Moon Imagery in Classical Chinese Poetry

There are many common images in classical Chinese poems, each with its own unique symbolic meaning and emotional connotation, such as orchids represent elegance, plum blossoms show pride, and willows symbolize feelings of separation or sadness, etc. "Moon" is one of the most typical images in classical Chinese poems. "The moon is one of the most typical images in classical Chinese poetry.

The moon is a purely objective object in nature, but since mankind realized its existence, it has become one of the contents of primitive myths or legends, such as the familiar myths of the Chinese: Chang'e runs to the moon, Wu Gang loses the laurel. It can be seen that the moon has long been an object into the aesthetic vision of man, when the poet will be the moon as a carrier of the poet's subjective feelings, "the moon" this imagery will have a complex ideological connotation, play a general word is difficult to replace the role of conveying feelings and meanings.

Li Bai was a genius poet nurtured by the Tang culture, and among the many images he created, the moon was his favorite one. In the 1,050 poems he left behind, we found that there were nearly 400 poems written from different perspectives about the moon, reciting the moon, singing about the moon, and glorifying the moon, which accounted for nearly one-third of the total number of poems, making him the poet who wrote the most about the moon so far. Only the image of "moon" appears 336 times, not counting "jade disk", "jade wheel", "jade ring", "jade hook" and "jade ring". "Jade Hook", "Jade Bow", "Jade Mirror", "Heavenly Mirror", "Bright Mirror". ""Jade Rabbit"" "Chang'e"" "Toad" and so on the moon's pronouns, aliases, as for those who show the time of the moon is even more excluded from the statistics. Different atmospheres, different places, different states of mind, poets have different depictions of the moon, which can be said to have reached a state of perfection, the peak of excellence. Yu Dan said: "Li Bai this person, the heart of the brewing, the light of the bright moon is not only in front of the bed, in fact, in his heart, a person only in the heart of the infinite light, can stay outside. Li Bai's life, the bright moon accompanied by the wine, so the bright moon is one of his most superficial intention". Therefore, Li Bai's perfect use of the imagery of "moon" is fully reflected in some of his poems.

Take the poem "The Ancient Row of the Long Moon" as an example to analyze the moon imagery in Li Bai's poems. The poem is narrated in the first person, from which we can realize that Li Bai has been inextricably linked with the bright moon since he was a child. "When I was young, I didn't know the moon, but called it a white jade disk. And suspected the Yao Tai mirror, flying in the green clouds." This is the childhood of Li Bai's childish understanding of the moon, for a child, the beautiful and changeable moon is indeed a layer of mysterious veil, triggering the small pure. Mind to countless imagination. The two metaphors seem to write, but it is a good mood, moving in the scene, vivid, vivid, the role of imagery, can be seen here. Then brought the myth, the moon rises, first saw the immortal's two feet, and then gradually see the immortal and the full shape of the laurel tree, see a full moon, see the white rabbit in the moon pounding medicine, all these write the moon from the first rise to gradually clear and like a fairyland-like scenery. So write, with the help of the connotation of the rich moon imagery, naturally increased the beauty, triggered the reader's rich imagination, how can people not have a sense of pleasure? After a turn of the pen, "the toad eclipses the shadow of the round, the night has been broken", "toad eclipses the moon" insinuates the reality: at that time it was the late years of Emperor Xuanzong, the emperor indulged in sex, pampered Yang Guifei, power traitors, eunuchs, border generals trespassing on power, the dynasty is not vibrant, this poem is Li Bai for the darkness of the imperial government and sent out. This poem was written by Li Bai in response to the darkness of the dynasty at that time. The poem "Yi fell nine crows in the past, the sky and the people are clear and peaceful", citing Hou Yi is not only for the lack of such heroes in reality, but also expresses the hope that there will be such heroes to make the world peaceful and the people live and work in peace and contentment. However, after all, reality is reality, the poet is y disappointed: "Yin essence of this fall confused, go to go not enough to see." Since the moon has fallen and confused, there is nothing to see, it would be better to go away before it is too late. This is a hopeless solution, the heart of the sorrow and anger not only did not lift, but deepened: "Sorrow to its how? Pathos destroys the heart and liver." The poet can not bear to walk away, the inner contradiction is heavy, worried as burning. By giving real meaning to the moon and its viewing, the poem embodies the result of the oppression of literature by the authoritarian rule of the feudal society, and artistically makes the poet's difficult feelings, difficult to express the feelings, and shows the deep twists and turns.

Analyzing and exploring the moon imagery in Li Bai's poetry plays an important role in comprehensively recognizing and comprehending the poet's diverse artistic styles and distinctive personalities in his poetic creations. As Mr. Yuan Xingjiu said, "The imagery of a poem has distinctive personal characteristics, which can best reflect the style of the poem. Whether or not a poet has a unique artistic style depends largely on whether or not he has established his personal imagery group. Li Bai looked at the moon differently from the aesthetics of ordinary people, with a unique and original eye, and successfully shaped the moon's imagery group to show his own artistic style. The moon's imagery, to his hands, is no longer only a tool to be utilized in creation, but also his lifelong confidant, so there is no wonder that the role of the moon's imagery in his hands always seems to be greater, more submissive to him. In Li Bai's heart, the moon is not the moon, not a static inanimate objects, it and the poet in the spirit of communion, become a metaphor with the meaning of personality, then the poet jumped away from the general background rendering and emotional support, open-minded, the heart of the sky, beyond the physical separation of space and time, distance, into the heart of the realm of the moon, and the moon as one.

The poet not only formed his own personalized characteristics in moon singing, but also a master and master of moon singing who is good at collecting the best of the best, he widely absorbed the excellent heritage and performance skills of moon singing of Cao Cao, Zhang Ruoxu and others, and sometimes he also loved to use the verses of his predecessors and innovated and developed them, reaching the peak of moon singing poetry, which played an important role in the creation of moon singing poetry of Liu Yuxi, Yang Wanli, Su Shi and others later. On the other hand, it also allows us to recognize Li Li's poetry in the context of the Chinese moon culture. On the other hand, it also allows us to recognize the magnificent imagery of Li Bai's poems, such as the roc, mountains, waterfalls and the Yellow River, and to appreciate the beauty of his poems. On the other hand, it also allows us to recognize the magnificent images in Li Bai's poems such as "roc", "mountains", "waterfalls", "Yellow River", etc., to appreciate his sublime and magnificent poetic style, and at the same time, we can also feel and taste the fresh and beautiful images such as the "bright moon" in Li Bai's poems and beautiful poetic style, so that we can have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding and analysis of the poet, his works, his rhymes, and his poetic soul.

From the childish reverie of "not knowing the moon when I was young, calling it a white jade disk" to the old age and death after "seeing the moon in autumn in the old country", the moon always shines on the poet's figure, shines on the footprints, shines on the poet's heart, and accompanies the poet to walk through the bumpy life. The moon always shines on the poet's figure, his footprints, and his soul, accompanying him through his difficult life. Li Bai created in line with the deep traditional cultural psychology of Chinese people, rich in profound cultural connotations and emotional meaning of the "moon" imagery, is the long history of ancient Chinese culture in the field of classical poetry pearl, but also on the traditional Chinese culture of the moon imagery inheritance and breakthroughs in the crystallization of the achievements of the great, far-reaching impact.