Appreciation and translation of the original text of Dai Shulun's "Tuntian Ci"

Tuntian Ci

Year of creation

the Tang Dynasty

? Literary genre

Frontier poems

author

Dai Shulun

abstract

The word "reclamation" describes the people in the border areas who are engaged in labor and unfortunate experiences in extremely difficult and sinister environments, and reflects the tragic fate of farmers who have no choice but to go. Reclaiming farmland means that the government uses soldiers, farmers or businessmen to reclaim wasteland and collect harvest as military pay. This poem describes the scene where landless peasants are recruited by the government to farm and settle in the fields. The first eight sentences are about the sinister environment and natural disasters such as drought and locusts when farmers plow their fields. After a year of hard work, they still have no clothes and food. The empty-handed farmers looked at the southern sky and wept bitterly. Without saying anything, they showed infinite resentment and the poet's sympathy for the peasants. The language of the whole poem is concise and lively, and the sympathy for the unfortunate experience and tragic fate of farmers is beyond words.

Original poem

Spring has come, people use gravel to cultivate land, and old people and young people grow pasture and wheat.

Wheat seedlings grow bitter and sunny, and the soil is really dry [4].

When the grasshopper gets new grain, the young crops will eat all the dead branches.

After catching locusts, you will guard an empty house, with no silk bottles and no millet [5].

In October, I moved to the city [6], and the official taught me to cut down Nanshan wood.

Drive the cows into the mountains, and the frost will freeze them to death.

After all the hardships, who knows, I can't see the tears in the south [7].

Annotation of works

[1] Reclaiming farmland: Since the Han Dynasty, the government has used soldiers, farmers or businessmen to reclaim wasteland and collect the harvest as military pay, which is called "reclaiming farmland". Reclamation areas are divided into military villages, civilian villages and commercial villages. This refers to Mintun. After the Sui Dynasty, "ploughing" was also called "ploughing".

[2] moraine (Qi): desert, sandy land without vegetation.

[3] Old and naive: old people and children, suggesting that young people have gone to the army. Xinxin: Happy.

[4] Indeed: the hard appearance of clods.

[5] bag: pocket. No money: or "no money". Silk and money were used in the Tang Dynasty. Bottle: This refers to pots, altars and other pottery used to store grain.

[6] Move to the wasteland: Leave the wasteland. Xiangcheng: by the city.

[7] Looking at Nantian: The meaning of hope is slim. Look away: far away. Nantian: The ancients thought that God existed. Tell me about my hometown near Guide.

Interpretation of poetry

The structure of Wasteland Ci is complete. Reclaiming farmland is a system for soldiers to participate in agriculture in the Tang Dynasty, which is similar to the current production and construction corps. "The Official History of the Old Tang Dynasty" said, "If there is no place for border guards and transshipment, there will be wasteland." It can be seen that the system of reclaiming farmland is that the soldiers stationed in the frontier solve part of the grain by themselves in the frontier where it is difficult or insufficient to transport grain. But the field is fixed, and the soldiers stationed in the station are constantly changing shifts. Therefore, the labor force in the field is always mobile.

Make an appreciative comment

In the first four sentences of this poem, some soldiers stationed in the station are ploughing fields and planting wheat on the Gobi desert in spring, which is fun for all ages. But when the wheat seedlings grew, it didn't rain, so the land was too dry to hoe. The following four sentences are about the place where millet is planted. When the crops were not ripe, there was a locust plague, and all the seedlings were eaten up by locusts, leaving only orange stems all over the ground. So all the people, old and young, were sent out to drive away the locusts. It was easy to drive them away and go back to their homes without clothes or food. Grains are the general term for grains. Millet, corn, sorghum and rice are all called grains, but this is definitely not rice. The following four sentences describe that these troops have no food in winter and have to move to places close to the city. Life should have been better, but I was sent by the chief to Nanshan to chop wood. So I drove the ox cart into the mountain. In the cold climate with heavy frost and withered grass, cows freeze to death, and people's fate can be imagined. Four of the above * * * 12 sentences are unique, and each sentence uniquely describes the hard life of those soldiers who settled the field. So I ended with two sentences: the troops stationed in the frontier have gone through a lot of hardships, who knows? Looking up at the south sky, I can't go home, only tears fall down.

"Poem of opening up wasteland" is also a frontier poem, but it is different from the frontier poems of poets such as Cen Can and Gao Shi in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Gao, Cen and others are soldiers, journalists or judges guarding the frontier fortress. The frontier life they came into contact with was still the life of the ruling class in the military house. So their theme is nothing more than banquet, farewell, sending the king to the battlefield, or welcoming the king to triumph, and occasionally taking the life of a soldier. No Dai Shulun specifically describes the life of soldiers in the wasteland. Besides, Kaiyuan and Tianbao were the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, and all the officials stationed in the frontier were confident that they could conquer foreign countries by force, so they were all in high spirits and optimistic. The life of a soldier is also worry-free. These situations are reflected in poetry. Apart from missing my hometown and being tired of sandstorm, the overall mood is positive. When I was in Dai Shulun, the country was weak and the border was troubled, and many places became spiteful and Uighur. Officers and men stationed at the border are always on tenterhooks. If the state treasury is empty and the commissary cannot be extended, it is bound to rely more on military reclamation. In case of drought and locust plague, we must move inland. Therefore, the frontier poems in the middle Tang Dynasty are full of sadness. By the late Tang Dynasty, no one had written frontier poems.

Brief introduction of the author

Dai Shulun (732-789), a poet in the Tang Dynasty, was born in Jintan, Runzhou (now Jiangsu). I studied in Shi Ying when I was young. He used to be the viceroy of Xincheng, the viceroy of Dongyang, the secretariat of Fuzhou and the ambassador of Rong Guan. In his later years, he invited a Taoist priest. His poems mostly express seclusion and leisure, but women's trips to plow fields and wasteland ci also reflect the hardships of people's lives. On poetry, it is argued that "the poet's scenery, such as the sunny sky in Lantian, is in sight and cannot be placed before it is imminent". His poetic styles are all involved.