The meaning of the phrase "the flowers of the river are red hotter than fire at sunrise, and the water of the river is as green as blue in spring" is as follows:

When spring arrives, the sun rises from the surface of the river, illuminating the flowers along the riverside to be more red than fire, and the turquoise water of the river to be greener than bluegrass.

Origin

The sunrise river flowers are redder than fire and the water of the river is as green as blue in spring is from Bai Juyi's "Memory of the South - Good in the South of the River".

Original text

Memory of Jiangnan - Jiangnan is good

Tang Dynasty: Bai Juyi

Jiangnan is good, the scenery is old and familiar. The flowers of the river are more red than fire at sunrise, and the water of the river is as green as blue at the beginning of spring. I can't help but remember the south of the river.

Translation

Jiangnan is a good place, and the scenery there used to be familiar to me. In springtime, the sun rises from the river, illuminating the flowers of the river more than red, and the turquoise water of the river more green than blue grass. How can one not miss Jiangnan?

Notes

①According to "Miscellaneous Records of Lefu", this poem is also known as "Xie Qiuniang" (谢秋娘), which was composed by Li Deyu of the Tang Dynasty for his deceased mistress Xie Qiuniang (谢秋娘). It is also known as "Looking at the South of the River" and "Dreaming of the South of the River". It is divided into monotone and double-tone. It has 27 characters in monotone and 54 characters in double-tone, all in plain rhyme.

②Unversed in (yinan): familiar with.

③Jianghua: flowers by the river.

④Sheng, a "like"

⑤Blue: bluegrass, the leaves of which can be used to make green dye. This refers to polygonum. The book "Lun Zi - Counseling Learning": "Green is from blue, but blue is more blue than blue".

Background

Bai Juyi once served as the assassin of Hangzhou for two years, and later as the assassin of Suzhou for more than a year. In his youth, he had traveled to the south of the Yangtze River, living in Suzhou and Hangzhou, and he had a good understanding of the south of the river, so the south of the river left a deep impression in his mind. When he returned to Luoyang more than ten years after leaving his post as the assassin of Suzhou due to illness, he wrote these three songs "Remembering Jiangnan".

Literary Appreciation

The poet opens the poem with a straightforward speech, praising "Jiangnan is good" out of his mouth. In order to show that he is not a man of the clouds, the poet immediately explained that "the scenery of the old once familiar", is their own year ("old" and "once") personal experience, personal feelings, very familiar, deep understanding. Poet "old once familiar with" the Jiangnan landscape impression in the end how? "The sunrise river flowers are more than fire, the river water is as green as blue in spring." The poet grasps the characteristics of Jiangnan's early spring, and links the flowers of Jiangnan's spring with the water of Jiangnan, which can be said to have grasped the essence of Jiangnan's beauty. In order to express a wider context in limited words and phrases, the poet skillfully utilizes the technique of "intertextual", interlacing the "sunrise" and "spring" of the two lines before and after, and the gorgeous beauty of the Jiangnan Spring River is displayed in front of the readers. Spring breeze, flowers bloom, full of mountains, beautiful flowers, in the sunrise of the sunshine, the green bush in the mountain flowers more and more red dazzling, Du Fu said in a poem, "mountain green flowers want to burn". And Bai Juyi here does not say that the mountain flowers and said "river flowers", is to highlight the flowing blue water in the river under the background, "want to burn the flowers" more colorful "red than fire". Spring river water green, golden sunshine sprinkled over the earth, in the bright spring light, the two sides of the river lush shade reflected in the river, the water appears more green waves sparkling. Due to the sunrise, the flowers red water green more improve the brightness of the color, due to the mountain flowers of the red and the river green as a backdrop to each other, each other, thus strengthening the sharpness of the color, so the red is more red, green is more green, that is, "red is better than the fire" and "green is as blue". And a river of spring water flow, more so that all this in the sense of movement in the light and color interlacing, changing, brilliant, beautiful. This is the poet's permanent memory of Jiangnan. The beauty of this, the poet from the heart: "can not remember Jiangnan?"

This word is written about the spring color of Jiangnan, the first sentence "Jiangnan good", with a shallow cut and rounded "good" word, all the spring color of Jiangnan, and the author's praise and longing for the feelings are also fully contained in it. At the same time, only because the "good" has been very much, can "memory" of endless, therefore, this sentence has been implicitly teasing the last sentence "can not remember the south of the river", and related to the whole. The second sentence "the scenery of the old once familiar", pointing out that the scenery of Jiangnan "good", not to get the rumors, but the author out of Hangzhou pastoral first-hand experience and personal feelings. This is not only the implementation of the word "good", but also to echo the word "memory", is not lost in the communication of the meaning of a wonderful ink. The third and fourth sentences are a visual interpretation of the "good" of Jiangnan, highlighting the bright colors of the river flowers and the river water in red and green, giving a strong impression of radiance. Among them, there are both the mutual accentuation between the same color and the mutual contrast between different colors, fully demonstrating the author's skill in coloring. At the end of the piece, to "can not remember the south of the river" to close the whole word, not only to support the author who was born in Luoyang, the infinite praise and nostalgia for the spring color of the south of the river, but also to create a kind of long and deep rhyme, the reader into the realm of the remaining feelings of the ripples.

Author's Introduction

Bai Juyi (772~846), the word Lotte, and in his later years, the name of Xiangshan Jushi, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, Xinzheng, China's great realist poets of the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi literary history of the famous and far-reaching poets and writers. His poetry has a wide range of subjects, diverse forms, and easy language, and he is known as the "Poetry Devil" and the "King of Poetry". His official position was as a scholar of Hanlin Academy and a doctor of the Left Zanshan Academy. His representative poems include The Song of Long Hatred, The Charcoal Seller, and The Line of the Pipa. Bai Juyi was born in Xinzheng, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and buried in Luoyang. Bai Juyi Memorial Hall is located in the suburbs of Luoyang. The White Garden (Bai Juyi's Tomb) is located at Pipa Peak on Xiangshan Mountain, south of the city of Luoyang.