Fan Zhongyan

The scenery is strange when autumn comes in the fortress, but the geese in Hengyang leave without paying attention. Sounds echoed from all sides. Thousands of miles away, the smoke sets and the sun sets, solitary city closed.

A glass of dirty wine can lead to a home thousands of miles away, but there is no plan to return home before it is too late. Qiang Guan is covered with frost all over the ground. When a man is sleepless, the general's hair turns gray and his husband weeps.

Appreciation

This poem by Fan Zhongyan, a famous official of the Song Dynasty, was written when he led his troops to the northwest border to quell the Xixia rebellion. These are two works that are controversial in terms of evaluation. Ouyang Xiu once called him a poem about the impoverished leader. The general idea is that as a coach, he does not express his heroic and generous feelings, but writes about the desolate and melancholy scenes outside the fortress and his longing for home. is bad. In "Guitian Poetry", Qu You on the one hand used his own life experience to prove that this poem indeed describes the scenery outside the Great Wall; on the other hand, he also said: "It is appropriate for a commander-in-chief to utter this sentence, which means that morale is low and there is no success." It is an evaluation from the perspective of political education. Other critics praised it, saying it was written in a "serious and majestic way" and "has the potential to displace", and "to this day, I still read it with dignity and vitality". Mr. Xia Chengtao praised this poem for its "rich emotion and broad spirit."

The author believes that the aesthetic value of any poem is composed of multiple artistic functions. This song "Proud of the Fisherman" is not based on a military expedition, but is about the frontier soldiers' nostalgia for their hometown. Therefore, it cannot be measured rigidly by political standards, but should be measured by artistic standards. Its artistic function and artistic power lie in lyrical depiction of scenery, but even if it is politically required, the meaning of this word is not negative. The sentence "Yan Ran has no plans to return without stopping" is the most essential ideological highlight of this poem. Yanran Mountain is now Hangai Mountain. During the Later Han Dynasty, General Dou Xian pursued the Xiongnu and climbed Yanran Mountain to carve a stele (stone) to commemorate his achievements. The old general with a frosty head in the poem has wiped away his tears of homesickness. In the conflict between loving his family and serving his country, he prioritizes border defense and military affairs. He fulfilled his duties faithfully and did not make any meritorious deeds on the frontier. Although he was homesick at times, he had no intention of returning. How can you turn a blind eye to such a loyal heart?

The top line of the poem focuses on the scenery. The scenery is different when autumn comes, and the wild geese leave without paying attention. This is an allusion of the wild geese returning to Hengyang to reflect people's longing for home outside the Great Wall. Why do you want to return home? Is it because you are disgusted with the frontier life and ignore the safety of the country? No. Instead, the shrill horns of the border guards and the howling of wolves all around were chilling. What's more, the sunset is thousands of meters high, the mountains are locked in long smoke, and the isolated city is closed. How can this scene not make people miss the warmth of their hometown? Human beings are not grass and trees, so who can be ruthless. It is natural for a veteran who has been guarding the border for a long time to miss his relatives and hometown. "Thousands of miles away, the long smoke sets and the sun sets over the lonely city." This sentence is the most successful. In just 10 words, it outlines a magnificent and vast dusk scene of the frontier fortress.

The purpose of writing scenes is to express emotions. Therefore, at the beginning of the poem, "A cup of wine can lead to a home thousands of miles away, but there is no plan to return home before it is over." Maojiu is originally a milky white rice wine, and here it also implies a heavy mood. Why is my mood so heavy? Because I want to go home but I can’t. If the success of peace and chaos has not been achieved, how can one go to the court and meet the people? "There is no way to return" means that there is no possibility of having the best of both worlds. In this conflicting mood, the distant Qiang flute played loudly, making it difficult for the soldiers to fall asleep. They had to think about their hometown thousands of miles away, and their relatives in their hometown may also be looking forward to the white-haired man. "When a man is sleepless, the general's gray hair and husband's tears", these 10 words are gripping and express the complex feelings of deep concern and patriotism.

This song "Proud of the Fisherman" is by no means a word that demoralizes the fighting spirit. It truly expresses the true feelings of the border guards who miss their hometown, love their motherland even more, and are determined to defend the motherland. When he was young, Fan Zhongyan once advocated the lofty spirit of "worry about the world's worries first, and rejoice after the world's happiness" in his article "Yueyang Tower". Isn’t the white-haired old general in the poem a vivid portrayal of this noble spirit? Ouyang Xiu's negative evaluation of this poem is very unfair. Huang Liaoyuan said that it "reads vigorously and vigorously", which is quite interesting.