The cicada symbolized resurrection and immortality in ancient China, a symbolism that comes from its life cycle: it starts out as a larva, then becomes a cicada pupa on the ground, and finally becomes a flying insect.

The image of the cicada as a larva was first seen on Shang Dynasty bronzes dating back to 2000 B.C. In funerals from the late Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, a jade cicada was always put into the mouth of the deceased to seek refuge and eternal life, and since it was believed that cicadas lived on dew, it was also a symbol of purity.

Related Ancient Poems:

Locke Binwang of the Tang Dynasty - "Singing Cicadas in Prison"

The cicadas sang in the western land, and the guest in the southern crown thought y.

It is unbearable to see the shadows on my temples, and I come to sing to the white heads.

It is difficult to fly in the heavy dew, and it is easy to sink in the wind.

No one believes in purity.

Translation: The cicadas chirped mournfully in the fall, and I, as a prisoner, could not help but feel a burst of sadness. Although I am less than forty years old is already full of gray hair, which can still withstand that like a woman's black hair like cicadas wailing invasion. Autumn dew heavy, even if the cicadas spread wings are difficult to fly high, cold wind, easily drowned out its singing. Although the cicadas live in the high food clean, and who can believe in my innocence, on behalf of me to express the grievances of the heart?

Expanded Information

This poem was written in the midst of difficulties, the author sang the cicada's high and pure character, the cicada than Xing, the cicada allegory of their own, allegory of feelings in the object, the trust is far from the depth of the cicadas, cicadas and people as one, expressing the poet's high and pure character, but "by the time emblems of cordiality" of the grief and sadness, expressing the identification of innocence, the truth is that the cicada has been the most important thing. It expresses the desire to identify the innocent and to clear up the injustice.

The whole poem is full of emotion, clear and precise analogies, the use of natural allusions, language and meaning, to achieve the realm of the object and I as one, is a masterpiece of aria poetry.

The poem is preceded by a preface, and some anthologies of Tang poetry tend to record only the poem, but discard the preface. In fact, this preface and the poem is an organic whole, the poem in the metaphor, that is, natural objects and personification of the fit, is to preface of the narrative as a prerequisite for direct speech. In order to understand the two together, we must read the preface of the poem.