Composition Background

This poem was written in the first year of Tianbao (742), when Wang Changling was the prime minister of Jiangning. Xin Jian was a friend of Wang Changling, and this time he intended to cross the river from Runzhou, take the route of Yangzhou, and go north to Luoyang. Wang Changling probably accompanied him from Jiangning to Runzhou and then parted here. The original title of this poem **** two songs, the second one talks about the poet's farewell for Xin Jian at Furong Lou on the first night, and this one is about the farewell at the riverside on the next morning.

Sending off Xin Jian at Hibiscus Tower

Author Wang Changling? Dynasty Tang

Translation Comparison

The cold rain is entering Wu at night, and the guests are being sent to Chushan alone at Pingming.

If my friends and relatives in Luoyang ask for help, a piece of the heart of ice is in a jade pot.

Translation

Misty rain, all night long, sprinkled all over the rivers and skies of Wu Di; early in the morning to send you away, alone on the mountains of Chu with infinite sadness! My friend, if my friends and relatives in Luoyang ask me about me; tell them that I still have an ice heart and a jade pot, and that I keep my faith!

Expanded Information:

"Hibiscus Tower Sends Xin Jian" Appreciation:

The poet's self-reference to the crystal clear ice and jade pot in this case is based on the true understanding and trust between him and his friends and relatives in Luoyang. It is based on the true understanding and trust between him and his poets and friends in Luoyang, which is by no means a confession to clear the name of slander, but a self-reputation to defy it. Therefore, the poet from the clear and flawless, clear and empty bottom of the jade pot to bring out a bright and pure heart of ice to comfort friends, which is more than any lovesick words can express his deep feelings for friends and relatives in Luoyang.

It is the same feature of the Sheng Tang poetry that the feelings are in the scene, while the deep and rich, gentle and soothing, "all thanks to the traces of the furnace hammer" (Hu Yinglin's "Poetry Serval") is the unique style of Wang's poetry. The vast river rain and the lonely mountains of Chu not only emphasize the cold and loneliness of the poet's farewell, but also show the poet's open-mindedness and strong character.

Standing in the middle of the river and the lonely mountain and the ice heart in the jade pot than the image of the formation of a kind of intentionally or unintentionally, people naturally associated with the poet's lonely and proud, the image of the ice and jade, so that the exquisite conception and the intention of the deep melted in a clear and clear mood, so natural and mellow, without a trace, implicitly, and the aftermath of the rhyme is infinite.

The biography of Wang Changling in the New Book of Tang says, "His poems are dense and clear". Most of his stanzas are characterized by this feature, and this one is no exception, especially the two lines of "Luoyang friends and relatives, a piece of the heart of ice in a jade pot", which are meticulous and precise, and give people a sense of ice and jade.

"A piece of ice in a jade pot", that is, the so-called "self-explanatory ambition". One of the "heart of ice" two words in the "Song Book" Volume 92: "Ice heart and greed for excitement, frost love and evening festival Yimao". This is the Liu Song era, "calm and unselfish", "for the people love" of the words of the good officials Lu Hui, Wang Changling to take the "ice heart" two words, when he said that he with the "Li Zhi clean, all the scrupulous diligence, public service and sincerity, self-restraint" of Lu Hui." Jade pot'' two words in Baozhao "White Heads": "straight as Zhu silk rope, clear as a jade pot of ice".

It is a symbol of high purity. In addition, Lu Ji's "Ode to the Meritorious Ministers of Han Gaozu", "Zhou Cuiqiang generous, heart as if pregnant with ice", Yao Chong's "Ice Pot Commandments", "clear and flawless, clear and empty, when the officials understand, there are similar to it. Therefore, within the ice clear, outside the connotation of jade, this gentleman ice pot of virtue," roughly is "not involved in the eunuchs" meaning. Wang Changling's sentence not only contains the "heart of ice", "jade pot", "heart as if pregnant with ice", "jade pot of virtue

This sentence not only contains the meaning of "ice heart", "jade pot", "heart like harboring ice", "virtue of jade pot", etc., but also expresses one's own character and virtue in a deep and implicit way.