Following:

Song - Wang Anshi "The Fragrance of Gui Zhi" vernacular translation:

I climbed up to the city tower to look into the distance, the former capital of the Jinling is in the late autumn, the weather has become valiant cool. A thousand miles of Chenggang River looks like a white practice, verdant peaks like arrow clusters towering ahead. Sailboats in the setting sun to and from the shuttle, the west wind, oblique wine flag fluttering in the small streets. The boat is like floating in the light clouds, the egret seems to fly in the Milky Way, the painting brush is also difficult to describe this magnificent scenery.

Reminiscent of the year, the old capital of Jinling how prosperous and magnificent. Lamentable in the Vermilion Bird Gate outside the Jieqi Pavilion, the monarchs of the six dynasties, one by one, one by one, lost. Since ancient times, how many people here in this high nostalgia, all the generations of honor and disgrace sigh sad. The old stories of the six dynasties have faded away with the flowing water, and all that remains is the cold smoke and the green grass. To this day, the merchants still sing the "Houtian Hua" song.

Background:

This poem was probably written by Wang Anshi when he was in Jiangning Prefecture. In the fourth year of Emperor Yingzong's reign (1067), Wang Anshi was first appointed as the governor of Jiangning, and wrote a lot of works about history and antiquity; after the ninth year of Emperor Xining's reign (1076), he was dismissed from the post of prime minister, and was appointed as the governor of Jiangning for the second time. This poem was written during one of these two periods.

As a reformer and thinker, Wang Anshi stood tall and saw far. This poem expresses his dissatisfaction with the social reality of the Northern Song Dynasty through the realization of the lessons of the history of the Six Dynasties, and reveals his sense of worry and danger in peace and security.