The hymn of the peacock: The peacock flies southeast, lingering for five miles.
Meaning: The peacock flies toward the southeast, wandering for a while every five miles.
Source: "The Peacock Flies Southeast" is the first long narrative poem in the history of Chinese literature, and is also the peak work in the history of the development of Yuefu poetry. Later generations praised it and the Northern Dynasties' "Mulan Poetry" as "the twin gems of Yuefu" ".
Excerpts from the original text: Preface: In Jian'an at the end of the Han Dynasty, the wife of Jiao Zhongqing, a minor official in Lujiang Prefecture, was sent by Zhongqing's mother, Liu, and she swore not to marry. Forced by his family, he drowned himself. When Zhongqing heard about it, he also hanged himself in the courtyard tree. When people hurt it, it became a poem.
Translation: Preface: During the Jian'an period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu, the wife of Jiao Zhongqing, a minor official in Lujiang Prefecture, was driven back to her natal family by Zhongqing's mother. She vowed not to remarry. But her family members kept forcing her to remarry, so she had no choice but to commit suicide by drowning. After hearing the news of his wife's death, Jiao Zhongqing also hanged himself from a tree in the courtyard of his home. People at that time mourned them and wrote such a poem.
Extended information
The two lines at the beginning of the poem "The peacock flies southeast, wandering five miles away" are commonly used metaphors in ancient poetry.
Zhu Xi said : "The person who narrates is to state the matter directly." "The person who compares is to compare the other thing to this thing." "The person who is enthusiastic is to say something else first to elicit the words to be chanted."
The entire text following the first two sentences of "The Peacock Flying Southeast" is all about "stating the facts and speaking directly", and these first two sentences are "preface to other things to arouse the interest of the words to be chanted", "to express the meaning of the poem" "That thing is better than this thing."
“Compare that thing to this thing”, there must be a similarity between the ontology and the metaphor; “Preface other things to trigger the chanted words”, the prefaced thing and the chanted words must be related There is relevance.
As for the beginning of the poem "Peacock Flying Southeast": the beauty of the peacock is used as a metaphor for the beauty of Lanzhi, and the "five miles and one wander" of the peacock when flying is used as a metaphor for the hesitation and hesitation in Lanzhi's heart when making a decisive move. And lingering pathos.
Classification of peacocks
1. Blue peacock: It is the most cultivated peacock species. After the state approved the breeding of peacocks, the breeding of peacock seedlings has appeared all over the country. It is effective It reduces the malicious killing of peacocks and at the same time meets people's demand for rare birds and game. Peacocks are full of treasures. Artificially bred peacocks can be eaten, viewed, and used as various handicrafts or specimens.
2. Black peacock: It is a variant of the wild blue peacock. It is extremely rare and is an extremely precious ornamental bird. The mutation rate is less than 1/1000.
3. White peacock: Its whole body is white and flawless, its feathers are unvaried, and its eyes are light red. When the tail is opened, the white peacock looks like a beautiful and dignified girl, wearing a snow-white noble wedding dress, swinging left and right, dancing gracefully, very beautiful. On average, only one white peacock can mutate out of a thousand blue peacocks.
4. Green Peacock: Only distributed in southern Yunnan. They live in river valleys below 2,000 meters above sea level. They also live in open areas of shrubs, bamboo forests, and woods. Most often seen in pairs, there are also groups of three to five. Food mainly consists of mushrooms, young grasses, leaves, termites and other insects.