First, the connotation of plant argot
Based on the metaphor of plant images, the researcher draws the following three conclusions: these plant images are incomplete reflections of social life at that time, tokens of people's mutual love, and symbols of women's fate and love and marriage.
The reflection of social life
The plant images mentioned in The Book of Songs show us the living conditions of our ancestors more or less, just as humanists are used to demonstrating the rationality of social consciousness from the perspective of social existence. Although the social productivity under the slave owners' aristocratic politics is low and depends on nature, the industrious and intelligent ancestors have long understood the social division of labor. The collection culture represented by "shepherd's purse is uneven, left and right" precisely reflects the social division of labor, the development level of productive forces and people's material life at that time.
Therefore, "The Book of Songs originated from life and reflected its realistic function in the living environment at that time, so that we can use this function to analyze the living environment at that time." At that time, agriculture was the foundation of survival. Agriculture has a close relationship with the daily life of ancestors, and the complicated plants are the concrete reality that people can touch at any time, which are naturally included in their literary system, not only in agricultural poems, but also in poems such as sacrifice and love.
This is precisely the witness that the source of China culture is deeply rooted in the soil of agricultural civilization, and it is also the source of realism. The plant image in The Book of Songs undoubtedly endowed it with true and natural elegance, thus showing the most intuitive and authentic traditional farming picture, which can be called the most vivid reflection and vivid embodiment of society at that time. "There are bitter leaves and the economy is in deep trouble." This prosperity includes the factors of China's national culture. A long book of songs can definitely be said to be a few evergreen branches hidden in our suffering and affluent civilization. From the works of Ge, Ji and Wei, we can get a glimpse of the social life and customs of our ancestors.
4. A symbol of love.
After a large number of plants in the natural environment entered the living environment of Qin ancestors, their value functions were gradually discovered by the ancestors, resulting in an understanding of * * *. This understanding "is integrated with the creative subject's understanding of his own thoughts and feelings, which makes this understanding of plant images form a poetic image with strong tolerance and endurance." [2] The poet's inner thoughts and feelings can be conveyed to the public through this image, and his literary expression function will be deepened in the practice of the next generation of literati, so that we can imagine a story or affect some emotion when facing specific sensible plants. For example, when we think of "He Mi Zuo", we always associate it with the pain of national subjugation or the sorrow of the old country. Here, "rice" is not just an object, but a cultural symbol that hurts feelings. "The so-called' separation from sorrow' is the saddest thing that all generations have put together for the country, the family and themselves." [3] Another example is "Fengfeng? "Three Chapters of Sangzhong" repeatedly chanted "I am in mulberry, want me to be rich, and send me to the top", "I have mulberry, and its leaves are in trouble. How is it fun to meet a gentleman? "From Xiaoya? Sanchi, both of them give the mulberry forest the symbolic meaning of "Love Eden". Since then, Sanglin has a special metaphor in China culture, which is a wonderful place where men and women meet, filled with a happy and indulgent atmosphere.
As Wang Guowei said, "When you look at things with me, everything is my color". Once people perceive their own color from the flowers and trees that have been sleeping for many years, they will naturally seize and amplify a bright spot, personalize it and make it emotional. After artistic processing and transformation by the author, it will become an "emotional symbol with aesthetic significance". [4] Over time, the rich forms of plants themselves and the rich forms of human emotions have produced some artificial connection. They are firmly linked by the methods of association and comparison commonly used in the Book of Songs, so as to achieve the situation of "the East and the West meeting, the blending of mind and matter" [5] and "turning elusive thoughts into concrete and sensible aesthetic objects". 〔6〕
From then on, a woman with a basket, curled ears and a deep frown appeared in front of her eyes. Behind this picture is a deep memory of a distant person. When it comes to Tang Di, it is associated with the virtue of local officials, which leads to the saying that "people love books, and Gan Tang does not forget them"; Speaking of Zizyphus jujuba, we can't help but be moved by the bond between mother and child ... because the seeds of spiritual essence have long been rooted in our culture.
3. Women are still the symbol of love.
Love poems in The Book of Songs occupy a large space. Most of these "love poems" take plants as the theme, and express the worries, joys, losses and clutch changes of men and women in love in graceful or straightforward language, expressing the most sincere and natural feelings of men and women, mourning without hurting, complaining without anger. These flowers, grass, trees, fruits or tokens of love, or emotional sustenance, or expressions of emotions, are indispensable carriers for men and women in love. As an expression of emotion, flowers and trees are endowed with feelings. " 〔7〕
Nan Zhou? Yao Tao warmly wishes a woman happiness after marriage, "the door is right"; "There is a lesbian car, Yan Rushun Hua" praised the beautiful face of women, as bright as hibiscus; In the same way, "Martin? In Zebei, "Zebei has two evils, there is simplicity and harmony, there is spirit and there is one person, what is the injury", and the lotus is more dignified and elegant than women. Who says tea tastes bitter? Its sweetness is a bleak and bitter smile of abandoned women after experiencing endless bitterness in life, which reflects the structure that men are superior to women in traditional society. However, we can still feel that although women are accessories of men, they still have an open mind. As the saying goes, "Although resentment is not angry, sorrow is not depressed." This tone can be said to run through almost all the contents of women's unfortunate marriage life in ancient society.
Plants blossom and bear fruit, and the fruit is actually a symbol of plant harvest, and the process of fruit from green to mature also implies the process of women's growth, revealing the most authentic and natural temperament in women's hearts, and embodying the true and sensible beauty of virtue.
In a word, the use of plant images in The Book of Songs, on the one hand, makes female images both vivid and implicit; On the other hand, the use of plant images also makes female images more real and natural, full of life breath. The plants involved in the poems are all common things in Zhou people's life, but when combined with female images, they have different meanings: either praising women's appearance and posture, or implying their noble virtue, or lamenting their infatuation and singleness. Picturesque plants and women merged into a perfect and vivid poem in The Book of Songs, which provided a perfect example for later generations to portray the beauty of women.