---- An Analysis of the Metaphorical and Symbolic Meaning of the Water Imagery in Tang Poetry
Deep Concern
Du Fu was an active politician throughout his whole life, although his political career was greatly interrupted by the political and social upheavals in the late Tang period, especially the An Lu-shan Rebellion. Witnessing the Tang Dynasty’s transfer from prosperity to decent, Du Fu used his literal works to record such a transition. By depicting the harsh reality he saw in the warfare, Du Fu showed his deep concerns about the destiny of the country and sympathy towards people’s lives. The metaphor of water, indeed, was substantially imported to help us understand Du Fu’s feelings under specific scenarios.
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It is a traditional Chinese painting that depicts what Du Fu saw.
In his White Emperor 白帝, Du Fu started the poem with the following verses:
The high river runs fast through the gorges, peals of thunder contend, 高江急峡雷霆斗，
azure trees and gray vines, sun and moon are made murky.
古木苍藤日月昏。
These were the views Du Fu saw once he climbed up to the top of the white emperor tower. We can even imagine how turbulent the waves were because the river was on high terrain and between tall gorges, not to mention the ongoing rain. The sound of the water was mixed with the thunder, which created an overwhelming environment. Other terms within these two lines, “azure trees,” “gray vines,” and “murky sun and moon” exerted extra burdens on Du Fu’s mind. To Du Fu, such a scene was not simply a natural phenomenon but parallel to the political and social unrest around the An Lu-shan Rebellion. The emperor had fled to the south, but the people were left in the warfare and suffered from the violence conducted by the rebellion army. The Tang people’s daily life was as dark and overwhelming as the scene Du Fu was watching so that he fell into a mood of deep concern. What could he do? He had great political ambitions but could neither find a way to rescue the people from an abyss of misery nor assist the emperor to put down the rebellion. The water metaphor at the start of this poem does enable us to approach Du Fu’s complicated feelings more accurately.
Another representative water metaphor is found in Du Fu’s Climbing the Pagoda of Ci’en Temple with Various Gentlemen 同诸公登慈恩寺塔. Here, the metaphor is more ambiguous than that in the above poem, since it requires the knowledge that Jing and Wei are two old rivers that correspond to the adjectives “pure” and “turbid” respectively. If we move one step further, we can also say the terms Jing and Wei have the extended meaning of “correct” and “wrong.”
Qin’s hills were suddenly broken to pieces, 秦山忽破碎，
and Jing and Wei could not be found. 涇渭不可求。
The fragmentation of Qin’s hill implied the royal domain was being torn into pieces by the rebellion forces. The reference to Jing and Wei rivers, moreover, informed us of Du Fu’s attitudes towards social reality. At that time, within the country, there was a complete mess - the rebellion armies came into power and forced the emperor and his army to flee away. How could people tell the righteousness and wrongness behind such a mess? Were the rebellion forces justified? Certainly not, since they challenged the imperial power. Was the ruling Tang emperor justified because he was the one being attacked? The answer might also be no. Du Fu found it impossible to detect the boundaries between Jing and Wei, just as he was unable to judge the ongoing social and political upheavals. What could he do as an official in the court? He did not know. The only fact he felt certain about was people’s suffering, which was sufficient for him to be deeply concerned.
