Dock the Boat by the Maple Bridge at Night

By Zhang Ji (Tang Dynasty)

Crows were crowing after the moon had set, and the cold was strong at night,

the traveler who accompanied by maple trees and fishing fires slept with gloomy mood.

The lonely and quiet Hanshan Temple outside Suzhou City,

the sound of Midnight bells reached the passenger boat. 

枫桥夜泊

（唐）张继

叶落乌啼霜满天，江枫渔火对愁眠。

姑苏城外寒山寺，夜半钟声到客船。

Creative background

After the An Shi Rebellion, due to political instability, many literati, including Zhang Ji, fled to the present-day Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions to avoid the chaos. One autumn night, the poet docked at Maple Bridge outside Suzhou. The beautiful autumn night scenery attracted him, which made him appreciate a meaningful poetic beauty, and wrote this poem with clear artistic conception.

Introduction of related words

1.     Maple Bridge: it’s outside Changmen, Fengqiao Street, Huqiu District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

2.     Midnight bells: Today's Buddhist temples only ring the bell in the middle of the night on Spring Festival’s Eve, but in the Tang Dynasty, Buddhist temples in Suzhou and surrounding areas had a habit of ringing bells at midnight, also known as "temporary bells".

About Zhang Ji

Zhang Ji is a poet in Tang Dynasty. His poems have a significant impact on future generations but there are less than 50 poems to be recorded.

In the last year of the Dali era, Zhang Ji passed away from illness just over a year after taking office as a salt and iron judge.

I have something to say

Today I must say that Chinese language is the most beautiful language in the world. It can exactly express every mood you want to talk and describe your feelings in kinds of words, but the biggest premise is that you read and learn more about it. Of course, we also can use the normal words to envoy our ideas, it is vernacular, but dialect in China is a great learning.

Our language is full of intelligence, humor and power, it is as beautiful as any kind of painting,

If you want to feel the beautiful of Chinese language, you can’t miss the poems.