Fly to the earth and leave.
translate
Cut down wild bamboos and connect them to make bows;
Playing with mud bullets and chasing prey.
Distinguish and appreciate
This article and Yi Yi's wax words are ancient ballads. The so-called ancient ballads refer to folk ballads that originated from primitive society and early slave society, and were oral creations of the people before the Book of Songs. Because of the long history, the oral creation of primitive society is rarely passed down to later generations and recorded. Most of the ancient songs we can see now are the products of entering the slave society. It is found in Zhouyi, and occasionally recorded in ancient books such as Shangshu and Book of Rites. Ancient productivity was backward, and there was no division of labor between manual labor and mental labor, so it was impossible for future generations to have so-called "pure literature."
The greatest feature of ancient ballads in ideological content is their close connection with real life. In artistic form, as an ancient folk oral creation, it generally has the characteristics of short words, simple language and lively rhythm. Through the appreciation of "playing songs", readers can deepen their knowledge and understanding of ancient ballads more pertinently.
The songs played are selected from Wu Yue Chun Qiu. "Wu Yue Chun Qiu" records that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Gou Jian, the monarch of the State of Yue, asked Chen Yin, an archer of Chu, for advice on how to play the bow, and Chen Yin quoted this song "Playing Songs" in his reply. Wu Yue Chun Qiu was written by Zhao Ye in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it was written late. However, judging from Ge Tan's language and content, this short song is probably passed down orally from primitive society and written by later generations. This is a two-character poem reflecting hunting life in primitive society. The sentences are short and quick, and the rhythm is lively, which is very interesting to read.
The whole poem is only eight words, but it writes the whole process from making tools to hunting.
Making tools is divided into two steps. First, "breaking bamboo" means cutting bamboo. Under the guidance of these two words, the reader seems to see a group of primitive ancestors wrapped in leaves and skins, cutting down bamboo roots with bone knives and stone axes in their forehands next to dense primitive bamboo forests. "Continued bamboo" is the second step in the production process. The song does not explain how to cut branches, remove leaves and break bamboo after "breaking bamboo". From the combination of pictures, from "broken bamboo" to "continued bamboo", there is some omission and development in the middle. The so-called "bamboo" refers to the use of tough plants such as wild vines to connect the two ends of bamboo pieces to make slingshots. At this point, the hunting tools have been made. Next will be hunting.
Hunting is also divided into two steps. First "fly the soil", put the mud bomb on the bow and hit it out. As for the process of making mud bombs, there is no explanation in the poem, but from "bamboo" to "flying soil", it is conceivable that there is another link in making mud bombs. The target of "flying soil", whether birds or animals, once hit, runs to its prey. "Drive away" means chasing the injured birds and animals. "Mao" is the ancient word "meat", which refers to birds and beasts.
According to the history of social development and the study of paleoanthropology, it was in the Neolithic age of primitive society that humans learned to make hunting tools such as bows and arrows. At that time, how human beings carried out productive labor and life can only be explored from the remaining primitive cave murals, ancient songs and archaeological discoveries. At this time, this ancient "playing song" has played the role of a living fossil. It is precisely because of it that future generations can get a glimpse of some vivid pictures of our ancestors' production and life in the flood era.
From the artistic expression point of view, although this song is only eight short words, it covers the whole process from making tools to obtaining prey, and it has a large capacity, and its artistic expression of hunting is also relatively successful. Of course, this conciseness reflects that the early written language expression is still in its infancy. However, aesthetics is historic. From the perspective of modern people's artistic appreciation, we can find that the author unconsciously uses ellipsis, multi-use and clever use of verbs. Not only the subject "we" of each sentence is omitted, but also the secondary processes within and between scenes are omitted. Every sentence is brought out by a verb, which makes the picture dynamic and easy to arouse people's association with the process of breaking, continuing, flying and chasing. The language of this poem is word for word, with bright rhythm and powerful majesty. The rhyming words "bamboo", "bamboo" and "Mao" rhyme with Rusheng "-K", which adds a sense of solemnity to the poem and reminds people of primitive people's hard work under extremely low productivity and harsh natural conditions.