I advise you to drink another glass of wine. There will be no old friends when you leave Yangguan in the west.

From "The Second Envoy of the Yuan Dynasty to Anxi" by Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty

The morning rain in Weicheng is light and dusty, and the guesthouses are green and willows are new.

I advise you to drink another glass of wine. There will be no old friends when you leave Yangguan in the west.

Appreciation

The song "Send Yuan Er Envoy to Anxi" (also known as "Yangguan Song") by Wang Wei (701~761 AD), a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, has been recited through the ages. Popular among the people. The author believes that this poem is a rare poem in the Chinese poetry world. The strange thing is that it is different from ordinary farewell poems; it cleverly relies on the transformation of time and space to create an intriguing farewell atmosphere, achieves shocking artistic appeal, and has a very high artistic conception. However, for thousands of years, literati and scholars have failed to accurately grasp the style of the poem and misinterpreted its meaning, thus reducing its style and taste. This is a poem about sending a friend to the Western Regions to protect the frontier. Anxi is the abbreviation of the Duhufu established by the central government of the Tang Dynasty to govern the Western Regions. In Wang Wei's era, various ethnic conflicts intensified, and the Tang Dynasty was constantly invaded by Tibet from the west and Turks from the north. In the twenty-fifth year of Kaiyuan (737), Cui Dayi, the deputy ambassador of Hexi Jiedu, defeated Tubo. Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty ordered Wang Wei to go to the fortress as a censor to express condolences and inspect the military situation. Along the way, he wrote "Envoy to the Fortress" , "Out of the Fortress" and other famous frontier fortress novels. "Yangguan Song" is a work written by Wang Wei in his later years. Its creation date is estimated to be after the "Anshi Rebellion". According to "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" in July of the first year of De De (756), it is recorded: "The expedition to Hexi and Anxi soldiers went out"; In February of the second year of Zhide, it was recorded: "On the tenth day of Fengxiang, soldiers from Longyou, Hexi, Anxi, and the Western Regions will all gather." Therefore, it is known that after the "Anshi Rebellion" broke out, a large number of frontier soldiers were transferred from within. This poem was written when sending off friends and was about to go to Anxi. Other poems written at the same time include "Send off Zhang Panguan to Hexi" and "Send off Liu Si to go to Anxi". wait. Undoubtedly, when he bid farewell to his friends and was about to leave, the poet would not fail to consider the impact that the war would have on them in the future. The first two sentences of the poem describe the scenery of farewell, depicting ordinary scenery, but full of poetic charm. Three or four sentences express a deep affection for a friend. However, in some authoritative dictionaries and textbooks, the latter two sentences are interpreted as follows: "Friend, if you drink another drink and go out of the sun, you will never see your old friends again..." The author I think that such an explanation is obviously subjective and arbitrary, and it does not truly reflect the deep meaning that Wang Wei wanted to express in this sentence, let alone the beauty of the expression of these two sentences. First of all, with such a simple and straightforward explanation, this poem seems to have no new ideas, and is nothing special compared with his similar works of this period. It can only be regarded as a very ordinary farewell poem, which is different from It is obviously inconsistent with the title that later generations have always praised it as the "final work" of Tang poetry. There must be some other hidden meaning in it, but we have not paid attention to it and unearthed it; secondly, this is a send-off poem. Poems about friends going to guard the frontier. Faced with the cruelty and ruthlessness of war, poets who have visited the frontier know quite well, "How many people have fought in ancient times"! It is generally impossible for him to say "you will never see your old friend again" to hurt his friends and offend the prophecy of the poem - this is too unreasonable; besides, from the meaning of the poem itself, friends do not necessarily You can't see the poet until you leave "Yangguan", and you can't see the poet after you leave "Weicheng"? In fact, even if a friend really arrives in Anxi, the border area, he can still meet "old friends" from his hometown. For example, Cen Shen wrote in the poem "A Night Gathering with the Judges in the Liangzhou Pavilion": "There are many old friends in Hexi Muzhong, Farewell, old friends, in the spring of March and May." So, what is the special meaning of the word "Yangguan" in this poem? The author believes that the poet actually used these two sentences to reverse the narrative (i.e., the "flashback" of the narrative theme) and combined it with the elliptical writing technique to guide the reader's thoughts to follow the young friend to the frontier, and then go through all kinds of hardships and dangers, and finally return triumphantly. When I return, "I" - the current farewell person is probably no longer alive due to old age and illness... The historical truth is that the poet really died less than six years after seeing his friend off (in 761). Passed away forever! We have no way of knowing whether they could meet again later, but these two lines of Wang Wei's poems, "The breeze and the bright moon miss each other bitterly, and the prodigal son has been serving as a soldier for more than ten years." can somewhat reflect his friend's long military career and the helplessness of the misser. Therefore, the phrase "leaving Yangguan in the west" in the poem does not mean that the friend walked out of Yangguan soon, but should refer to the fact that the friend will pass through "Yangguan" when he completes the mission and returns successfully in the future.

For a long time, "going out of Yangguan in the west" has been simply understood as friends walking out of Yangguan, but here it is a real "pun": it has two completely different scenes according to the development order of time and space. The first The picture "Going out of Yangguan in the west" means that the friends just walked out of Yangguan during the journey. Weicheng is in the east and Yangguan is in the west. It means "going out to the west". Most people hold this view; the other picture "Going out in the west" "Yangguan" means that the friend left Yangguan when he returned triumphantly after completing his mission after going through many hardships. Weicheng is still in the east and Yangguan is still in the west, but it means "coming out to the west". The poet's original intention is in this way. It can be seen that ordinary people misunderstand that friends come out from the west as "going out from the west"! It is not difficult to understand that facing the vast and unknown future after separation, the poet can't help but arouse the poet's boundless reverie. Once this kind of thoughts transcends time, space and individuals, it will produce an exciting artistic conception with unparalleled shocking power. The poet is It is for this purpose that time and space have been successfully transformed and compressed. It must be pointed out that Yangguan, located at the western end of the Hexi Corridor, opposite Yumenguan to the north, has been the passage from the mainland to the Western Regions since the Han Dynasty, and it has also been a military fortress. The area outside "Yumen Pass" is basically the sphere of influence of the Turks, while the area inside "Yang Pass" completely belongs to the territory of the Tang Dynasty. In the poet's opinion, only when the friend can walk out of the "Yang Pass" in the future can it truly show that he has returned safely. We can find from the poem "Yangguan Sandie" of Dashi tune in "Yangchun Baixueji" of the Yuan Dynasty that the ancients have always interpreted it this way: "...Don't worry, I advise you to drink another glass of wine, I am afraid that when you leave Yangguan in the west, the old Traveling like a dream, there is no old friend in front of me. I am afraid that when I leave Yangguan in the west, there is no old friend in front of me..." Therefore, the accurate and complete interpretation of this poem should be like this:

Friends

Please Drink this glass of wine again

When you return in triumph in the future

When you leave Yangguan in the west

I’m afraid you won’t be able to see me again

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Only this

The drizzle in Weicheng

The green guest houses

And the willows dancing in the wind

It will be like today

I will be waiting here

Look! This doesn't look like a poet saying goodbye to a friend. This is clearly a friend saying goodbye to a poet! The poet Wang Wei skillfully used this reverse writing technique, and with the help of the transformation of time and space, he tightly combined the safety of the country, the cruelty of war, the friendship of friends, and the shortness of life, and the scenes blended together. , reaching a shocking artistic appeal. In fact, this grammatical structure has been used many times in Wang Wei's poems. For example, in "Remembering the Brothers in Shandong on September 9th", the two sentences "I know from afar that the brothers have climbed to the heights, planting dogwood everywhere and one less person" are from another perspective. It expresses the poet's longing for his relatives; in the poem "Farewell in the Mountains", which has the same tune as "Yangguan Song", we can also understand the poet's ingenuity in this aspect: "Let's see each other off in the mountains, the sunset will cover the firewood. "The spring grass will be green next year, and the kings and grandsons will never return." Wang Wei's grammatical skills even inspired later poets. For example, in Bai Juyi's poem "Handan Winter Solstice Homesickness", "If you want to sit at home late at night, you should also talk about people who have traveled far away." It is not difficult to feel was influenced by him. Re-understanding the importance of Wang Wei's "Yangguan Song" makes us strongly feel again: as a poet, only by closely connecting personal destiny with the rise and fall of the country can he create great works of that era. . The poet Wang Wei clearly understood the ruthlessness of war, and also knew that his friend's expedition was a narrow escape, and he also understood that this separation may mean farewell forever. But he still blessed his friends, looking forward to their safe return, and hoping that the country would move towards peace and prosperity - even though he might not be able to wait for that day... "I urge you to drink another glass of wine", this wine is not only soaked in It reflects the poet's deep friendship for his friends, and also contains his best wishes for peace and tranquility in the country! ——This is the charm of "Yangguan Song" that has been sung for thousands of years!