登鹳雀楼
登鹳雀楼
登鹳雀楼 song que
登鹳雀楼
Dēng guàn què lóu
登(ascend)鹳雀(stork)楼(Tower)
Ascend Stork Tower
王之涣
Wáng zhī huàn / Wang Tsu-huan (688-742) was a famous Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty. He is well known for his highly popular 登鸛雀樓 poem.
白日依山尽，黄河入海流。
bái rì yī shān jǐn ，huánghé rù hǎi liú 。
White sun, leaning to the mountain, vanished. Yellow River, entering the sea, flowed.
白(white)日(sun)依(lean)山(mountain)尽(vanish)，黄(yellow)河(river)入(enter)海(sea)流(flow)。
欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。
Yù qióng qiānlǐ mù, gèng shàng yī céng lóu.
(If people) would like to fully utilize thousand-miles’ vision, they need to further ascend one more story of the tower.
yù qióng qiān lǐ mù ，gèng shàng yī céng lóu 。
欲(would like)穷(exhaust)千(thousand)里(mile)目(eye/vision)，更(further)上(ascend)一(one)层(layer/floor)楼(tower)。
Poem analysis:
Wang Zhihuan’s 登鹳雀楼, one of the best and the most popular Chinese poems, is #236 in the collection Three Hundred Tang Poems 唐诗三百首 Tang shi san bai shou which was compiled around 1763 by 孫诛 Sun Zhu (1722-1778), a Qing Dynasty scholar, also known as Hengtang Tuishi (衡塘退士 “Retired Master of Hengtang”).
白日依山尽，黄河入海流。
White sun, leaning to mountain, vanished. Yellow River, entering the sea, flowed.
The first two lines describe the scenes the poet saw when he ascended to the top floor of Stork Tower. The shining white sun leaned to the mountain and then vanished, and the Yellow River entered and flowed into the Eastern China Sea. The poet skillfully utilizes color contrasts, white (sun), yellow(river), blue(mountain), ocean(sea blue) and the splendid sunset color of the sky. The glorious beautiful sun setting scene clinging to the magnificent mountain combines a current surging, giant river flowing into the wave-rolling endless sea to be a truly splendid view!
欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。
(If people) would like to fully utilize thousand-miles’ vision, they need to further ascend one more story of the tower.
These two lines are straight to the point which explain the main idea of the poem – If a person would like to have the best sighting, he/she needs to climb to the highest place in order to take the advantage of bird’s eye view. Walking more stairs to the top is like paying extra effort to obtain certain goals you desire. There is no substitute for hard work and persistence. Same in learning Chinese, if you would like to have more advanced Chinese level, you should choose good materials, utilize effective learning strategies, and practice, practice, and practice some more…
Translated and analyzed by Shu
China’s famous tower: 中国名楼 005 鹳雀楼（上）
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