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寄扬州韩绰判官--Ji Yangzhou Haichuo Paiguang
杜牧 -- Dù Mù (803-852)
唐 -- Táng(618-907)
青山隐隐水迢迢--Qīngshān yǐnyǐn shuǐ tiáotiáo，
秋尽江南草未凋--Qīujìn jiāngnán cǎo wèi diāo。
二十四桥明月夜--ěrshísì qiáo míngyuè yè，
玉人何处教吹箫--Yùrén héchù jiào/jiāo chuīxiāo。
教吹箫-- Jiào/Jiào chuīxiāo。
青山隐隐水迢迢--Qīngshān yǐnyǐn shuǐ tiáotiáo，
秋尽江南草未凋--Qīujìn jiāngnán cǎo wèi diāo。
二十四桥明月夜--ěrshísì qiáo míngyuè yè，
玉人何处教吹箫--Yùrén héchù jiào/jiāo chuīxiāo。
教吹箫-- Jiào/Jiāo chuīxiāo。
啊…… 啊……
|#|The green mountains are indistinct; the water is flowing far away.
The fall ends in Jiangnan; the grass has not withered yet.
The twenty-four bridges are bathed in bright moonlight;
Where are you teaching the beauty to play the vertical bamboo flute?
The green mountains are indistinct; the water is flowing far away.
The fall ends in Jiangnan; the grass hasn’t withered yet.
The twenty-four bridges are bathed in bright moonlight;
Where are you teaching the beauty to play the vertical bamboo flute?
to play the vertical bamboo flute?
Ah…Ah…
|#|Du Mu (803-852) was one of the most important representative poets in the later period of the Tang Dynasty(618 -907).
Du Mu was from a very rich family and he started to learn the Classical Confucian theory from his childhood. He cared for the social progress and country's fate and he wanted to help the poor people, but his career was not very smooth. Apart from being a prefectural governor, he had been an adviser for most of his life, so, he spent much of his time on Literary writing
He was highly accomplished in many fields, poetry being the most famous -- especially on Jue Ju ( a poem of four lines, each containing of five or seven characters, with a strict tonal pattern and rhyming scheme ). He had the same reputation as Li Shangyin and together they were referred to as "Little Li Du" ( the big “Li Du” is Li Ai and Du Fu) in Chinese poetry history. About 450 poems and essays of his still exist.
|#||#|This poem was written for a friend of Du Mu named Han Chuo in, maybe, the fall of 835 or 836, after Du Mu became an imperial supervisor in the capital of the Tang Dynasty, at the office of the Huainan Military Governorship.
Yangzhou is a city of east-central China on the Grand Canal in Jiangsu province. It was a very advanced commercial center in ancient times and in the Tang Dynasty, it was a flourishing metropolis in the downstream regions of Yangtze River. A lot of poets have written many poems for it. This poem has a melodious tone and beautiful artistic conception, therefore, it has been read with admiration by people down the ages...
After Han died, Du Mu wrote another poem called "Crying for Han Chuo" for him. We can see that they had quite a deep friendship.
The first line: 青山隐隐水迢迢 qīngshān yǐnyǐn shuǐ tiáotiáo. 青山 qīngshān means: green mountain; 青qīng means green, blue; 山 shān means mountain; 隐隐 yǐnyǐn means indistinct; faint; 水 shuǐ means water, river; 迢迢 tiáotiáo means far away, remote. This line means: The green mountains are indistinct; the water is flowing far away.
The second line: 秋尽江南草未凋 qīujìn jiāngnán cǎo wèi diāo. 秋qīu means fall, autumn; 尽 jìn means finish, end; 江南jiāngnán means: the regions south of the Yangtze River; the downstream regions, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, because, in fact, Yangzhou is not on the Southern Bank of the Yangtze River but on the Northern Bank; 草 cǎo means grass; 未 wèi means no, not, do not; 凋 diāo means wither. This line means : The fall/ autumn has ended in Jiangnan but the grass has not withered yet.
The first two lines use a "telephoto lens", and "draws" a beautiful but faraway view of Jiannan: There are green mountains, blue rivers, a light autumn wind and grass waving in the wind. But they are 隐隐 yǐnyǐn -- indistinct and 迢迢 tiáotiáo -- far away. Then had the poet not seen them with his own eyes at the time he wrote this poem? No, the distant view was, in fact, just in the imagination of the poet. They are just a far-off recollection of Jiannan where poet had lived and worked.
With just 14 Chinese characters, the first two lines paint a big background which his friend Han is living in with poet’s imagination and has created a basic color tone and the keynote of the poem: how I miss the green and beautiful view in the far away Yangzhou in Jiangnan and the old friend who is living there with a soft feeling which is like the water of the rivers or lakes of Jiangnan.
The third line: 二十四桥明月夜 ěrshísìqiáo míngyuèyè. 二十四ěrshísìqiáo means: twenty four 桥qiáo means bridges; 二十四桥ěrshísìqiáo means the Twenty-Four Bridges in Yangzhou or the bridge named Twenty-Four Bridge. 明月 míngyuè means: bright moon, bright moonlight. 夜 yè means: night. This line means: The twenty four bridges are bathed in the bright moonlight or the Twenty-four Bridge is bathed in the bright moonlight.
Why?
According to the recordation in the "Yangzhou Hua Fang Lu"by Li Dou in Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912), the Twenty -Four Bridge was the Wujia Brick Bridge. Its another name was Hong Yao Bridge. Because in ancient times, 24 pretty girls had played Xiao -- the vertical bamboo flutes by the bridge, it became known as "Twenty - Four bridge."
According to the other recordation in the Men Xi Bi Tan by Shen Kuo （1031-1095）in the Song Dynasty (960 -- 1279), there were really 24 bridges in Yangzhou.
Since Du Mu lived in Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) and his times were nearer the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), so then I would like to explain this poem according to this record. Also I feel the last line is nearer to the meaning of the third line.
So, this line means: The twenty four bridges are bathed in bright moonlight. Compared with the first two lines, it seems like a medium range, to show us a view of the bridges are covered in the moonlight.
From the first line until now, this poem is still writing about the view, but the “lens” has changed from the distant to the medium range.
The last line: 玉人何处教吹箫 yùrén héchù jiāo/jiào chuīxiāo. 玉人 yùrén means personable person, pretty person or beauty. It could refer to the local pretty girls or to the friend of the poet in the poem – Han Chuo. It could also refer to a beautiful girl like the princess Nong Yu, or her music teacher and handsome husband Xiao Shi. 教 jiāo/jiào meanings teach or instruct. 吹chuī means blow, here means play; 箫xiāo is a Chinese music instrument, a Chinese vertical bamboo flute. 教吹箫jiāo/jiào chuīxiāo means teach someone to play xiao, to play the vertical bamboo flute.
Here is a story about the words: 教吹箫jiào chuīxiāo or玉人教吹箫yùrén jiào chuīxiāo： In the ancient China, there was a princess named Nong Yu who was the daughter of the king Qin Mu Gong (B.C. 682 – B.C. 621). Nong Yi loved playing Xiao – the vertical bamboo flute. She loved a poor young man named Xiao Shi who also loved playing Xiao and could play the songs of the phoenix. Nong Yu suffered from lovesickness, and the King had to find Xiao Shi and then he married Nong Yu to him. Then her husband Xiao Shi spent over ten years teaching his wife Nong Yu to play the songs of the phoenix. Finally, one day, a real phoenix came to them. Then Nong Yu rode on the phoenix and her husband Xiao Shi rode on the dragon, both of them flew to heaven together.
Until now, I guess you have had your own understanding about this line. You can use any meaning or rely on your own ideas to understand this poem.
This line means: Where are you teaching the beauty to play the vertical bamboo flute?
or:
Where are you asking the female Singer to play the vertical bamboo flute?
By asking a question, this line points out the theme of the poem – how I miss the friend in the far way Yangzhou! Now the beautiful views in the previous3 lines have been matched by the music of vertical bamboo flute, which had attracted the phoenix and it will stay in the hearts of the poet and the readers forever.
In its writing, besides skillfully using some classical allusion and giving this little poem some depth and plenty of room for imagination according to the readers’ knowledge and educational background, this poem expresses the poet’s feeling in the process of describing the scenery naturally, both of them are combined together harmoniously and creates a wonderful artistic conception. With some pictures, music and figure together, it writes about the view from far away to middle then to near; from big landscape to the middle scenery and then to focus on the "hero". All of the ideas and the theme are hidden in the view and are expressed naturally and artistically.
|#|Since I first read this poem, I have enjoyed it and I have written comments for it and created 10 paintings and a piece of music to match the poems from 2005 to 2015. I have also sung it more than 30 times for my students and friends including singing it 4 times in the Eastern Kentucky Broadcasting Station in the USA. However, not until tonight, after I completed the re-write of the comments for the second volume of my publication series (books and DVDs) : 《诗·画·乐：综合艺术汉语》(Together with Me, Learn Chinese Culture and Language by Enjoying Paintings, Music and Poetry, do I feel I have really started to understand it.
Therefore, I do feel:
If we stopped after gaining a little knowledge of a subject, it would be quite easy to make mistakes. A classic cannot be totally understood by being studied just once or twice. Many allusions are hidden in the ancient classics. If we stopped after gaining a little knowledge about them, we would not truly be able to understand the core of truth.
For example, just in this little poem there are at least 2 allusions, about 4 points relating to the historical records and 2 Chinese idioms. For example:
The idiom: 乘龙快婿 chéng lóng kuài xù - a handsome son-in-law, or a son-in-law of high rank is from the story about Xiao Shi.
The idiom: 弄玉吹箫 nòng yù chuīxiāo -- referring to a male and a female who are happy, become lovers and share a happy life together, it is from the story of Nong Yu and Xiao Shi.
The story about 二十四桥 ěrshísìqiáo – the twenty four bridge/bridges; the story about玉人 yùrén – the beauty; the story 教吹箫jiāo/jiào chuīxiāo – teach someone to play xiao - the vertical bamboo flute and so on.
There are many explanations about this poem according to the recordation’s in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) or Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912), but this poet lived in Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). In spite of many of the explanations in the historical record, these are only second hand data already.
So, if we did not spend much time and energy in digging the history as much as possible, it would be quite easy to make mistakes because of our ignorance or we would not be able to find the knowledge and true meaning behind these classics we are working on. The result would be : we ourselves would make mistakes and then mislead others.
To help share the poem with you, I created a piece of music in 2007 and have created 7 paintings for the poem and the music since April, 2008. I do hope that my effort will be of some help to you to learn Chinese culture, art and language.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn or to publish your opinions in Message Board on www.ebridge.cn.
Shirley Yiping Zhang
Nov 30, 2017, in China
Nov 6, 2016 in the USA
March 9, 2015 in China.
Jan 31, 2014 in the USA
Dec 25, 2005 in China
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