"Looking at Lushan Waterfall" Tang Li Bai

Since ancient times, Lushan Mountain has been favored by literati and Moshi. Sima Qian, a famous historian in the Western Han Dynasty, once visited Lushan Mountain and was intoxicated by the beautiful scenery of Xianglu Peak shrouded in smog. Famous poems; during the Tang Dynasty, poets such as Meng Haoran, Li Bai, Zhang Ji, Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Xu Ning also came here to visit Lushan Mountain and left poems. However, the most famous poem describing Mount Lu is Li Bai's "Looking at the Waterfall of Mount Lu".

Wanglu Mountain Waterfall

Tang Li Bai

Sunshine censer produces purple smoke,

Looking at the waterfall hanging in the front of the river.

Flying down three thousand feet,

It is suspected that the Milky Way falls for nine days.

[Format] Seven character quatrains

[Famous sentence] Flying down three thousand feet, it is suspected that the Milky Way falls nine days.

[Keynote] Waterfall Praise (Landscape Poetry)

[age] unknown

【Translation】

Wanglu Mountain Waterfall

Looking at Lushan Waterfall from a distance

Sunshine censer produces purple smoke,

The sun shines on the censer peak, producing curls of purple smoke,

Looking at the waterfall hanging in the front of the river.

From a distance, the waterfall looks like a white chain hanging in front of the mountain.

Flying down three thousand feet,

Like a 3,000-foot current rushing straight down,

It is suspected that the Milky Way falls for nine days.

Could it be that the Milky Way falls from the nine heavens to the world.

【Comment】

Look: To see from a distance.

Mount Lu: Located in the northern part of Jiangxi Province, it borders the Yangtze River in the north and Poyang Lake in the east. It stretches for 25 kilometers, with beautiful scenery and pleasant climate. It was a famous tourist attraction in ancient times and an ideal place to live in seclusion.

Incense burner: that is, incense burner peak, located in the northwest of Lushan Mountain, got its name because it looks like an incense burner and the mountain is often shrouded in clouds and smoke.

Chuan: A flowing river, here is a description of a waterfall.

Straight: Straight, describing the steepness of a mountain.

Three thousand feet: 1 foot = 0.3333333 meters, three thousand feet is converted to 1000 meters, which describes the height of the mountain. This is an exaggeration, not a real point.

Doubt: Doubt.

Milky Way: The ancients referred to the banded constellations formed by the Milky Way.

Nine days: extremely high. The ancients believed that the sky has nine layers, and the nine days are the highest level of the sky, and the nine layers of heaven are the highest places in the sky. This sentence expresses the huge drop of the waterfall.

【Creative background】

It is unknown when this poem was composed.

One theory is that it was written around the thirteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong's Kaiyuan (725, Li Bai was 25 years old). The poet Li Bai left the Anlu area of ​​Hubei, where he had always lived, and went south to visit Jinling, Yangzhou and other places. On the way, he passed by Mount Lu in Jiujiang, Jiangxi. , Because of the name of Lushan Mountain for a long time, he specially climbed the mountain and wrote this famous song "Wanglushan Waterfall", and also wrote "Wanglushan Wulaofeng".

Another way of saying it is a landscape poem written by the fifty-year-old Li Bai and his wife Zongshi when they came to Lushan Mountain to live in seclusion after the Anshi Rebellion broke out.

【Appreciation】

This poem vividly depicts the majestic and magnificent scenery of Lushan Waterfall, reflecting the poet's infinite love for the great rivers and mountains of the motherland.

This poem uses metaphors, exaggeration and imagination extremely successfully. Su Dongpo admired this poem very much, saying that "the emperor sent the Milky Way down the line, and in ancient times there are only the words of banishing immortals". "Looking at Lushan Waterfall" is indeed an example of describing scenery and expressing emotions.

The first sentence "Rizhao incense burner produces purple smoke", "censer" is the name of the peak in the north of Lushan Mountain, because the smoke surrounds the top of the mountain, and its shape is similar to the incense burner. This sentence means that the sun shines on the incense burner peak, producing purple smoke. Why purple smoke instead of white smoke or black smoke? Is it because the name of this mountain is the incense burner, so the purple smoke comes out? of course not! There are several explanations: Some people think that the sun's rays interweave with the blue sky and clouds to show purple smoke; The rainbow looks like a purple smoke from a distance. Does this make sense? All make sense. But there is another very important reason, and that is the belief in Taoism. Li Bai grew up in Sichuan, which is one of the important birthplaces of ancient Taoism. Li Bai was deeply influenced by Taoism since he was a child, and even became a "certified" professional Taoist. "Xie", which means that since the age of fifteen, I have been fond of seeking immortals and visiting Taoism, and I haven't stopped until now. In fact, not only Li Bai, but the entire Tang Dynasty believed in Taoism. Taoism was the state religion of the Tang Dynasty. From the emperor to the common people, everyone believed in Taoism, and many people still had the status of Taoist priests. Taoism advocates purple. The so-called "purple air comes from the east" means that Laozi came to Hangu Pass from the east at that time. Some people said that purple air came from the east when viewed from a distance. Auspicious and noble. In Li Bai's poems, there are many intentions such as "purple smoke", such as "the fire shines on the sky and the earth, the red star shines on the purple smoke", "plain hands hold (jū) green mist, Luo Yi drags (yè) purple smoke", etc., these are all It has something to do with Taoist activities, so Li Bai said in this poem that "the sun shines on the censer to produce purple smoke". On the one hand, there may be purple smoke rising, and on the other hand, it may be due to Taoist beliefs. The word "sheng" in this poem is particularly well used. The poet Du Mu of the late Tang Dynasty said in his "Mountain Journey" that "there is a slanting stone path on the cold mountain in the distance, and there are people in the place where the white clouds grow." There is a meaning of rising here. The purple smoke rising slowly in the incense burner peak is very dynamic. Moreover, the rising purple smoke also creates a hazy and mysterious aesthetic feeling, which makes a beautiful foreshadowing for the appearance of the waterfall behind. .

The second sentence is "Looking at the waterfall from a distance and hanging in front of the river", the waterfall is like a white chain hanging in front of the mountain, which is the feeling of looking at the waterfall from a distance. I believe that if you have seen the Chinese paintings of waterfalls, you will definitely feel this way. Although the waterfall is rushing and pouring down, it looks like a huge white cloth hanging high on the cliff from a distance. Li Bai used his superb imagination to turn movement into stillness, expressing what others cannot express. A "hanging" character (instead of "hanging", "passing", "down", "hanging", etc.) is used very well, with full realm, great momentum, full of dynamics, and strong visual impact. Dictionary Fan.

The metaphor and imagination in the last two sentences are even more exaggerated! "Flying down three thousand feet, it is suspected that the Milky Way falls nine days", Li Bai turned the picture from static to dynamic image of the waterfall. "Fei Liu" describes the speed of the waterfall; "straight down" describes the direction of the waterfall, which indirectly reflects the steepness of the cliff; and "three thousand feet" is the height and momentum of the waterfall. However, is the waterfall on Mount Lu really three thousand feet long? of course not. The main peak of Lushan Mountain is Dahanyang Peak (Baidu Encyclopedia: Dahanyang Peak is located in the south of Guling Street, Lushan Mountain, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province. It is the highest peak in Lushan Mountain, with an altitude of 1474 meters. Although it is not as dangerous as Wulaofeng Peak, it is majestic, tall and magnificent. ), is more than 1400 meters high, and there are more than 20 waterfalls on Lushan Mountain. The most famous and longest waterfall is probably Sandiequan Waterfall, with a drop of more than 150 meters. The "three thousand feet" in Li Bai's poem is converted to 1000 meters. Domi, that is to say, the waterfall of Lushan Mountain is almost as long as the main peak of Lushan Mountain, which is almost impossible. So, Li Bai is really an exaggeration! You know, when Li Bai is emotional, he especially likes to use exaggerated numbers! For example, "The white hair is three thousand feet long, and the fate is like a long one", "The water in the Peach Blossom Pond is a thousand feet deep, and it is not as good as Wang Lun's love for me", "The long wind blows tens of thousands of miles, and it blows across the Yumen Pass", "The big roc rises with the same wind in one day and soars upwards. Ninety thousand miles"... So this "three thousand feet" is Li Bai's exaggerated way to show people the unstoppable and infinite power of the waterfall.

So, why did Li Bai dare to say "three thousand feet"? Some scholars once explained it this way: because Li Bai was young. If this poem was written by Li Bai when he first came out of Shu, it was probably written in the thirteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, around 725 AD. At this time, Li Bai was just about 25 years old. Starting from my hometown in Sichuan, I traveled eastward along the river, visiting famous mountains and rivers, and visiting celebrities and scholars. The purpose is to see the world, to gain fame, and to realize my lofty ambition of "the emperor's teacher"! Therefore, in the eyes of the young Li Bai, the scenery of Mount Lu is not only the natural scenery, but also Li Bai's youthful demeanor. Therefore, this is a poem of youth. It is impossible to say one thing about the poems of youth. The poems of youth are heroic and exaggerated! Of course, the reasonableness of this explanation is based on the premise that this article was written when Li Bai first came out of Shu. Otherwise, we can only explain that this is "Li Bai's style"!

Moreover, he didn't think it was enough, and finally added a genius metaphor that only the "banished immortal" Li Taibai could have, "It is suspected that the Milky Way falls nine days". Since the word "Galaxy" came into being, who would have thought of using "Galaxy" How can this beautiful word bestowed by human beings on the stars be used as a metaphor for the natural landscape on the earth? How elegant, free and easy, and full of fairy spirit is this sentence "it is suspected that the Milky Way falls nine days", it seems that the whole Lushan Mountain has also become a fairy mountain, a mountain in the sky! Finally, Li Bai specially added the word "suspected", which added a kind of trance and inexplicable mystery to the whole poem. Then, Shixian put down the pen, and the poem stopped abruptly, leaving Readers have unlimited imagination.

When playing chess, there is a saying that there is a saying that you can meet your opponent. Facing the uncanny workmanship of Lushan Waterfall, probably only Li Bai, the "banished immortal", can match it. It inspired the imagination and exaggerated metaphors of poetic geniuses and wrote this The eloquent and thrilling work of the ages has become the best work describing waterfalls in history. Later, Xu Ning, a poet in the mid-Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem "Lushan Waterfall". He said, "Falling from the void into the spring, the thunder rushes into the river without stopping. The present and ancient times are as long as Bai Lianfei, and a boundary breaks the green mountains." It cannot be said Xu Ning's poem is poorly written, but unfortunately Li Bai's is written first. Su Dongpo, who is also a genius, also admired Li Bai's poem very much. He once wrote a special poem to praise this poem, saying that "the emperor sent the Milky Way to hang down, and there is only the word banishing immortals in ancient times". The evaluation of "Lushan Waterfall" was a bit harsh. He said, "How much do you know about flying and splashing foam, and don't wash bad poems with Xu Ning." And Su Shi himself left a famous Lushan poem ------ "Title" "Xilinbi" "Looking horizontally as mountains and peaks on the other side, the distance and height are different. I don't know the true face of Lushan Mountain, but I just live in this mountain." It is also a poem about Lushan Mountain. Li Bai's poems make people feel "fascinated". , I especially want to see the waterfall in Lushan Mountain; and Su Shi's poems make us think about life. We say that "Tang poetry emphasizes love, Song poetry emphasizes rationale", which is actually the difference in temperament between Tang people and Song people, and the difference in the temperament of the two dynasties. Li Bai and Su Shi, the two greatest poets of Tang and Song, happened to be in the Lushan, a common place, interprets the different aesthetics of Tang poetry and Song poetry for us, and the different realms of life temperament.