Sunset Images in Classical Poetry

Analysis of "Sunset" Image in Classical Poetry

First, homesick.

The image of "sunset" can be traced back to the "gentleman's service" in the Book of Songs: "A chicken lives in a nest. In the evening, the cattle and sheep came down. My husband is serving in the distance, teach me how to think about him? " Chickens live in valerian. At the end of the night, all the cattle and sheep gathered around. A gentleman in service, not hungry or thirsty? "When the sun goes down, chickens, cows and sheep return to their nests. When will the closest person come back? The wife's deep thoughts about her husband are beyond words. In the face of reality, she turned her helpless thoughts into a deep blessing to her husband, hoping that her husband who was guarding the frontier would not be hungry and thirsty. This poem laid the theme that "sunset" contains homesickness and nostalgia for people. Wen's Dream of Jiangnan inherits this tradition: "After all, it is nothing, and Twilight is full of water. Broken-hearted Baipingzhou. "Poetry expresses women's longing from hope to disappointment and even" heartbreak "implicitly, delicately and profoundly. Li Bai's Farewell to Friends: "I will think of you in the clouds, so think of me in the sunset. "It not only depicts the beauty of the sunset slowly descending the mountain, but also subtly reflects the feelings of being reluctant to part with friends.

The sunset contains acacia, and it is more homesick than caring about people. Cui Hao, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, boarded the Yellow Crane Tower and saw the dusk. The poet couldn't see his hometown as far as he could see, and he felt lost. So he had "Only I look at my home, and the twilight is getting dark?" Sigh at Jiang Lang with a sad mist. In "Homesickness" written by Li Gou, a poet in the Song Dynasty, "People say that the sunset is the end of the world, and and heaven remains our neighbourhood can't see the hometown", which triggers homesickness by watching the sunset, expressing the disappointment that the sunset is visible and the hometown is hard to find. Wang Yucheng's "Thousands of valleys are full of sounds, and several peaks are silent sunsets" and Ma Zhiyuan's "Sunset, heartbroken people are at the end of the world" are among the best.

Second, the tranquility of leisure and seclusion

Because of the darkness of society, ancient literati could not realize the ideal of governing the country and leveling the world, and often returned to the mountains to find their spiritual home in nature. They have a sense of closeness to birds and animals returning to their nests in the sunset, so they often describe the scene of birds returning to their nests at dusk to show the unique pleasure of seclusion. In these works, "sunset" often becomes a sustenance of the author's emotions, which pushes the inner peace and serenity of the poet to the extreme.

The most famous is Tao Yuanming's Drinking: "Under the hedge of picking chrysanthemums, you can see Nanshan leisurely." The mountains are getting better and better, and the birds are back. "The poet leisurely picked chrysanthemums under the hedge and looked up at the mountains. In the beautiful evening, the birds flew back to the mountains together, and everything was free and easy. The poet himself became a part of the sunset scenery. The poet expressed his feelings of living in harmony with nature and returning to nature with a calm seclusion mentality, and his leisurely mood was in harmony with the beauty of nature.

Wang Wei, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, also wrote: "The mountains are cold and blue, and the source of autumn water. At the door of my thatched cottage, leaning on my cane, I listened to the cicadas singing in the evening breeze. Sunset lingers at the ferry, and the smoke from supper rises from the house. Oh, when will I make a wish to the great hermit again and sing a wild poem under five willows? The poet put "Cold Mountain", "Autumn Water", "Chai Men", "Watou", "Ruili" and "Wuliu" in the setting sun, expressing the beauty of mountains and rivers and the interest of seclusion. Wang Wei's "Wei Shui Nong Jia" is also a masterpiece: "The setting sun shines on the ruins, and the cattle and sheep return home in the lane. A rugged old man in a thatched door leaned against a cane and thought about his son, the shepherd boy. There are whistling pheasants? Full ears of wheat, sleeping silkworms and peeled mulberry leaves. Jojo and Fu Tian greet each other cordially. No wonder I long for a simple life and sigh the old song, oh, back to the past! "Cattle and sheep return, old people lean on sticks, wheat seedlings spit out, mulberry leaves are sparse, and Fu Tian hoes ... These early summer scenery are very common, but put them in the sunset, and the afterglow of the sunset will dye the world golden. Faced with such a picture of Tian Jia coming home late, the feeling of seclusion arises spontaneously.

Hermit poetry pays attention to the creation of artistic conception and pursues the harmony between man and nature. Liu Changqing's "lotus brings sunset, and the green hills are getting farther and farther away" is free and easy, Wei Yan's "flowing pond is full of spring water, and the luxurious house is dying" is elegant, and Lin Hejing's "autumn sometimes flies alone, and the sunset has nothing to do with cold smoke" is deep and deep, all of which skillfully use the image of "sunset" to create a quiet and refined far-reaching artistic conception.

Third, the magnificent desolation

There are often "sunset" images in desolate and magnificent frontier poems. Wang Wei, a great poet, famously said, "The desert is lonely and the long river sets the yen", which was called "the wonders of the ages" by Wang Guowei. The golden sunset shines on the endless desert and the surging Yellow River, which is the most magnificent spectacle in nature, colorful and magnificent, expressing the vigorous vitality of the people in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Du Fu's Five Poems on the Back Embankment (the second part), "The sun is falling and the wind is whispering in A?vagho?a", depicts a picture of the sunset marching in the wild, and the wind is intertwined with Ma Si. As the sun sets, banners are hunting, horses are ringing and the wind is rustling, showing a desolate and solemn marching scene. Does the author still have hidden worries about national luck in the boundless desolation?

In Wang Changling's torii the Heron, the poem "The mountains cover the daytime, and the sea sheds the golden river" describes the poet's broad mind and vision. The setting sun holds the mountain, and the clouds cover the fog. At this time, the already weakened glow of the sun shows the wonders of "heaven". The Yellow River is like a golden ribbon, flying among the mountains. What the poet presented to him was a magnificent picture.

Fourth, the vicissitudes of life are sentimental.

Spring is fleeting, sunset is hard to stay, and poets without talent often have the pain of wasting their time. This sense of hardship, based on the short beauty of dusk and short life, lingered in their hearts for a long time and became an important embodiment of the tragic consciousness of ancient China poets. Sunset is mostly used by susceptible literati, which embodies the deep and sad sense of hardship such as fleeting time, helplessness in life, frustration in official career and vicissitudes.

"The new word is a glass of wine. Last year, the weather was old. When does the sun go down? " Yan Shu's "Huanxisha" is full of desire to realize personal value. In the long journey of pursuing the ideal of life, the time consciousness represented by the sunset and the poet's individual life consciousness are always contradictory and intertwined, and the fall of the sunset makes the poet feel the shortness and helplessness of life. Li Shangyin also sighed because he couldn't keep good things: "to see the sun, for all his glory was buried in the coming night." This is also his lofty sigh for the natural scene in the sunset, his bumpy life and his era.

Things are changing and nature is eternal. "Sunset" is often regarded as the witness of history and reappears again and again in nostalgic poems. Liuyuxi's Wuyi Lane, "Weeds bloom beside Zhuque Bridge, and the sun sets at the entrance of Wuyi Lane", Wang Anshi's "Gui Zhi Xiang Jin Mausoleum Nostalgia" and "Sail to the sunset and lean on the west wind wine flag" all express the feelings of facing the eternal nature, "The past goes with the water, and the cold smoke fades the grass green". "Grass trees in the sunset, ordinary alleys, and slaves sent by humans live there." Xin Qiji's "Forever Happiness, Gubei Pavilion in Jingkou Nostalgia" also laments the vicissitudes of life that cannot be faced directly in the rolling torrent of history through the afterglow of the sunset.

Five, lament the decline of national luck.

Sunset is completely different from the first sunrise, which contains desolation and pessimism, just like Li Shangyin's poem "to see the sun, for all his glory, buried in the coming night". Especially in the late Tang Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, the last poets often used the image of "sunset" to express the pain and helplessness of the decline of national luck.

Zhu Dunru, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote "Welcome to Joy": "The west wing of Jinling City leans against the clear autumn. Sunset in Wan Li, big rivers. There was chaos in the Central Plains, and the tassels were scattered. When are they collected? Try Qian Hengtai blowing tears across Yangzhou. " The background of this poem is very open. Sunset on the mountain reflects the vast land of Wan Li, and the Yangtze River flows eastward. Although the writing is heroic, the bottom of the pen contains sadness. The word "Hangzhou" vividly describes the scene of the setting sun, which reminds people of the current situation of the decline of the national power and the decline of rivers in the Southern Song Dynasty. Xin Qiji's "The sunset is on the roof, the sound is broken, there are wanderers in the south of the Yangtze River" and "The night on the river is sad, and the mountains are deep in the smell of partridges" have the same effect.

Year after year, the sun always sets in the west and rises in the east. It seems that it will never change, but life rises and falls and things change. Because of this, in the works of passionate poets, it is lovely, sighing and sad with its rich connotation. Sometimes it is the melancholy of homesickness when people come home at dusk; Sometimes serene and quiet, away from secular leisure; Sometimes open and vigorous, magnificent and desolate; Sometimes it is the passage of time, the sad sadness of life; Sometimes it is also the witness of vicissitudes, the change of right and wrong. Let's step into the jungle of poetry and savor its rich and profound meaning!