Emotion and philosophy in Wuxi road waterwheel

The poem "Waterwheel on Wuxi Road" was written by the author after seeing the scene of farmers fighting drought and flood in Wuxi, describing the role of waterwheel in drought relief and praising the spirit of farmers fighting against heaven.

The first two sentences, "Open the joint title of the tail crow, and it really is a deboned snake", vividly describe the waterwheel. What is to be described here is a simple pedal waterwheel. The structure of the pedal waterwheel is very delicate. The total length of the waterwheel is more than 5 meters. It is made of pure wood, without even a nail.

The body of the waterwheel is equivalent to a semi-closed long wooden box with openings at both ends, one absorbing water and the other draining water. Inside the wooden box are small square pieces of wood, which are connected to movable wooden connecting rods at equal distances. The two ends of the wooden box have a rotatable thick shaft with wooden gears on it, and the small wooden blocks on the movable wooden connecting rod are embedded between the gears.

When the car is pumping water, the small wooden blocks in the water car will rotate very coherently, and the water will be continuously transported up with the rotation of the wooden blocks. These two sentences describe that when the waterwheel is in the water, the blades turn up and down, which looks like the movement of the crow's head and tail. When the waterwheel is not in the water, it looks like a molting snake bone lying there.

In the last two sentences, "Green waves travel in clouds, and green needles pierce rice buds", the water in the car flows into paddy fields, just like the troops marching in line in wartime, and the inserted seedling tips float on the water surface. When the poet passes through Wuxi, it may be when the weather is dry. "Dongting wants to fly sand in May, just like a play in a cave."

Dongting here refers to Taihu Lake, because the weather was dry in May that year, and the fields around Taihu Lake were cracked, and the soil seemed to be powdery. Catfish roars in the cave, and its voice is crashing, like beating drums in front of the yamen. The salamander is shaped like a lizard, two feet long, with four feet and claws and bright scales. In fact, it is now the Chinese alligator.

It is an amphibian, which lays eggs, hibernates in caves in winter and has a fierce temperament. It lives in rivers and lakes, sleeps in the sun during the day, and comes out at night to prey on mammals and fish and shrimp. The ancients thought that giant salamander was a kind of divine fish, which could fly sideways and smoke. The appearance of giant salamander is often closely related to the astronomical phenomena such as clouds, rain, thunder and electricity, which is consistent with the legendary dragon's ability to call the wind and rain.

"Tiangong didn't see the old man crying, so he called A Xiang to push the mine." Although the old people cried, they didn't see God's mercy coming to the rain to save the people, so they had to stand on their own feet, take out farm tools with cart water and irrigate the fields from the river.