I can do this question! I learned it when I was in school, and it means, A person is alone as a guest in another country.
Where is this quote from? --Tang Dynasty-Wang Wei, "Remembering Shandong Brothers on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month"
The complete original text reads:
A person alone in a foreign land is a guest, and he misses his relatives twice as much at every festive season.
There is no doubt that the brothers have climbed to the top of the mountain, and there are fewer dogwoods to be found.
I've put out the translation for you to understand:
A person who is a guest in another country alone misses his relatives twice as much on festivals.
When I think of my brothers, I think of the time when I was looking at the sky, and my head was full of dogwoods, and I was the only one missing.
Here are some words that I think are more important, explained separately for you to see:
September 9: that is, the Chongyang Festival. In ancient times, nine was the number of Yang, so it was called Chongyang.
Remember: miss.
Shandong: Wang Wei moved to Puxian County (present-day Yongji City, Shanxi Province), east of the Hangu Pass and Mount Huashan, so it is called Shandong.
Foreign land: other land, foreign land.
For a foreign guest: to be a guest in another country.
Good Festivals: good festivals.
Denggao: the ancient custom of ascending the heights on the Chongyang Festival.
Juyu (zhūyú): refers to Cornus officinalis. It is the nearly mature fruit of Cornus officinalis (Cornus officinalis) in the family of Rutaceae.
Compendium of Materia Medica> Cornus officinalis, cited by Su Song, Zhou Chu, the "record of wind and earth" cloud: "the common September 9 is called on the ninth, Cornus officinalis to this day, the gas is strong ripe color red, can be folded in its room to the plug, the cloud of the evil gas to winter." And "continued Qi Harmony Records" cloud: "Ru Nan Huan Jing with Fei Chang Fang learning Tao, long room said: 'September 9, your family has a disaster, it is appropriate to make the rush to go, each for the reddish-red capsule Sheng Cornus to tie the arm, climbed high to drink chrysanthemum wine, this disaster can be eliminated.' Jing as he said, the family climbed the mountain, the evening back, see the chickens, dogs, cows and sheep a violent death. Changfang heard said: 'this generation is carried out.' The old man to this day, climbing high drinking, wearing cornelian cherry bladder, thus." From this, the cornelian cherry in Wang Wei's poem, when it refers to Cornus officinalis.
If you only read the article, it may be difficult to understand the meaning of the poem, so we have to combine the article with the context of the creation of the poem:
The poem was written when Wang Wei was seventeen years old. Wang Wei was drifting alone between Luoyang and Chang'an, and he was a native of Puzhou (present-day Yongji, Shanxi Province), which is to the east of Mount Huashan, so he called his brothers in his hometown his Shandong brothers.
Since we have come to this point, let's enjoy and analyze this article:
This poem writes about the traveler's homesickness and nostalgia for his relatives. The poem begins with the title, writing about the loneliness of living in a foreign land, and therefore always miss the countryside, and when the festivals and good times, the thoughts are doubled. Then the poem jumps to write about his brother who is far away from his hometown, and when he climbs the heights according to the custom of Chung Yeung Festival, he also misses himself. The meaning of the poem is repeated and jumping, implicit and deep, simple and natural, but with twists and turns. In the poem, "I miss my relatives twice as much as I do at festivals" is a famous line from the ancient times.
"Alone in a foreign land, I am a foreigner", the opening sentence shows the poet's feeling of loneliness in a foreign land. The poet used one "alone" and two "different" words in this short sentence, which can be seen in the poet's strong sense of being a guest in a foreign land, and the lonelier he was, the more intense the poet's nostalgia for his hometown loved ones was. At that time, in the feudal society, the transportation was closed, people were living a self-sufficient life, and there were fewer exchanges between regions, so there were great differences between people in different places in terms of customs, living habits, language, etc. Therefore, the poet left his hometown where he had been living for many years to live in a foreign place, and naturally he felt unfamiliar and lonely. The poet narrates plainly that he is in a foreign land, but it contains the poet's simple thoughts and feelings.
If the feeling of homesickness may not be so strong on weekdays, then the poet "misses his family twice as much at festivals". "Festival" is the relatives reunion days, everyone together to talk and laugh, and now it is, the poet is only living in a foreign land, in the delegation round the festival can not help but think of the hometown of the people and things, mountains and water and other poets in their hometowns in the good memories, all kinds of memories triggered poets infinite homesickness, and the more you think of the more you think of it, and so on and so forth. The more he thinks about it, the more he misses it, so much so that it gets out of hand. This line is written in a natural and simple way, as if telling the story, but also wrote out the true feelings of many wandering travelers, very representative.
The first two sentences can be said to be the "direct method" of artistic creation. Almost without any detour, but straight to the core, quickly form a climax, appear a cautionary tale. But this writing method often makes the last two sentences difficult to follow, resulting in a lack of strength. In the last two lines of this poem, if we follow the line extension of "I miss my family more than ever during the festive season", it would be too much; and it would be difficult to form a new climax with a new idea. The author takes another way: immediately after the feelings of the torrent, there is a large rippling lake, seems to be calm, but actually more deep.
"Remote knowledge of the brothers climbed high", the poet from the direct expression of his feelings, turn the pen to write to his own associations of loved ones reunion, remote thought of the brothers in the Chung Yeung Festival climbed the high mountains, the body inserted cornelian cherry, how happy it is. If the poet is only think of the joy of relatives, can relieve the poet's homesickness, but the poet in the end wrote "all inserted cornelian cherry less a person", the original poet thought of is not joy, but their own did not in their hometowns and relatives to celebrate the festival, so the relatives in the insertion of cornelian cherry will also find less a person, so the relatives will certainly be I'm sure they will miss me. This is a twist and turn that is out of the ordinary. And this kind of out-of-the-ordinary place is exactly its profound place, the new police place. Du Fu's "Moonlight Night": "I feel sorry for the little children, but I don't know how to remember Chang'an" is similar to these two lines, but Wang's poem seems to be even less focused.
Finally, about the author Wang Wei, I believe we are all very familiar with, here I will briefly re-introduce it:
Wang Wei (701-761, a said 699-761), the word Moqizi (jié), the name Moqizi Jushi. Han nationality, east of the river Pozhou (now Shanxi Yuncheng) people, ancestor of Shanxi Qixian, Tang Dynasty poet, has the "Poetry Buddha". Su Shi commented, "Taste Mochizume's poetry, there is a painting in the poem; see Mochizume's painting, there is a poem in the painting." In the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Kaiyuan (721), he was awarded a bachelor's degree and served as the Prime Minister of Taile. During the reign of Tianbao, he was appointed as a minister of the Ministry of Revenue and a counselor. During the Qianyuan reign of Emperor Suzong of Tang, he became the right minister of the Shangshu, and was known as "Right Minister Wang". Wang Wei is a representative of the poets of the Sheng Tang Dynasty, with more than 400 poems surviving today, including the important poems "Xiang Si" and "Autumn Night in a Mountain Dwelling". Wang Wei was well versed in Buddhism and was greatly influenced by Zen Buddhism. In Buddhism, there is a Vimalakirti Sutra, which is the origin of Wang Wei's name and character. Wang Wei was famous for his poetry, calligraphy and painting, and he was a versatile artist who was also very good at music. He and Meng Haoran were known as "Wang and Meng".