The charm of Tang poetry lies in that unique feeling, that unique charm, if you use plain language to explain the meaning of the poem, it will completely lose the feeling, which makes people feel quite boring.

But for many foreigners who are not Tang literati, if they don't explain in plain language, they can't understand it at all, and they can't understand it at all, just like Li Xiaolu in front of her, although she can feel the beauty of the poem, but she can't figure out what the poem means at all, she just feels that the rhyme is in place and sounds very feeling.

Ang Lee is also idle and bored, so he has enough time to explain, tell Li Xiaolu what every sentence in the poem means, if Li Xiaolu still can't understand, Ang Lee can continue to explain until Li Xiaolu fully understands.

The unique charm of Datang poetry lies in the fact that it can express extremely colorful content in the shortest language, and those who understand will know what is going on as soon as they hear it, and they will be amazed, and those who don't understand will never understand.

Li An can't guarantee that after he explains, Li Xiaolu will definitely be able to understand the meaning of the Tang Dynasty poems, but in general, she will definitely understand some of them, just because she has not lived in the Tang Dynasty since she was a child, so she does not have the background of the Tang literati, so it is naturally difficult to understand the unique charm of the Tang Dynasty poems.

Good tea needs to be tasted carefully to taste, and the same is true for good wine, especially for beauties with souls, and poetry is no exception, which needs to be savored.

Ang Lee can easily taste the unique charm of the poems, but for Li Xiaolu, this is too difficult, even if Ang Lee explains it in person, she listens to it a little foggy, just to cater to Ang Lee, she said that she can understand, in fact, she can't taste the charm of the Tang Dynasty poetry at all, if a foreigner can taste the charm of the Tang Dynasty poetry casually, then the Tang poetry is too worthless.

"It's not easy to understand, it doesn't matter, Datang poetry is not something that foreigners can understand casually, it's normal to not understand, but as long as you live in Datang for a long time, you should be able to understand it, and you need enough background to understand Tang poetry, that is, the foundation of living and studying in Datang."

Li An broke through Li Xiaolu, who pretended to understand, and told her that it was not a shame if she didn't understand, a foreigner can learn the language and writing of the Tang Dynasty, it is already very remarkable, and you really can't expect too much, and learning is also gradual, not overnight, you can't expect Li An to explain it once, Li Xiaolu can understand, that is too unrealistic.

"The poignant love story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is so touching, although I don't understand these poems very well, but after listening to Li Shilang's explanation, I can still understand the meaning, these poems are so interesting, just a few words, can express so many meanings, it's incredible."

Li Xiaolu said in surprise.

Li An nodded and said: "That's for sure, there are too many interesting places in Datang poetry, and there are many places that you need to taste carefully to understand the meaning. ”

"Hehe, the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl has also been told, there are so many stars in the sky, does each star have a moving story?"

Li Xiaolu looked at the stars outside the window and asked curiously.

Li An nodded with a smile, and said affirmatively: "This is natural, every star in the sky has a story, there are too many stories, which one do you want to hear?" ”

Li Xiaolu casually pointed in one direction and said, "A few stars over there are like a spoon, is there also a poignant love story?" ”

Li An looked up, it turned out to be the Big Dipper, and it was also a very famous star, almost everyone in the Tang Dynasty knew about the Big Dipper.

The Big Dipper is composed of seven stars: Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Yaoguang.

Among them, Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji and Tianquan form the dou body, which is called Kui in ancient times, while Yuheng, Kaiyang and Yaoguang form the bucket handle, which is called ladle in ancient times.

When it comes to the Big Dipper, we must mention the North Star, the position of the North Star, in the Big Dipper Tianxuan, five times the position of the extension line of the Tianshu, and the three stars of Tianshu, Tianxuan and Polaris, are always in a straight line, which is very interesting, and at the same time, it is also the reliance of the Chinese people to identify the direction.

Because the North Star is always in the direction of due north, as long as you find the North Star, you can know where the east, west, north and south are in, and you will be able to get out of the predicament.

And Taoism put the Big Dipper in a very important position, and gave each star of the Big Dipper the name of the constellation, which is called the Big Dipper.

For example, Tianshu Palace's Greedy Wolf Star Monarch, Tianxuan Palace's Jumen Star Monarch, Tianji Palace's Lucun Star Monarch, Tianquan Palace's Wenqu Star Monarch, Yuheng Palace's Lian Zhen Star Monarch, Kaiyang Palace's Wuqu Star Monarch, and Shake Light Palace's Broken Army Star Monarch.

The status of the Big Dipper in ancient China is very lofty, it can be said that all the stars revolve around the Big Dipper, and the Big Dipper orbits around the North Star, so the status of the North Star is higher, higher than the Big Dipper.

However, although there are many stories about the Big Dipper, there are not many love stories, maybe there are, but not too many people know, when it comes to poignant love stories, everyone thinks of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and no one will think of the Big Dipper.

In ancient China, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl represented more love, while the Big Dipper represented power, especially in Taoism, almost all of them mythologized the Big Dipper.

For example, the Tianquan Star in the Big Dipper, also known as Wenqu Xingjun, is in charge of the literary movement of the world, and all the officials in the world who have written good articles and are hired by the imperial court are all Wenqu Xing, such as Bigan, Fan Zhongyan, Bao Zheng, Wen Tianxiang, etc., these people are all Wenqu Xing.

Because in the story of the Big Dipper, Ang Lee can't think of a love story, so he can only tell some knowledge of discerning directions.

"You saw it! To the north of this spoon, there is a brighter star, that is the North Star, which is always in the direction of due north, and the spoon mouth of the spoon will always be facing the North Star, if you get lost at night, as long as you see the North Star, you can find your way home. ”

Li An pointed to the North Star directly opposite the Big Dipper and said.

"The Big Dipper and the North Star, it turns out that these stars have names! You can also discern the direction, so try it next time. ”

Li Xiaolu said excitedly.

In fact, the West also had astronomy a long time ago, although it is far from the astronomy of the Tang Dynasty, but the brightest stars have names and legends, just because Li Xiaolu's family is poor, there are no scholars in the family, and they don't know the knowledge of astronomy, they only know that the bright spot in the sky is the stars, and later after becoming a dancing girl, she has never heard of the story of the stars, so she has never known that there are so many interesting stories about the stars in the sky.

"See the brightest star? It's called Sirius, and it's the brightest in the sky except for the moon. ”

Ang Lee pointed to Sirius in the sky and spoke.

Because of its distance from the Earth, Sirius is the brightest star in the sky except for the Sun, and although the Moon is brighter, the Moon is a satellite of the Earth, not a star.

In addition to the moon, which looks like a giant moon, there are also Venus and Jupiter, both of which are planets in the solar system, because they are relatively close to the earth, so the brightness is naturally larger.

However, because Venus orbits on the inner side of the Earth, you can see Venus either a little before sunrise or a little after sunset.

When it appears in the east in the early morning, we take it as the morning star, and in the evening on the west side of the sky, it is called Chang Gung, in fact, it is Venus, it is completely a star, a star other than the moon, the largest and brightest star.

Either way, the brightest star to see in the middle of the night is Sirius, and as long as you ignore the moon, Sirius is the boss.

"Sirius, such a domineering name, why is it called that?"

Li Xiaolu asked curiously.

Li Ang didn't know how to explain it, and said, "It's just a name, why bother why it's called this name?" However, there are also many poems about Sirius. ”

"Oh, and I'm going to read poetry again! I listened. ”

Li Xiaolu said.

Li An pondered for a moment and said, "The old man is crazy about youth, leading Huang on the left and Qingcang on the right. Brocade hat mink fur, thousands of horses roll flat gang. In order to repay the city, follow the Taishou, shoot the tiger in person, and watch Sun Lang. The wine is still open, and the temples are slightly frosty, so what's the matter! In the clouds, when will Feng Tang be sent? Will hold the bow like a full moon, look northwest, and shoot the wolf. ”

This is a poem written by Mr. Su Shi Su Dongpo in the Song Dynasty, expressing his strong desire for the old man to pacify the Western Xia, of course, this represents the idea of the entire Song Dynasty literary circle, many people with lofty ideals are full of enthusiasm, hoping that the imperial court will pacify the Western Xia as soon as possible and change the situation of poverty and weakness in the Great Song Dynasty.

After all, at that time, after the Northern Song Dynasty signed the alliance with the Liao State, it signed a contract with the Western Xia State to give the Western Xia 72,000 taels of silver, 153,000 horses and 30,000 catties of tea every year, which was not much less than the materials sent to the Liao State.

Although the Great Song Empire is relatively wealthy, it can't withstand such a serious toss! It is simply a shame for a rich country to pay tribute to two poor countries year after year, and this not only greatly damages the prestige of the Great Song Empire, but also causes great financial pressure on the Great Song Dynasty.

However, in this poem, looking northwest and shooting the wolf, it seems a little wrong, after all, the northwest Sirius in the poem represents the Western Xia regime, but the real Sirius in the sky is in the southern hemisphere, if Su Shi looks at the northwest sky, how can he see Sirius? This is very strange, could it be that Sirius in the Great Song Dynasty was in the Northern Hemisphere, or maybe Sirius in the Great Song Dynasty was different from Sirius in later generations, and it was not the same star.

In addition, there is a similar description in Chu Ci, the great poet Qu Yuan, there is a poem "Qingyun clothes are white and neon, and long arrows are raised to shoot the wolf". The Sirius here alludes to Qiang Qin, who was in the northwest of Chu at that time, and it seems to tell us that Sirius is in the northwest, but Sirius in later generations is indeed in the southern hemisphere, which is very strange.

Of course, many scientists in later generations have also given a more reasonable explanation, for example, there is an arc-shaped constellation like a bow and arrow in the southeast direction of Sirius, and this arc-shaped constellation is aimed at Sirius in its northwest direction.

There is also a sentence in the historical records called "Arc Nine Stars, in the southeast of the wolf, the heavenly bow also, the main thief, often with the wolf".

In other words, the Arc Nine Stars, located in the southeast of Sirius, are used to deal with Sirius. Notice that the arc is a bow and the arrow is an arrow; The arc is located in the southeast of the wolf, and the wolf is in the northwest of the arc. In other words, the ancients believed that Sirius was a wild general, the main invasion, and a sign of invasion of foreign enemies; The arc arrow is a celestial bow, which is used to shoot foreign invaders in response to the invasion of foreign enemies.

If you explain it in this way, you can also understand what it means in Su Shi's poems, looking northwest and shooting the wolf.

However, it can also be seen from this poem that the Great Song Dynasty would rather contribute to foreign enemies every year than form a powerful military group to eliminate these hated foreign enemies.

As for what the reason is, of course, there are many aspects, one is that the enemy is indeed very strong, and it is not something that the Great Song Dynasty can easily defeat, and the Great Song Dynasty Court did not have to offer New Year's coins to the Western Xia from the beginning, and also fought a lot of battles, but the number of victories is not much, and the number of defeats is quite a lot, it is really not easy to beat the Western Xia.

After all, since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, it has been facing a very serious problem, that is, the territory of raising horses is not in its own hands, which has caused the scarcity of the number of cavalry in the Great Song Dynasty, and the difficulty of using huge infantry to conquer the Western Xia, which is almost entirely cavalry, can be imagined.

The mobility of the Western Xia cavalry must be far stronger than that of the Great Song infantry, and by taking advantage of the mobility, they can attack at any time in a combined attack and attack the logistics supply of the Great Song Dynasty in a roundabout way, thus making it difficult for the Great Song Dynasty army to win, and finally causing the submission of the Great Song Dynasty.

Of course, the weakness of the Great Song Dynasty, in addition to the small number of cavalry, also has a very important reason, that is, the fear of rebellion by military generals, so in many ways there are restrictions on military generals, and the political status of military generals is very low, far inferior to that of literati.