At the foot of Yinshan Mountain, there is a huge plain where Zile people live.
The sky in Chilechuan is connected with the earth in all directions.
It looks like a "yurt" where herders live.
Grassland under the blue sky, rolling green waves,
Where the wind blows, flocks of cattle and sheep hide from time to time.
original text
Song of Chile
Chilechuan at the foot of Yinshan Mountain. The sky is like the sky, and the cage covers four fields.
The sky is gray and wild. See cattle and sheep when the wind blows.
Extended data
Introduction of works
Lyle Song, selected from Yuefu Poems, is a folk song that spread in the north of the Yellow River in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It is generally believed that it was translated from Xianbei into Chinese. Folk songs sing the magnificent and rich scenery of the northern grassland, and express the pride of Chileans who love their hometown and life. The first two sentences show that Chilechuan is located at the foot of the towering Yinshan Mountain, which sets off the grassland background very magnificently. The next two sentences, using the metaphor of "vault", say that the sky is like a yurt, covering all directions of the grassland, so as to describe the magnificent scene of the distant future and the connection between Amano and Amano. The last three sentences describe the panoramic view of the grassland with rich water plants and fat cattle and sheep. There is stillness, movement, image and color. The whole poem has a distinctive and bold style, an open realm, a majestic tone, clear language and strong artistic generalization, which has always been praised by literary critics and literary history works. Academic research on it is also enduring.
works appreciation
There are significant differences in folk songs between the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The former is light, beautiful, euphemistic and lingering, just like a girl in Jiangnan, affectionate and gentle; The latter is rough and bold, vigorous and powerful, just like the athletes in Saibei, brave and frank, straightforward and generous. If expressed by the concept of western aesthetics, the former belongs to the "graceful" type, while the latter tends to be "sublime". How did this difference in aesthetic taste come from? We might as well do some analysis from the Song of Chile, which is also meaningful for understanding the Song of Chile itself.
Zile is a minority tribe in northern China in ancient times, and its descendants are integrated into today's Uighurs. This poem is an idyll sung by musicians that day. But in the Northern Dynasties, Chileans lived not in today's Xinjiang, but in the Inner Mongolia prairie.
The first four sentences are praising their living environment. "Chilechuan", I don't know which river it is today, even then, it may not be a fixed proper name. I'm afraid it only refers to the rivers in the Chilechuan people's settlement. Yinshan Mountain, also known as Daqingshan Mountain, is located in the Inner Mongolia Plateau, stretching for thousands of miles from Hetao in the west to Daxinganling in the east. When Zile people praise the land where they live, they all take such a magnificent mountain peak as the background. As far as the specific geographical location is concerned, this is a bit vague, but as the image of poetry, it has shown great momentum and strength from the beginning. Next, the poet painted a vast picture for us: on the endless prairie, the eyes are all green and endless, and only the same vast sky hangs down from all sides like a felt tent, covering the vast grassland. This kind of scenery makes people open their minds and feel good.
Jiangnan is characterized by rolling mountains, winding rivers, rich and colorful vegetation and varied landscapes. People's attention is easily attracted by a mountain, a river, even a grass and a tree, forming a delicate aesthetic feeling and paying attention to the subtle charm of colors and lines. In the north, especially on the prairie, the natural landscape is simple, and the colors and lines have not changed much. Because of the lack of things to watch carefully, I look up at the sky, and opening my mouth is a heroic tone.
There is another subtle factor at work. People on the grassland have no concept of private land. They live on weeds, and any place between heaven and earth where they can eat grass can be regarded as their home. Even though, due to habit, because different races occupy their respective territories, their activities have a certain scope, which is not as narrow as the daily activities of people in agricultural areas, especially in the south of the Yangtze River: one village, several houses and several acres of land. On the horizon, the herdsmen's "home" is still boundless. This kind of life has cultivated people's free and unrestrained character on the grassland, and also cultivated magnificent aesthetic feeling. They will not sing the delicate lotus flowers in the small lotus pond and the graceful willows on the roadside at the head of the village like Jiangnan people; In their feelings, Chileans have endless mountains, endless rivers and endless grasslands. The sky is like a "vault" (now called a yurt), and the cage covers their "home", so they eulogize such a "home".
"The sky is grey and wild", and the scenery is still written in muddy style, but this is the background of the next sentence. "The wind blows grass and sees cattle and sheep" is the finishing touch. We can see that the wind blows the lush grassland between the vast world. Sometimes here, sometimes there, scattered cattle and sheep are exposed. The picture is extremely open, dynamic and full of vitality. There is no one in the poem, but the reader can't help but realize that the owners of cattle and sheep all over the grassland are brave and generous peppers. They are the masters of the earth and the conquerors of nature. Only they can bring vitality and beauty to the vast land. In the poem, we not only feel the magnificence of nature, but also feel the broad mind and heroic character of herders. It is a primitive and energetic human nature that has not been tamed and softened by agricultural social civilization.
In the process of civilization development, people keep getting new things and losing the original things. Therefore, just as adults often look back on the joys of childhood, people living in developed civilizations often envy primitive civilizations. Ci Le Ge was also warmly praised by China literati who pay attention to poetry. Is this the reason? Not long ago, the film "Red Sorghum" shone brilliantly, and the "Northwest Wind" kept blowing in the music scene, which was a similar phenomenon. However, when Jiangnan people yearn for the grandeur of the grassland, why don't people on the grassland yearn for the gentleness of Jiangnan? Human life is extremely rich, and the sense of beauty is also rich. The most disgusting attitude is to arbitrarily take a different artistic style to deny another.
Unfortunately, I can only understand its lyrics now, but I can't appreciate its tunes. A famous legend may make up for this regret a little: It is said that in 646 AD, a great war broke out between the two regimes, the Eastern Wei and the Western Wei, which ruled northern China, and the Eastern Wei lost tens of thousands of teachers. Gao Huan, the head coach, ordered General Hu to sing "Chilean songs" at the banquet in order to stabilize the morale of the army, and everyone's spirit did it one brace up. This story makes people think: How majestic and bold should the singing of Song of Chile be? According to historical records, this song was originally written in Xianbei language and was translated into Chinese very early. But Hu is a wise man, so he should be able to sing in Chile. Probably because most of the nobles in the Eastern Wei Dynasty were Xianbei people, he sang in Xianbei language. In other words, this ancient poem has undergone double translation. So, what are the original lyrics like? It's fascinating.