Introduction: "Cutting Sandalwood" is a folk song from the Wei State. It is a poem that mocks the exploiters for eating without working. The whole poem strongly reflects the resentment of the working people against the rulers at that time. It is one of the most representative poems against exploitation and oppression in the "Book of Songs".
Cutting down the sandalwood The Book of Songs·Guofeng·Wei Feng
Cutting down the sandalwood in the ridges and places on the dry side of the river, the water is clear and rippled.
If you don’t farm, you won’t be able to farm (astringent), and you will get three hundred pieces of grain (tangled)?
If you don’t hunt, you won’t be able to hunt (stick), and you will have a county (hanging) in Erting. Are you hungry?
That gentleman is not a vegetarian!
The river is surrounded by rough terrain and is placed on the side of the river. The water is clear and straight.
If you don’t farm or scrounge, will you waste thirty billion of grain?
If you don’t hunt or hunt, will Hu Zhanerting have the characteristics of a county?
That gentleman is not a vegetarian!
The road is rough and the wheel is cut, and the river is pure (pure). The river water is clear and pure.
If there is no cropping and no sifting, what will happen if there is no harvesting?
If there is no hunting, how will there be quails in the county?
That gentleman is here, not Su Xiang (grandson)!
Notes:
Kankan: onomatopoeia, the sound of logging.
Sandalwood: Green sandalwood tree. The wood is hard and can be used as car material.
Set: Same as "set".
Gan: shore, waterside.
Lian: water ripples.
Yi (pronounced yīyi): has the same meaning as "xi", and is a modal particle.
Jia (sound frame): sowing.
瑑(tone): Harvest.
Hu: Why.
Grain: grain.
Three hundred: It’s an extremely large number, not a real number.
Yan (sound cicada), an ancient system of hundreds of acres. Three hundred silks, three hundred households.
Hunting: winter hunting. Hunting: Night hunting. This poem refers to hunting in general.
County: Hanging, later written as "Xuan".
Pi (sound ring): pig badger. The shape is slightly like a pig, but also like a raccoon dog.
Gentleman: This is an irony, referring to a person with status and power.
Vegetarian meal: Eating for free, getting something for nothing. Ma Ruichen's "General Interpretation of Mao's Poems" quotes Zhao Qi's note from "Mencius": "Eating without doing anything is called a vegetarian meal."
Spoke: The spoke on the wheel.
Straight: Straight waves of water flow.
Billions: Tens of millions are called billions, and one hundred thousand were also called billions in ancient times.
Zhan: looking forward or upward.
Special: Little beast. "The Biography of Mao": "The beast is called Te when he is three years old"
Wheel: wheel. This refers to cutting sandalwood into a wheel.
漘(sound lip): waterside.
Fallen: small ripples.
囷(sound qūn逡): bundle. Talk about a round barn.
Quail (pure sound): the name of the bird.
駧(sound-sun): cooked food, this generally refers to eating.
廛：曰
Translation:
The sound of cutting down sandalwood trees is loud,
The fallen trees are piled up by the river,
p>
The river water is clear and the waves are flowing.
If you don’t sow, you won’t harvest.
Why are you moving three hundred sheaves home?
If you don’t hunt in winter, you won’t hunt at night.
< p> Why do you see pigs, badgers and raccoons hanging in your yard?Those gentlemen,
don’t live for nothing!
Cut down sandalwood trees to make carts Radials,
put them in a pile by the river.
The river water is clear and flowing.
If you don’t sow, you won’t reap.
Why do you have to collect three hundred sheaves alone?
If you don’t hunt in winter, you won’t hunt at night.
< p> Why do you see animals hanging from the pillars in your courtyard?Those gentlemen,
Don’t eat in vain!
Cut down the sandalwood tree and make it Wheels,
Every tree fell down by the riverside.
The river water is clear and ripples.
If you don’t sow, you won’t harvest.
Why should you swallow three hundred sheaves of grain?
If you don’t hunt in winter, you won’t hunt at night.
Why do I see quail hanging in your yard?
Those gentlemen,
Don’t eat meat for nothing!
Appreciation:
This is one of the most familiar passages in the Book of Songs, and is even used as a textbook in middle school Chinese textbooks. However, the differences in views on the purpose of this poem and the identity of its author are astonishing, not only among the ancients, but also among the ancients. The same is true for people today. The earliest "Poetry Preface" thought it was "a stab at greed. Being greedy in power, receiving salary without merit, a gentleman cannot be an official"; Zhu Xi also thought that "this poem is dedicated to the beauty of a gentleman's non-vegetarian meal."
"Preface" talks about stabbing greed and loses its purpose" ("Preface to Poetry"); Liang Yin's "Romance of Poetry" is also called "the ambition of a beautiful gentleman to live in seclusion"; He Kai's "The Classic of Songs" and Zhu Mouwei Another new theory in "Shi Gu" is that He thinks it was "written by Min Shangyuankuang, a daughter of the Wei Dynasty", and Zhu thinks it is "a poem by father and brother to encourage their children". There are other similar ones, but I won't list them one by one. The social nature, mode of production, and author's class attributes and living conditions of the era in which the poem belongs are different, so there are some different opinions. Some think that the poet is a farmer and this is an anti-feudal poem; some think that the poet is a slave. This article criticizes the slave-owning aristocrats for getting something for nothing; others are generally poems about ancient workers opposing exploiters, and the other category is diametrically opposed to the above opinions, or it is believed that the slave-owning aristocrats "attacked from the standpoint of well-field ownership." "Emerging feudal exploitation"; or it is considered to be "a hymn for those who work hard to govern others. What it promotes is an idea that exploitation is justified and 'vegetarian meals' are legal." The latter view seems novel, but is actually derived from ancient explanations. , there are very few people who agree with it.
This article regards this article as an anti-exploitation poem. As for the social nature and identity of the poet at that time, it is difficult to confirm due to insufficient historical data. For the time being, I will retain the opinion of my "Selected Commentary on the Book of Songs", that is, : This is the song of the loggers. When a group of loggers cut down sandalwood trees to build cars, they were very angry when they thought that the exploiters did not plant crops or hunt, but they took possession of the fruits of their labor. You and I made a cry for criticism in three chapters. The poems overlap and have the same meaning. They can be divided into three levels according to the poet's emotional development: the first two sentences directly describe the hard work of cutting sandalwood and building a car, and the third sentence turns to describing the lyrical feelings. This is found in "The Book of Songs". "When the loggers transported the sandalwood trees they had cut down by their own hands to the river, they could not help but marvel at the rippling clear water. The beauty of nature was pleasing to the eye, and it also brought temporary relief to these loggers. However, this is only a momentary feeling because they are burdened with the shackles of heavy oppression and exploitation, but they naturally flow freely from the river, thinking that they are engaged in heavy labor all day long and have no freedom at all. , thus arousing the injustice in their hearts, so on the second level, they thought about logging and building cars, but also planting crops and hunting for the exploiters, but all these harvests were taken away, and they had nothing, and the more angry they became, the more helpless they became. Suppressed, he couldn't help but raise a severe question: "If you don't farm or scrounge, how can you get three hundred grains of grain without working? If you don't hunt or hunt, how can there be a county of Hu Zhan'erting?" The third layer continued this and further exposed the exploiters to get something for nothing. The parasitic nature of the film, and the clever use of irony to conclude: "That gentleman is not a vegetarian", mocking the exploiters, highlighting the theme, and expressing the rebellious anger hidden in the chest!
Three chapters of this article Futa, in addition to chanting repeatedly in different rhymes to more effectively express the woodcutter's resistance, can also supplement the content. For example, Chapters 2 and 3 of "Cutting Spokes" and "Cutting Wheels" are It is pointed out that the cutting of sandalwood is for making cars, and it also implies that their labor is endless; in addition, the changes in the names of the prey in each chapter indicate that the exploiters have no regard for the prey, whether it is a beast or a bird, large or small. Taking it for themselves unceremoniously shows their greedy nature. The whole poem expresses one's heart directly, and the narrative is full of angry emotions without any exaggeration, which increases the sense of reality and the power of revelation. In addition, the sentence patterns of the poems are flexible and changeable, ranging from four, five, six, seven and even eight characters. They are scattered vertically and horizontally, either directly or ironically, which also allows the feelings to be expressed freely and fully, and is praised as The above is the earliest example of miscellaneous poetry.