Niu Qiao is famous for his poetry and is an important poet of the Huajian Ci School. His style of poetry is similar to that of Wen Tingyun, with rich and distinctive themes. Boudoir poems are sincere and full of emotions, and are good at depicting the complex inner world of characters through various movements and expressions. China has always attached great importance to the doctrine of the mean, which states that “the unexpressed emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are called the middle, and the balanced emotions are called the sum” (The Doctrine of the Mean), which means that everything must have a suitable degree. This idea is usually expressed in literature. Literati do not always prefer to express their inner world directly when expressing emotions, but are good at using fixed images that have been formed in long-term cultural accumulation to tactfully express their inner feelings of joy or sadness. The establishment of these images usually requires long-term accumulation of national cultural psychology. Only in this way can an unspoken consensus be reached, and emotional resonance can be formed when reading works with such images. This poem ‘Dream of Jiangnan’ uses the imagery of swallows, which often appears in classical poetry, to express the protagonist’s inner emotions.
牛峤以词著名，是花间词派的一位重要词人，其词风格类似温庭筠，题材丰富而有特色。闺怨词情感真挚充沛，善于通过对各种动作神态的描写来展现人物复杂的内心世界。中国历来重视中庸之道，“喜怒哀乐之未发谓之中，发而皆中节谓之和”(《中庸》)，即凡事都要有合适的度，这种思想在文学中通常会得以表现。文人在表达情意时并不完全喜好直白地倾诉内心世界，而是善于借助已经在长久的文化积淀中形成的固定意象，委婉地诉说内心或喜悦或悲伤的情愫。这些意象的建立通常需要长期的民族文化心理的沉淀，唯有如此，方能达成不言而喻的共识，才可以在品读带有这种意象的作品时能够心领神会而形成情感上的共鸣。这首《梦江南》就是借助在古典诗词中常常出现的燕子意象表述主人公内心的情感。
牛峤·《梦江南·其一》
衔泥燕，
飞到画堂前。
占得杏梁安稳处，
体轻唯有主人怜，
堪羡好姻缘。
“Dreaming of the South”（1） (Meng chiang-nan)
Niu Chiao
A swallow, mud in its beak,
Flies to the front of the painted hall.
It has found a safe and secure haven in the beams.
The fragile swallow has stirred the master’s pity.
One can only envy this fortunate union!
（Lois Fusek 译）
