhythmically. After the poet's artistic refinement, the fourteen words are precise and accurate, and none of them are false. The use of words is "all thanks to the ax and chisel", reaching a wonderful and indescribable state. What is more noteworthy is that in the first sentence of the couplet, the oblique tone is often used for the last word, but this poem uses the flat tone to rhyme. Shen Deqian was praised for his "reuse of rhyme in the two-sentence couplets, which changes the style" ("Biecai of Tang Poems").
The chin couplets express the typical characteristics of Kuizhou’s autumn. The poet looked up at the boundless swaying wooden leaves and looked down at the endlessly flowing and rolling river. While describing the scene, he deeply expressed his feelings. "Boundless" and "Endless" make "Xiao Xiao" and "Rolling" more vivid, which not only reminds people of the sound of falling wood and the turbulent shape of the Yangtze River, but also conveys the feeling that time is fleeting and ambitions are hard to achieve. . Through the melancholic couplets, it shows the power of writing, and it has the majestic momentum of "Jian Ling Zhan Ban" and "Bai Chuan Dong Zhu". The predecessors praised it as the "unique in ancient and modern times". It makes sense.
The first two couplets try their best to describe the autumn scenery, and the word "Autumn" is not mentioned until the neck couplet, which shows that the poet is looking at it from a high place. The prospect is closely related to the mood in the heart. "Often a guest" points out the poet's wandering life. "A hundred years" is a metaphor for a limited life. The word "sad autumn" is written in a sad way. Autumn is not necessarily sad, but when the poet saw the desolate and majestic autumn scenery, he couldn't help but think of his situation of being in a foreign land, old and sick, so he felt infinite sadness. Emotions are summarized in a couplet of "magnificent, high-pitched, loud and powerful", which makes people deeply feel his heavy beating emotional pulse. The words "boundless" and "endless" in the same couplet also echo each other: the poet's travel sorrow and loneliness are like fallen leaves and river water, endlessly pushing and driving away, and the emotions and scenery blend together. At this point, the poem has given the general meaning of being a guest and homesickness, adding the content of being lonely for a long time, adding to the sadness of the autumn illness, and adding the lament of being away from home for thousands of miles, and the poem is even more profound.
The last couplet is a couplet, and contains five or six sentences. The poet is prepared to suffer from hardships and family troubles, which will make his hair gray. Coupled with the fact that he has stopped drinking due to illness, it is even harder to deal with his sorrow. It is easy to understand the conflicting mood of the poet who climbed high and looked into the distance with great joy, but now he is arousing hatred and sorrow for no reason. The first six sentences are "flying and shaking", and here he "receives it softly and coldly, but also has the meaning of infinite sadness." "Overflowing beyond words" ("Shi Sou").
The first half of the poem describes the scenery, and the second half is lyrical. Each has its own intricacies in writing. The first couplet focuses on depicting the specific scenery in front of you, just like a painter's fine brushwork, form , sound, color, and attitude: all are expressed one by one. The second couplet focuses on rendering the entire autumn atmosphere, just like the painter's freehand brushwork. It should only convey the meaning and let the reader supplement it with imagination. The three couplets express emotions vertically (time) and horizontally (space). He writes from two aspects, from wandering in a foreign land to being sick and disabled. In the four-part couplet, from having gray hair and stopping drinking to protect the sick, he attributes the hardships of the times to be the root cause of poverty. In this way, Du Fu's sentiments of worrying about the country are vividly revealed. On paper.
At a glance, all eight lines of this poem are correct.
If you think about it carefully, "In an article, every sentence is regular, and in a sentence, every word is regular." Not only "the whole text is legal", but also "the sentences and words used", "people in ancient and modern times will never dare to teach, and they will never be able to teach". It is a matter of course that it can win the reputation of "unparalleled work of its generation" (both see Hu Yinglin's "Shi Sou").
The famous line of this poem is "The boundless falling trees are rustling, and the endless Yangtze River is rolling in."
Explanation
This poem was written in the autumn of the second year of Dali (767) of Emperor Daizong of the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the Anshi Rebellion had been over for four years, but local warlords took advantage of the opportunity to rise up again and compete with each other for territory. Du Fu originally entered the Yanwu shogunate and relied on Yan Wu. Unfortunately, Yan Wu died of illness soon, leaving him without support. He had to leave the Chengdu thatched cottage that he had been running for five or six years and bought a boat to go south. He wanted to go directly to Kuimen, but he was seriously ill and ended up in the south. Yun'an stayed for several months before arriving in Kuizhou. If it weren't for the care of the local governor, he wouldn't have been able to live here for three years. And just in these three years, his life was still very difficult and his health was also very poor.
This poem was written by the fifty-six-year-old poet in this extremely difficult situation. That day, he climbed up to the high platform outside Baidi City in Kuizhou alone. He climbed up and looked at it with mixed feelings. What he saw aroused what he felt; the bleak scenery of the Autumn River aroused his emotion of his wandering life, and infiltrated his sadness of old age, illness, and loneliness. As a result, this masterpiece was born, which is known as "the first seven-character rhyme in ancient and modern times".
Sentence explanation
The wind is strong, the sky is high, the apes are screaming in mourning, and the white birds are flying back from the clear sand in Zhugong.
The sky is high, the wind is strong, the autumn air is chilling, the apes are crying and howling, it is very sad; the clear river bank, the white sandy beach, the gulls and herons are flying low in the sky. The two sentences in the first couplet still use rhyme in the antitheses, and the sentences are self-antithetical, and there is no falsehood. This is the scene that the poet saw when he climbed up, forming a sad autumn scene and setting the tone for the whole poem. Looking up from a high place, the river and the sky are originally open, but in the poet's writing, people can strongly feel: the sadness of the wind, the cry of the apes, and the whirling of the birds are all controlled by the invisible autumn air, as if everything is in harmony with the direction of the autumn. The coming of autumn brings panic and no one. "Winds are strong". Kuizhou is located on the bank of the Yangtze River and at the mouth of the Qutang Gorge, the head of the Three Gorges. It is known for its fast water and strong winds. "Apes howl in sorrow", there are many apes in Wu Gorge, and their screams are sad and shrill. Local folk songs say: "The Badong Three Gorges and the Wu Gorge are long, and the apes cry three times and shed tears on their clothes." "Zhu" refers to a small piece of land in the water.
Boundless falling trees rustle, and the endless Yangtze River rolls by.
The fallen leaves are falling endlessly, fluttering and rustling down; the endless Yangtze River is surging and rolling. The chin couplet is a famous line through the ages, describing the solemn and deserted scenery in autumn, and the vast and empty scenery. One sentence looks up and the other looks down, with a sense of sparseness. "Boundless" amplified the formation of fallen leaves, and "Xiao Xiaoxia" accelerated the speed of falling leaves. While describing the scenery, he deeply expressed his feelings and conveyed the feeling that time is fleeting and ambitions are hard to achieve. Its realm is very majestic, and its touch to people is not limited to the sentimentality of old age. It also makes people think of the passing and finiteness of life, and the infinity and eternity of the universe. Through the melancholy and exquisitely crafted couplets, the poet's superb writing power is displayed, and he has the majestic momentum of "walking through the mountains and rivers" and "drawing notes from hundreds of rivers to the east". The predecessors praised it as the "sentence-in-sentence" that is "unparalleled in ancient and modern times".
Wanli is always a guest in the sad autumn, and he has been sick for hundreds of years and only appears on the stage.
I have been wandering thousands of miles, living in foreign lands all year round, and I feel even more sad about this autumn scene. I have been plagued by illnesses throughout my life, and today I climbed to the high platform alone. The neck couplet is a high-level summary of the poet's wandering life, with a spirit of frustration. The poet writes from the two aspects of space (thousands of miles) and time (hundred years), and integrates the feelings of long-term guests who are most likely to be sad in autumn and who are sick and alone on the stage into a majestic couplet. The blending of scenes makes people deeply moved. I could feel his heavy emotional pulse. The language is extremely concise, and it is a famous sentence through the ages. Luo Dajing, a scholar of the Song Dynasty, analyzed this couplet in "Helin Jade Dew": "Ten thousand miles means that the land is far away; sad autumn means that the time is miserable; being a guest means staying on the road; being a frequent guest means staying for a long time; a hundred years means the teeth of the twilight; Being sick means being sick; the stage is at a high place; being on stage alone means having no relatives or friends; the fourteen characters contain eight meanings, and the parallels are extremely precise. It is sad; it is sad to be a frequent guest; the third is sad to be a guest thousands of miles away; the fourth is sad to be in the bleak autumn; the fifth is sad to be old and achieve nothing; the sixth is sad to have relatives and friends separated; the seventh is sad to go to the mountain alone; the body is sad. Suffering from disease is a miserable thing.
Hard and bitter, I hate the frost on my temples, and my new wine glass becomes muddy.
Times are tough and life is difficult. I often hate that my temples are as white as frost. I drink wine to relieve my worries, but I am so miserable that I have to stop drinking. The last couplet turns into a lament about the trivial matters around one person, forming a tragic contrast with the majestic world of heaven and earth like the opening chapter "Chu Ci". "Bitter hatred", very hateful, means deep sorrow and hatred. "Down and out" still means trapped, depressed, embarrassed and frustrated. Xin stop turbid wine glass: It is generally interpreted as quitting drinking, which is inappropriate. "Stop" means a temporary interruption in the continuation of a certain action state. This sentence means that I am on the stage alone, drinking wine alone, without relatives or friends, slowly raising the wine glass to relieve my worries, and stopping at my mouth - I My body can no longer bear it. I have been drinking continuously and have never stopped drinking. I can't help but feel shocked at the decline of my body and mind. New refers to the first appearance. "Maojiu" is a kind of wine with lees compared to "sake", just like today's rice wine, which was called "mash" in ancient times.
Commentary
This is a seven-character rhymed poem that best represents the desolate and vast scenery and the powerful momentum in Du's poems.
The first two couplets describe the scenery seen and heard while climbing high, and the last two couplets express the feelings of climbing high. The scene is selected based on emotion, and the emotion is integrated into the scene. It fully expresses the poet's complex feelings of wandering for many years, worrying about the country, the times, old age, illness, and loneliness. However, the style is majestic, impassioned and high-spirited, unparalleled in ancient and modern times.
This rhymed poem is very special. Its four couplets rhyme, and they are all in pairs. The first couplet has two sentences, and the sentences are self-paired. It can be said that "in a piece, every sentence is rhythmic, and every sentence is in rhythm." "In every word, every word is law." As for the description of scenery, there is a meticulous description (first couplet), which describes the shape, sound, color and state of six kinds of scenery: wind, sky, ape, Zhu, sand and bird. Each scenery is described with only one word, but Vivid, concise and expressive; there are large freehand brushstrokes (jaw couplets) to convey the charm of autumn. Lyrically, there are vertical strokes of time, writing about memories of "frequent guests"; there are also horizontal strokes of space, writing about "going on stage alone" after a "thousands of miles" journey. From a life of wandering, to the drifting of the remaining soul and bones, he finally attributed the hardships of the times to the root cause of poverty. The use of such intricate techniques makes the poet's desolation of old age, illness and loneliness appear gloomy and tragic when he is worried about his country and hurting his country. No wonder Hu Yinglin in the Ming Dynasty said in "Shi Sou" that the whole poem "has fifty-six characters, like coral on the seabed, thin and strong, indescribable, deep and unfathomable, yet brilliant and powerful. The whole composition, syntax, and calligraphy are unprecedented. Those in the past who did not learn from it and who have little comment on it are Du poems, not Tang poems. However, this poem should be regarded as the first in the seven-character rhythm in ancient and modern times, and it does not need to be the first in the seven-character rhythm in the Tang Dynasty."