A night mooring by the Maple Bridge by Zhang Ji 張繼「楓橋夜泊」

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Hi everyone! We’re back again! If you’re a nomad writing on Steemit, do you think about home and past memories often? When you’re alone in front of your laptop, beer in hand, does the loneliness sometimes make you sad? Memories, alcohol and sadness often go hand in hand, at least it did in the old days and in the last two posts, we introduced poems about wine and sad memories. When the night comes, it seems to intensify our sadness, unlocking emotions that we’ve locked away somewhere, that’s why today we want to present to you a Tang poem about night time - “A night mooring by the Maple Bridge” by Zhang Ji.

### The Background

Amongst the Tang poets, Zhang Ji isn’t as well known as his contemporaries such as Li Bai, Du Fu and Li Shangyin, all whom we’ve introduced in the previous posts. However, his most famous poem, “Mooring by the Maple Bridge” is considered a classic and is studied by many today.

On an autumn evening, the poet moored his boat by the Maple Bridge in Suzhou and he was fascinated by the serenity of the evening and the beautiful view around him.

The poem mentions “gū sū”, this is modern day Suzhou. In the south west of Suzhou, there is a Hanshan Temple, and by the temple are two bridges, Jiancun Bridge and Maple Bridge. This poem is based on the latter.

According to historical records, Maple Bridge is also called Seal Bridge (as is sealing off something), the two words sounding the same in Chinese. There are many maple trees by this stretch of river, hence the first name of the bridge. The second name came about because in those days there was quite a lot of pirates and robbery around the river side, so the bridge was sealed off overnight. None of the vessels could pass through at night time, so Zhang had to stay on board overnight, making him feel a bit lonely and stranded.

### A night mooring by the Maple Bridge by Zhang Ji

月落烏啼霜滿天，江楓漁火對愁眠。
yuè luò wū tí shuāng mǎn tiān ， jiāng fēng yú huǒ duì chóu mián 。

姑蘇城外寒山寺，夜半鐘聲到客船。
gū sū chéng wài hán shān sì ， yè bàn zhōng shēng dào kè chuán 。

### The Composition

There are four lines in A night mooring by the Maple Bridge, and is best explained in three parts.

#### **Part 1 : The night view on a quiet evening

月落烏啼霜滿天」
yuè luò wū tí shuāng mǎn tiān

The moon has gone down, the raven is calling, and the sky is covered in white frost

#### **Part 2 : The river view on a quiet evening

「江楓漁火對愁眠」
jiāng fēng yú huǒ duì chóu mián

The maples by the river and the lights from the boats, makes me sad and keeps me awake at night
解釋：我對著江邊的楓樹與船上的漁火，滿懷愁緒 ，難以入眠。

Part 3 : Breaking the silence at night

「姑蘇城外寒山寺，夜半鐘聲到客船。」
gū sū chéng wài hán shān sì ， yè bàn zhōng shēng dào kè chuán 。

The Hanshan Temple outside of Gu Su are ringing their bells, and the midnight chimes travel all the way to my boat

### The Poetic Structure 格律特點

**Sentence**

There are four lines in this poem making it a quatrain (a poem that consist of four lines) , and each line has seven words, so this is classified as a 7 word quatrain.

**Rhythm**

The final in the last word in the second line is mián and in the fourth line is chuán. Both end with the same final “n” thus is follow the rhyming characteristic required for a 7 word quatrain

### Highlight from the poem

「夜半鐘聲到客船」
è bàn zhōng shēng dào kè chuán

“The midnight chimes travel all the way to my boat”

In Hong Kong, when we admire the night scenery we normally go up to the famous Peak and look back down to the beautiful view. We rarely have the opportunity to sit by the peaceful river side and listen to bells chiming like Zhang Ji did.

In the poem, we can visualise the moon from far above, the ravens calling in the sky, the frosty night, maples by the river and lights from the boats. Then we have the sleepless traveller on the boat, stranded overnight not going anywhere. Suddenly, the silence is broken by the bells chimes from far away. Although physically awake, the chimes awakes Zhang Ji from his deep thoughts. Sitting in his boat which rocks gently in the river, all this makes him even more sadder.