Remembering the Shandong brothers on September 9

Wang Wei? [Tang Dynasty]

I am a stranger in a foreign land, and I miss my family even more during the festive season.

I know from afar that my brothers have climbed to a high place, and there is one less person planting dogwood trees everywhere.

Translation and Notes

Translation

A person is alone as a guest in a foreign country, and misses his relatives far away even more during festivals.

I remember that when my brothers climbed high and looked far into the distance today, I was the only one missing with their heads full of dogwood trees.

Notes

September 9: the Double Ninth Festival. In ancient times, nine was used as the Yang number, so it was called Double Ninth Festival.

Memory: missing.

Shandong: Wang Wei moved to Pu County (now Yongji City, Shanxi), east of Hangu Pass and Huashan, so it was called Shandong.

A foreign land: a foreign land, a foreign land.

Be a stranger: a guest in a foreign land.

Festival: a beautiful holiday.

Climbing: There is an ancient custom of climbing during the Double Ninth Festival.

Cortex (zhūyú): refers to Evodia. It is the nearly mature fruit of Rutaceae plant Evodia. "Compendium of Materia Medica" Explanation of Evodia Fructus Su Song cited Zhou Chu's "Feng Tu Ji" as saying: "Customally, September 9 is called Shangjiu. On this day, when the dogwood is strong and ripe, the color will be red. You can fold the house and use plugs to ward off bad smells." Yu Dong. "Also "Xu Qi Xie Ji" says: "Huan Jing of Runan studied Taoism with Fei Changfang, and Changfang said: 'On September 9, there will be a disaster in your family. Pack a bag of dogwood and tie it to your arm, and if you climb high and drink chrysanthemum wine, the disaster can be eliminated. As the saying goes, the family climbed to a high mountain, and when they returned home in the evening, they saw chickens, dogs, cattle and sheep suddenly dying. "On this day, my old friend climbed up to drink wine and wore a dogwood bag." From this, it can be seen that the dogwood in Wang Wei's poem must refer to Evodia.

Creative background

This poem was written by Wang Wei when he was seventeen years old. At that time, Wang Wei was wandering alone between Luoyang and Chang'an. He was from Puzhou (now Yongji, Shanxi). Puzhou was east of Huashan, so he called the brothers in his hometown Shandong brothers.

Appreciation

Wang Wei is a precocious writer who created many excellent poems in his youth. This poem was written when he was seventeen years old. Different from his later landscape poems that were rich in painting and very particular in composition and color, this lyrical poem was written very simply.

This poem expresses the homesickness of a wanderer. The poem focuses closely on the title at the beginning, describing the loneliness and desolation of life in a foreign land. Therefore, I miss my hometown and people all the time, and when I encounter a good festival, I miss you even more. Then the poem jumps to write about the brothers far away in their hometown. When they climb high according to the custom of Double Ninth Festival, they are also missing themselves. The poetry jumps repeatedly, is implicit and deep, is simple and natural, and has twists and turns. Among them, "I miss my loved ones more during the festive season" is a famous saying through the ages.

"A foreigner in a foreign land", the opening sentence expresses the poet's loneliness in a foreign land. The poet uses one word "lone" and two "different" in this short sentence, which shows that the poet has a strong feeling of being a guest in a foreign place. The more lonely he is outside, the stronger the poet's longing for his relatives in his hometown. In the feudal society at that time, transportation was blocked, people lived a self-sufficient life, and there was less communication between regions. Therefore, people in different places had great differences in customs, living habits, language, etc. Therefore, the poet Leaving your hometown where you have lived for many years to live in a different place naturally makes you feel strange and lonely. The poet plainly describes that he is in a foreign land, but it contains the poet's simple thoughts and feelings.

If the feeling of homesickness may not be so strong on weekdays, then the poet "misses his relatives even more during festive seasons." "Festival" is a day when relatives reunite, and everyone talks and laughs together. But now, the poet is living alone in a different place. In the festival that represents family reunion, he can't help but think of the people, things, mountains and water in his hometown, etc. The poet is in his hometown. Beautiful memories, all kinds of memories triggered the poet's infinite homesickness, and the more he thought about it, the more he missed it, so that he couldn't control it. This sentence is written in a natural and simple way, like a eloquent narration, and it also expresses the true feelings of many people wandering abroad. It is very representative.

The first two sentences can be said to be the "direct method" of artistic creation. There is almost no detour, but it goes straight to the core, quickly forming a climax and aphorisms. However, this way of writing often makes the last two sentences difficult to sustain, resulting in lack of staying power. If the last two sentences of this poem were to be extended in a straight line along the lines of "I miss my family even more during the holidays", it would be unavoidable; it would also be difficult to create a new climax with new ideas. The author adopts another approach: immediately following the torrent of emotions, a rippling lake surface appears, which seems calm but is actually deeper.

"I know from afar how my brothers climbed to the heights", the poet expressed his thoughts directly and then moved on to his thoughts about the reunion of his relatives. He recalled how it would be for the brothers to climb the mountains during the Double Ninth Festival with dogwood on their bodies. hapiness. If the poet only thinks of the joy of his relatives, it can alleviate the poet's homesickness. However, at the end, the poet writes "There is one less person planted everywhere". It turns out that the poet is not thinking of joy, but that he is not celebrating with his relatives in his hometown. It’s a festive season, so my relatives will find that one person is missing when planting dogwood trees, so they will definitely miss me. This is twists and turns, unexpected. And this kind of unexpectedness is its depth, the new police department. Du Fu's "Moonlight Night": "I pity the children from afar, and recall Chang'an without understanding", which has the same meaning and meaning as these two sentences, but Wang's poem seems to be even less focused.

Author

Wang Wei (701-761, some say 699-761), whose courtesy name was Mojie (jié) and also known as Mojie layman. Han nationality, a native of Puzhou, Hedong (now Yuncheng, Shanxi), his ancestral home is Qixian County, Shanxi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, known as the "Poetry Buddha". Su Shi commented on him: "When you taste Mojie's poems, there are paintings in the poems; when you look at Mojie's paintings, there are poems in the paintings." In the ninth year of Kaiyuan (721), he was promoted to Jinshi, Tai Lecheng. Wang Wei is a representative poet of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. He has more than 400 poems in existence today. His important poems include "Lovesickness" and "Dwelling in the Mountains in the Twilight of Autumn". Wang Wei was proficient in Buddhism and was greatly influenced by Zen Buddhism. There is a Buddhist "Vimalakīrti Sutra", which is the origin of Wang Wei's name. Wang Wei is famous for his poetry, calligraphy and painting. He is versatile and proficient in music. Together with Meng Haoran, they are collectively known as "Wang Meng".