Some historical stories and myths that Changde is famous for.

This love legend can be said to be a household name in Hunan, and with the rendition and singing of the flower-drum opera Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutter, it is also familiar to many viewers across the country. However, very few people know the birthplace of this opera - Changde, Hunan. According to Mr. Zhou Xinguo of Changde, Hunan Province, "Wuling Collection of Treasures" records: "The ancient city of Changde, many ancient wells, the famous four-eyed wells, watermelon wells, sunflower wells and so on. Loofah well is located in the city of Panchi Street, Wenjiao Lane and Loofah Wells Lane intersection. Legend has it that there are images of loofahs in the well water, and the images of loofahs are also present in the containers such as buckets and wooden basins, hence the name. Pro well and watch, the well diameter of more than five feet, about three feet deep, on the mouth is small, the lower belly is large, like a cylinder inverted, well water clean, warm in winter and cool in summer, drought. Silkworm well has a long history, specifically built in which era, there is no way to prove. Circulated in Changde folk 'Liu Hai play Golden Toad', 'Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutter' originated from Liu Hai and Hu Xiuying a chaste love story.

Liu Hai plays with a golden toad, and it is said that there is a golden toad in the well of Changde City, which often spits out a white light from the mouth of the well at night and rushes to the clouds, and the people who have the way to ride on this white light can ascend to heaven. Live in the well next to the young man Liu Hai, poor, generous, filial mother; he often go to the nearby mountains to cut firewood, sell firewood to buy rice, and his mother to rely on each other. One day, there was a fox in the forest who became a spirit and transformed into a beautiful girl, Hu Xiuying, who stopped Liu Hai on his way home and asked him to marry him. After the marriage, Hu Xiuying wanted to help Liu Hai to ascend to heaven, spit out a white pearl, so that Liu Hai to do bait, fishing in the watermelon well. The golden toad bites the fish and rises, Liu Hai rode the momentum on the back of the toad, a leap, the immortalization and go.

Liu Hai chopped wood in ancient times, Changde City, Wuling District, beside the well of the loofah, lived Liu Hai mother and son. Liu's mother cried her eyes out because she missed her late husband. Liu Hai is very hardworking and filial piety, every day on the mountain to cut firewood to feed his mother. In Liu Hai chopping wood in the big high mountain, small high mountain area, there is a years of cultivation of the fox spirit, she refined into a pearl, in the mouth can be incarnated in human form. At this time she has become a half-immortal, and if she cultivates for a few hundred years, she will become an immortal and go to heaven. She admired Liu Hai's behavior, so she took the name Hu Xiuying and insisted on marrying Liu Hai. But the simple and honest Liu Hai, afraid of involving Hu Xiuying suffer, several times to decline, and then see Hu Xiuying a sincere, before agreeing to marry with Hu Xiuying. After returning home, Liu Hai told his mother, who also liked it and agreed to their marriage. Liu Hai then went to the center of the city of chicken goose alley to buy things to get married. There was a small temple next to Chicken and Goose Lane, and there were eighteen Luohan in the temple. One of the ten Luohan with a group of disciples (Golden Toad) also practiced in secret. He refined a string of money, has also become a half-immortal, if you can get Hu Xiuying's pearl, you can instantly become an immortal and ascend to heaven. Seeing that Hu Xiuying and Liu Hai were married, Ten Luohan became evil and led his disciples to take away Hu Xiuying's precious pearl. When Hu Xiuying lost her pearl, she had no choice but to tell Liu Hai the truth. When Liu Hai found out, he didn't blame Hu Xiuying, he picked up the stone axe he used to chop wood at home and went to fight with the ten Luohan, and finally, with the help of the axe god and Hu Xiuying's sisters, Liu Hai defeated them and got the precious pearl. From then on, they lived a happy life of farming and weaving.

The descendants built the Toad Spring Temple next to the Silkmelon Well to commemorate Liu Hai's filial piety, and the statue of Liu Hai was provided. The two plays of Hunan flower-drum opera "Liu Hai Playing Golden Toad" and "Liu Hai Chopping Woodcutter", which are sung all over the country, are based on this allusion."

Two, Peach Blossom Garden

More than 1,500 years ago, Tao Yuanming, a great poet of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, wrote a thousand-year-old article called "Peach Blossom Garden" (the preface to his poem "Peach Blossom Garden"). It says that a fisherman from Wuling place, sailing along a small stream, suddenly saw a gap in the mountains, so he left his boat and went in through this gap and found another world. In this world, the land is open, the houses are neat, the people live in a simple and affluent life, men and women, young and old, for the joy of seeing the fisherman was surprised, have invited him home to eat and drink, claiming that their ancestors were fleeing from the war in the Qin Dynasty, fled into the Peach Blossom Garden to live. These people did not know that there was the Han Dynasty after the Qin Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty after the Han Dynasty. The fisherman stayed in the Peach Blossom Garden for several days, and when he was homesick, he said goodbye to them. When he went out of the Peach Blossom Garden, he could not find it again.

The Journey to the Peach Blossom Garden

Author: Wang Wei

The fisherman's boat is in love with the spring of the mountain, and the peach blossoms on both sides of the river are caught in the Jin.

Sitting and watching the red trees, I don't know how far away they are, and traveling through the green streams, I neglect people.

The mountain pass is the first place to dive into the cove, and the mountain is open and open to the land.

There is a place where you can see the clouds and trees from afar, and there are thousands of houses where you can see the flowers and bamboos.

The woodcutter's name was first passed on to him in the Han Dynasty, and the dweller has not yet changed his clothes from the Qin Dynasty.

The man **** lives in Wulingyuan, and he is still in the field from the outside.

The bar under the moonlight pine is quiet, and the dogs and chickens in the sunrise cloud are noisy.

Surprised to hear that the ordinary guests scrambled to gather, competing to lead home to ask the capital.

Blossoms bloom in the alleys in the morning, and the fishermen and woodsmen enter by water in the evening.

The first time I went to the earth to avoid the land, but I didn't come back until I became an immortal.

Who knows what happened to the people in the gorges, and who looks at the empty cloudy mountains in the middle of the world?

It is difficult to hear and see the spiritual realm, and the heart of the world has not yet finished thinking about the home county.

No matter how far away from the cave you are, you can't leave your home without a long trip.

It is said that the old days are not lost, but the peaks and valleys have changed.

It was only at that time that I remembered the depths of the mountains, and the green streams that led to the cloud forests.

The peach blossom water is everywhere in spring, so I can't tell where to find the source of immortality.

The Peach Blossom Garden

Wang Anshi

Fishing boat by water loves the spring of the mountain, the peach blossoms on both sides of the river are sandwiched between the jin.

Sitting and watching the red trees, I don't know how far away they are, and I don't see anyone when I walk through the green streams.

The mountain pass is the first place where you can dive, and the mountain is open and the land is flat.

There is a place where you can see the clouds and trees from afar, and there are thousands of houses where you can see the flowers and bamboos.

The woodcutter's name was first passed on to him in the Han Dynasty, and the dweller has not yet changed his clothes from the Qin Dynasty.

The man **** lives in Wulingyuan, and he is still in the field from the outside.

The bar under the moonlight pine is quiet, and the dogs and chickens in the sunrise cloud are noisy.

Surprised to hear that the ordinary guests scrambled to gather, competing to lead home to ask the capital.

Blossoms bloom in the alleys in the morning, and the fishermen and woodsmen enter by water in the evening.

The first time I went to the earth to avoid the land, but I didn't come back until I became an immortal.

Who knows what happened to the people in the gorges, and who looks at the empty cloudy mountains in the middle of the world?

It is difficult to hear and see the spiritual realm, and the heart of the world has not yet finished thinking about the home county.

No matter how far away from the cave you are, you can't leave your home without a long trip.

It is said that the old days are not lost, but the peaks and valleys have changed.

It was only at that time that I remembered the depths of the mountains, and the green streams reached the cloud forest several times.

The peach blossom water is everywhere in spring, so I can't tell where to find the source of immortality.

The Peach Blossom Stream

Zhang Xu

The Hidden Flying Bridge is separated from the wild smoke, and the fishing boat is on the west side of the stone islet.

The peach blossoms follow the flowing water all day long, where is the hole in the clear stream?

[Notes]

(1) Peach Blossom Stream: According to the Qing Yitongzhi, "Changde Prefecture, Hunan, Peach Blossom Stream is twenty-five miles southwest of Taoyuan County, with its source in Peach Blossom Mountain, and its northward flow into Yuan."

(2) Hidden: the appearance of vaguely looking indistinguishable. Flying Bridge: the bridge is as high as flying up in the air. Wild Smoke: smoke and mist in the mountains and fields.

(3) Shiji (jiji): boulders jutting out from the water's edge. These two lines say, from afar, the flying bridge is covered by smoke and mist, so it is hard to see, so go to the west side of the boulder by the stream and ask the fishermen on the fishing boat.

(4) End of the day: all day long.

(5) Cave: refers to Taoyuan Cave. These two lines are the poet's words to ask the fisherman: I only see the peach blossoms flowing away with the stream all day long, where exactly is the Peach Source Cave in the Peach*** Flower Stream?

[Brief Commentary]

The Peach Blossom Garden and Peach Blossom Stream as the theme of the poem started in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Tao Yuanming, and after that, there are a lot of poets have taken the Peach Blossom Garden and Peach Blossom Stream as the theme of their poems. The poem "Peach Blossom Stream" expresses the poet's yearning and pursuit of the peach blossom garden as a place of secluded seclusion, and shows the author's own aspirations of life as a high mountain hermit. There is a basis for saying that Zhang Xu's present poem reveals the breath of the art of wild-cursive collection. You see, the poet placed eight scenes in four verses, namely, "flying bridge", "wild smoke", "stone islet", "fishing boat "Peach Blossoms", "Flowing Water", "Cave" and "Clear Stream". They can be regarded as the heavy ink and colorful part of the cursive script, while "Hidden", "Separate", "West Side", "Follow", "Where is the edge", etc. can be regarded as the sparse part of the cursive script. These two parts of the word by the use of the organic combination, as in cursive writing, pay attention to the layout, pay attention to the heat, high and low of the top and bottom of the master echo, left and right of the balance of the symmetry, the line of the thick and thin collocation, the staggering of the real and the virtual. This is one of them. In addition, from the poem's mood, the first line "hidden" is already false, and then lined with "fly", "wild", will give people a kind of fluctuating speed. The second sentence of the "ask" word can not be underestimated its role, according to the "Peach Blossom Garden Records", the fisherman has explored the Peach Blossom Garden Resort, but when he re-explored, but he did not know where the hole, so ask the result can only be a piece of confusion. In the third line, the peach blossoms are drifting all day long to reflect the fact that there is no trace of the Peach Blossom Garden to be found, thus increasing the meaning of the poem's fantasy. The last line completely immerses people in a kind of doubt, which makes the reader feel more and more hazy. Therefore, summarizing the mood of the poem, we can learn that the work is filled with the poet's cursive art of the kind of ethereal wing movement of the artistic atmosphere. Because the poet is a calligrapher, therefore, the poem shows a wildly free character and a romantic poetic style, the whole poem focuses on "lamenting that there is really no place where one can escape from the world", which vaguely reveals the poet's despondent mood of feeling that it is difficult to seek the ideal realm of the world, and expresses the praise for the tranquil environment and the pursuit of a secluded life, and the poet's pursuit of the ideal realm in his heart, with the Peach Blossom Stream, the ideal place to seek the ideal realm in his heart. The poet's pursuit of the ideal world in his heart, with Peach Blossom Stream, is in it.

[Introduction to the poet]

Zhang Xu--Zi Bo Gao, a native of Wu (present-day Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province). He was alive at the time of Kaiyuan and Tianbao. He was a former lieutenant of Changshu County. He was famous for his cursive writing, which, together with Li Bai's poetry and Pei's sword dance, is called the "three greats". He was good at drinking, and when he was drunk, he would call out and walk wildly, waving his pen around, and was sometimes called Zhang Ban. The real also shows the degree of fervor of his love of art, such as the folk said "obsessed".

Three, the legend of the Seven Gulshan

Dingcheng District, Shuangqiaoping Township, there is a seven Gulshan, in Linli County, there is also a seven Gulshan in the territory of the township. Legend has it that a long time ago, this place is still eight hundred miles of Dongting Lake lake, the local villagers are also farmers and fishermen, they work at sunrise and sunset, unity and mutual assistance, living in harmony, although not free from hard work, but also live and work in peace and happiness.

Suddenly, one year, the lake dragon monster, often overturned fishing boats, drowning fishermen countless, rolled up the lake waves thousands of feet, flooded farmland thousands of hectares, so that they do not dare to go down to the lake, but also can not cultivate, the old days of plenty of food and clothing, and now the people do not want to live.

The heavenly palace in the residence of the nymphs are not willing to be lonely, companion down to the earth, swim in the five mountains, stroll Wuling, this day came to the Dongting Lake, and found that the former heavenly realm of the earth has become a hell on earth here, they pressed down the clouds, look carefully, wherever the townspeople do not cover the body, food is not fruitful to eat, and have to cry to them all sorts of evil acts of the dragon, the townspeople's misery stirred up a great deal of righteous indignation nymphs, they can not afford to interfere in the affairs of the earth. They did not care about the ban on meddling in earthly affairs in the court of heaven, and started a fierce fight with the evil dragon, and finally defeated the evil dragon, killed the dragon's son, and helped the people to surround the lake to make fields, so that they can live and work in peace and contentment again.

The king of the dragon avenged the killing of his son and complained to the heaven, and the Jade Emperor sent the heavenly soldiers and generals down to the world, knocking the seven fairies down to the mortal world and transforming them into seven mountain peaks, and the descendants, in order to commemorate their good deeds, built the temple of the fairy nuns on the mountain, and often worshiped joss-sticks and incense. Another legend has it that the nuns are still living in the mountains. I saw with my own eyes on the mountain fairy cave as a home, everything.

Seven Nuns Mountain thus named.

Four, Li Bai and Changde

Li Bai and the bottle mountain

Mention of the bottle mountain, people will naturally think of Li Bai's poem: "bottle flying waterfalls, cave fall peach blossom." These two lines of the poem can be said to be a panoramic sketch of the bottle mountain, magnificent, beautiful, wide-eyed, colorful, easy to understand the language, which is Li Bai's consistent style of poetry.

When was Li Bai's poem written? Why did he come to this remote place? Why is there only two lines in the poem?

Checking the woodblock printed "Shimen County Records? Tang Li Bai was exiled to Yelang and passed through here, with the sentence 'The bottle flies over the waterfall, and the peach blossoms fall from the hole'."

In 2002, I went to Pot Bottle Mountain interview, found Nanping Yunwu Mountain Nantian Temple former site of the rubble pile of several stone tablets, one of the Qianlong period of the stone tablet inscription also mentioned these two lines of poetry.

Li Bai was exiled to Yelang (present-day Tongzi, Guizhou) when he was 58 years old (758). Two years before that, he was called to be a staff member by King Yong Lin at Mount Lu. In that year, Yongwang Lin and his brother Suzong fought for the throne, and in the next year the army was defeated, Li Bai was implicated, arrested and imprisoned in Xunyang (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province), and was rescued by Cui Lax, then ambassador of the Xuanwu, and Song Ruosi, the imperial chancellor, as well as Guo Ziyi, the king of Fenyang, and then got out of the prison. However, Emperor Tang Suzong still gave him the punishment of exile in Yelang.

Li Bai's exile to Yelang was by water. "Pan Dongting, on the Three Gorges to Wushan." This can be seen as traveling up the Yangtze River, not reaching Yelang. The following year, at the age of 59 (759), he was amnestied and returned. "Wishing away the Baidi colorful clouds, thousands of miles of Jiangling one day return." is the poem reflecting his happy mood after being pardoned.

From Jiujiang to Wushan, Li Bai experienced more than a year. Even if he had traveled upstream in a wooden boat at that time, it would not have taken so long. Judging from the poems he wrote during his exile, he was still quite free to move and socialize, even though he was in exile. Officials in the court sent him clothes, with his letters to and from; along the way, the local officials also warmly invited him to feast, and he sang and sang poems, and some also asked him to write, make a table. It can be seen, suzong did not limit him to the specific date of yelang, he had more than enough time at his disposal. On the way, he stayed longer in Jiangxia (now Wuhan). Sometimes, he also entered the Yangtze River tributaries, shed the boat ashore, enjoy the surrounding scenic spots. The Yangtze River has a branch flow under the bottle mountain. In Tang Dynasty, Shimen bottle mountain area belonged to Guizhou (seat in today's zigui, Hubei), bottle mountain top of the Bodhi Pass, there are soldiers, there is a stagecoach road to Guizhou. From this, it seems that it was still convenient for Li Bai to leave the Yangtze River to reach Hu Baishan.

Li Bai wrote these two poems in 759, the year he was pardoned. Why did he leave only two verses? Li Bai's earliest collection of poems was the Cao Tang Jie (Collection of the Cao Tang), edited by his clan uncle Li Yang Bing, who lived there on loan before his death. Li Yangbing was the magistrate of Dangtu County, Anhui Province, and when he wrote the preface for the Cao Tang Collection, he said that Li Bai's writings were lost nine out of ten at that time, and those that exist today are all obtained by others....... The so-called "collection has no fixed volume, and every family has its own". It can be seen that many of the poems are collected from the folk. Later, some people addendum, also collected only two sentences of the "broken sentence". From this point of view, the two lines of Li Bai's poem is first in the masses of oral circulation, and only later by the knowledgeable into the "Shimen County Journal".

Li Bai and Lake Taibai

Lake Taibai, located in the northeast of Hanshou County, Xihuwan territory, the original lake more than 30,000 acres, the existing water surface of more than 10,000 acres. The lake was originally part of Dongting Lake Xizhe - Chisha Lake, and later the lake bed silted up and built embankments around the lake, becoming an inner lake. Now, it is only separated by a dike from Meiping Lake, the largest lake in Xidongting Lake area. According to legend, Li Bai, the poet of Tang Dynasty, visited this lake and left a beautiful poem "Autumn Moon Glow in the West of Dongting Lake", so it was named as Taibai Lake.

In the fall of the second year of Qianyuan of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 759), Li Ye, the minister of the Ministry of Justice, and Jia Zhi, the minister of the Ministry of Justice, were falsely accused by a traitor. Li Ye was relegated to the position of a county lieutenant in the territory of Lingnan Dao (present-day Guangdong), and Jia Zhi was relegated to the position of secretary of Yuezhou (present-day Yueyang). At that time, Li Bai was exiled to Yelang because of his participation in the failed rebellion of Yong Wang Li Lin. Soon after he was pardoned and released, he passed through Jiangxia and took a rest in Yueyang, where he met Li Ye and Jia Zhi. Li Bai then invited them to drink wine and rafted to Dongting.

One sunny day, a flat boat carrying Li Bai and others, facing the Dongting Lake, the lake and mountains, unrestrained roaming on the lake, dusk time to the west of Chisha Lake. At that time it was the autumn high season, the autumn wind xiao se, the lake blue, the moon in the sky, the geese return to the south. This rare beauty of the night stirred up the poet's heart of ten thousand waves of poetry. Jia Zhi was the first to write a poem:

Meeting on the river is an old trip, Xiangshan Mountain is not a sad place to look at forever.

The moon and the winds of autumn are blowing in the dongting water, and the leaves are falling from a flat boat.

Li Bai understands the mood of the two men, and advised them to be cheerful and open-minded, a series of five poems, which are recorded in three:

One

Nanhu Autumn Water Night Smoke, Nai can ride the stream straight to the nine days.

And on the credit of the moon color in the cave garden, the boat will buy wine by the white clouds.

Two

The Luoyang scholar was banished to Xiangchuan, and he was in the same boat under the moon.

Remember Chang'an still want to laugh, I do not know where is the western sky.

Three

The autumn moon shines in the west of Dongting Lake, and the early sun flies in the north of Xiaoxiang River.

Drunken guests sing white ramie songs on the boat, not knowing the frost and dew people in autumn clothes.

Li Bai's poem vividly depicts the beautiful autumn scenery of Dongting Lake, and also reflects the poet's desire to return to Chang'an. This idea of his naturally fell through at that time, because the rulers at that time would not respect talents in this way.

The poems of Li Bai and others boating on Dongting Lake were widely circulated, and many literati came here to visit the lake to write poems. Qing Tong Wusheng's "Lake Taibai Huai Gu" and Zeng Qidi's "Lake Taibai", is one of the masterpieces. The following is copied in order:

Taibai Lake Huai Gu

Miraculously flat lake does not seem to flow, green cypress branches tied fishing boat.

Where is the immortal riding the yellow crane, and where is the white gull at the far end of the lake?

The flute on the river in the plum blossom in the song, and the restaurant building in the hedge by the water.

The first of all, the moon is like a hook on a cold shirt.

Taibai Lake

Taibai Lake, the moon is alone, the moon invites the shadow of Taibai.

I came to get drunk on the moon in the lake, and the moon was happy to see the rest of the real Taibai.

Today's Lake Taibai is an important production area for lotus, fish, soft-shelled turtles and beads in Hanshou County, and the water royalty in the lake - "Chinese soft-shelled turtles" - has a world-wide reputation. Every spring and summer, nature dresses up Lake Taibai as an enchanting place. The beautiful poem of "endless blue lotus leaves in the sky, reflecting the red lotus flowers" has become a true reflection of this place. Ah! The poetry of Lake Taibai is even better than before. If Li Banxian in heaven, revisit the old place, will certainly be poetic, let out a song of praise!

Li Bai and Muguashan

In the fall of the first year of the Qianyuan era (758), Li Bai passed through Changde when he was exiled to Yelang (in present-day Xinhuang County, Hunan Province), and stayed for a few days in Muguashan. According to the record of Jiaqing Changde Prefecture: "Muguashan, 15 miles east of the prefecture. Tang Li Bai was banished to Yelang and passed through here, and had a poem." The poem is "Looking at Muguashan":

Waking up early to see the sunrise, and seeing the birds return in the evening.

The guest's heart is sour, not to mention the papaya mountain.

Li Bai's poem y expresses his miserable feelings in exile. In the first two lines of the poem, he uses the scene in front of him to express his feelings. In the morning, I saw the warm sun rising, and in the evening, I saw the happy birds returning to their nests one after another, which should be such a beautiful picture. In fact, all this is the poet in exile in the natural desire. How he wished the court like the sun to warm himself, recruited back to the faraway himself, how eager to return to their loved ones as happy as the birds return to their nests. But the reality is cold and cruel. Returning to reality from the poet's beautiful dream, what we see is his lonely and withered sitting from morning to night. The last two lines of the poem express the emotion. Papaya is ripe in autumn and its flavor is sour. The poet's heart is already sour, but he also has to face the papaya mountain full of papayas. It is really "sour" on top of "sour", sour and incomparable.

Li Bai stayed a few days in the papaya mountain, leaving an infinite sour poem, constituting a bright spot in the Changde banishment culture. It can be said that Changde is fortunate that the poet is unfortunate.

As for the name "Papaya Mountain", you can't hear it today. Where is the "papaya mountain"? Some experts believe that it should be in the area of Deshan Lufengling. As for the specific reference to which mountain ridge, it is still to be proved, it is necessary to prove.

Liu Yuxi and Sima Lou

Liu Yuxi (772-842), the word Mengde, Han nationality, Luoyang (now Luoyang City, Henan Province), Tang Dynasty, writer, philosopher, claimed to be a descendant of the King of Hanzhong Shanjing, served as a supervisory officer, was a member of the political reform group of Wang Shuwen. He was a member of Wang Shuwen's political reform group. He was a famous poet in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, and was known as "Poetry Hero". His family was a scholarly family with generations of Confucianism. He was one of the central figures of Wang Shuwen's political reform activities. He was later relegated to the post of Secretary of Langzhou (present-day Changde, Hunan) after the failure of Yongzhen's reforms. According to Mr. Zhou Xinguo, a historian and collector in Changde, Hunan Province, Liu Yuxi wrote the famous "Spring View of Hanshou City" during his relegation to the post of Secretary of Longzhou.

Hunan Changde history scholar, collector Mr. Zhou Xinguo "Wuling Collection of Treasures" records: Liu Yuxi was relegated to the Longzhou Secretary of State during which he wrote the famous "Han Shou City Spring Hope". In order to commemorate Liu Yuxi, the municipal government of Changde, Hunan Province, has built the "Sima Building" by the Liu Ye Lake.

Hanshou City Spring View

Text: (Preface) Ancient Pavilion of the Assassins of Jingzhou, underneath which there is a temple of Zixu and the former tomb of the King of Chu

Hanshou City is surrounded by wild grasses in the spring, and the deserted ancestral halls and ancient graves are opposite to the thorns and hazelnuts.

The pastures in the fields are burned by ruminants and dogs, and the pedestrians on the streets look at the stone forests.

The tablets were thunderbolts in the sky, and the inscriptions were full of dust.

I don't know when the East will change, but this place is still a major road.

Notes: Hanshou: county name, in today's Hunan Changde southeast. Thorns and hazelnuts: thorns and thorns. The first is to make a new one, and the second is to make a new one. Only see: vaguely visible. The East: the East China Sea. The main road: the main road of transportation.

Wang Changling replied to Wuling Taishou (i.e. Wuling Taishou)

Reply to Wuling Taishou

Wang Changling

Walked a thousand miles with his sword,

and dared to say a word with his small body.

Was once a guest of Daliang,

Not to be ashamed of the grace of Xinling.

Author

Wang Changling (王昌龄), with the character Shaobo (少伯), was a native of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, in the Tang Dynasty. He was born in the first year of the Shengli year of Empress Wu (A.D. 698) and died in about the second year of the Zhide year of Emperor Suzong (A.D. 757), at the age of about sixty. He was once the Prime Minister of Jiangning, and was known as "poet Wang Jiangning". In his later years, he was not modest, and he was deported (lowered in rank) several times to remote places in the wilderness. His poems were mostly about the scenery of the borders, and he was a famous poet of the borders. He was especially good at seven-character stanzas, and had the reputation of being a sage of seven stanzas, along with Li Bai.

Notes

(1) Answer to the governor of Wuling: A poem written in reply to the governor of Wuling (present-day Changde, Hunan Province) when he was bidding farewell.

(2) Battling with the Sword: with the sword in his hand.

(3) Micro body: a humble body.

(4) dare: to honor, containing the idea of presumption.

(5) Da Liang Hak: refers to Hou Ying, a hermit of Wei during the Warring States period, who was known to the Duke Xinling Jun at the age of seventy and was honored as his superior guest. He had advised the Duke to kill General Jiao Ling and send troops to save Zhao, which shook the world; Hou Win then committed suicide when the Duke arrived at the army to apologize for his crime.

(6) Xinling: refers to Jun Xinling Wei Wuji, the youngest son of King Zhao of Wei, benevolent and downhearted, with 3,000 diners, known as the Four Dukes of the Warring States along with Tian Wen, the Monarch of Mengchang of Qi, Zhao Sheng, the Monarch of Pingyuan of Zhao, and Huang She, the Monarch of Chunshen of Chu.

Translation

I have traveled over a thousand mountains with the sword in my hand, and despite my humble status, I have a presumptuous word to report to you. You once treated me with courtesy as a guest of Great Liang, and I, like Hou Win, will not fail Lord Xinling's kindness of knowing me.