Appreciation of Tang Poetry "Passing the Huaqing Palace"

The author of "Passing through Huaqing Palace" is Du Mu, a litterateur of the Tang Dynasty. The full text of the ancient poem is as follows:

Looking back at Chang'an, there are piles of embroidery, and thousands of doors are opening on the top of the mountain.

Riding on the red dust concubine smiled, no one knew it was lychee.

Foreword

"Passing the Huaqing Palace" reveals the extravagant and lustful life of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Concubine Yang. It is said that Concubine Yang liked to eat lychees, and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ordered people to transport them to her on fast horses from Sichuan and Guangzhou. This poem is based on this incident.

"Passing Through the Huaqing Palace" is one of his most popular masterpieces. (There are three works with the same title of "Passing the Huaqing Palace", and this is the first of them.) Du Mu is as famous as his contemporary Li Shangyin, and is also known as "Little Li Du" (Note: "Big Li Du" is Li Bai , Du Fu), there are "Collected Works of Fan Chuan" and "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" with eight volumes of poems.

Notes

1. Huaqing Palace: The former site is located in Lishan Mountain, Lintong County, Shaanxi Province today. It was the place where Emperor Ming of Tang Dynasty and Concubine Yang Guifei played. "Yuanhe County Chronicles": "Huaqing Palace is on Lishan Mountain, and the Hot Spring Palace was built at the beginning of the eleventh year of Kaiyuan. In the sixth year of Tianbao, it was changed to Huaqing Palace. The Changsheng Palace was also built, named Jiling Terrace, to worship the gods."

< p> 2. Embroidery in piles: refers to flowers, trees, trees and buildings that look like piles of brocade.

3. Thousand Doors: Describes the majestic palace on the top of the mountain with numerous doors.

4. Order: in order, one after another.

5. Yiqi (jì pronounced ji in ancient times, usually pronounced qi (second tone)): refers to a person riding a horse.

6. Red dust: refers to the dust that flies up when a horse is galloping.

7. Concubine: refers to the noble concubine Yang Yuhuan.

8. Knowing is: One is "knowing".

Translation

Looking back at Lishan Mountain from Chang'an, I saw trees, flowers, and buildings, just like a pile of brocade. On the top of the mountain, palace gates were opened layer by layer. The stagecoach was running so fast that it was difficult to see what it was carrying. Only Concubine Yang looked from a distance on the mountain and smiled happily when she knew that the most beloved lychees were being transported.

Appreciation

Huaqing Palace was a palace built in 723 AD (the eleventh year of Emperor Xuanzong's founding of the Tang Dynasty). Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Concubine Yang used to have fun there. Many people in later generations wrote epic poems with the theme of Huaqing Palace, but Du Mu's quatrain is particularly exquisite and popular. This poem uses the typical event of sending lychees to criticize the arrogant and luxurious life of Xuanzong and Yang Guifei, and has a subtle artistic effect.

The whole poem starts from "looking back", setting up suspense layer by layer, and finally reveals the answer to the mystery with "no one knows". This not only reveals the absurdity of Emperor Ming of Tang Dynasty who did everything to please his beloved concubine, but also contradicts the previous renderings. echoes the unusual atmosphere. There is not a single difficult word in the whole poem, and there is no need for elaboration. It is beautiful and handsome, lively and natural, and has profound meaning and powerful implicitness. It is indeed the best work among the quatrains of the Tang Dynasty.

The first sentence describes the scenery of Lishan Mountain, where Huaqing Palace is located. The poet writes from the perspective of "looking back" at Chang'an, just like a cinematographer, first showing a vast and far-reaching panoramic view of Lishan Mountain in front of the audience: lush forests, luxuriant flowers and plants, and palaces and pavilions towering among them, like a beautiful scene. "Embroidery piles" not only refers to Dongxiuling and Xixiuling on both sides of Lishan Mountain, but also describes the beauty of Lishan Mountain, with a pun intended.

Then, the scene moved forward, showing the majestic palace on the top of the mountain. The palace doors that were usually closed suddenly opened slowly one after another. Next, there are two close-ups: outside the palace, an envoy is riding a stagecoach at a galloping speed, with clouds of red dust rising behind him; inside the palace, the concubine is smiling. Several shots seem to be unrelated to each other, but they all contain suspense carefully arranged by the poet: Why are the "thousand doors" opened? Why did "Yi Qi" come? Why is the "concubine" laughing? The poet deliberately did not rush to tell the story, and only when the tense and mysterious atmosphere made the readers want to know, did he implicitly and euphemistically reveal the answer: "No one knew it was lychee." The word "lychee" reveals the whole story. "New Book of Tang Dynasty: Biography of Concubine Yang": "The concubine was addicted to lychees, and she wanted to have sex with her. She rode on a horse and traveled thousands of miles, but her taste remained unchanged until she reached the capital." Knowing this, the suspense ahead suddenly disappeared. After a while, those several shots naturally connected together.

Wu Qiao's "Poetic Talk Around the Fireplace" said: "Poems are valuable for their implicit meaning, especially those who discuss stories without opinions are the best." The artistic charm of Du Mu's poem lies in its implicitness and profoundness. , the poem does not clearly express Xuanzong's lewdness and the imperial concubine's pampering and arrogance, but vividly uses "riding on the red dust" and "concubine's smile" to form a sharp contrast, which achieves a much stronger artistic effect than expressing one's own opinions directly. The three words "concubine laughs" have a profound meaning. In the Spring and Autumn Period, King You of Zhou smiled at Concubine Bo and lit a beacon, which led to the destruction of the country and his death. When reading this, readers can easily relate to this well-known story. The words "no one knows" are also thought-provoking. In fact, "Lychee Comes" is not unknown, at least the "concubine" knows it, "Yi Qi" knows it, and there is an emperor who is not mentioned in the poem who knows it. Written like this, it is intended to indicate that the matter is of great urgency and that outsiders have no way of knowing about it. This not only exposes the absurdity of the emperor doing anything to please his favorite concubine, but also echoes the unusual atmosphere created previously.

The whole poem does not use difficult words, allusions, or elaboration. It is simple and natural, has profound meaning, and is implicit and powerful. It is a masterpiece among the quatrains of the Tang Dynasty.