"Jian Jia" is selected from ("The Book of Songs·Qin Feng"), which is a folk song that was produced in Qin about 2,500 years ago.
There have always been differences of opinion regarding the content of this poem. To sum up, there are mainly three theories: one is the theory of "thorning Duke Xiang". "Preface to Mao's Poems" says: "Jianjia is the thorn of Xiang Gong. If you fail to use the Zhou rites, you will not be able to consolidate your country." Su Dongtian, a modern man, analyzed it in "The Book of Songs" and said: "'On the side of the water The so-called "Yiren" (that wise man) is a metaphor for the etiquette of the Zhou Dynasty. If the country is governed against the Zhou etiquette, then "the road is blocked and long", "comes forward", and "comes right", which means to follow the wrong way and govern. Not good. If you obey the Zhou rites, then "Wan Zai Shui", "Shui Di", "Shui Zhen" means there is hope for governing the country." The second is the saying of "recruiting talents." Yao Jiheng's "General Theory of the Book of Songs" and Fang Yurun's "The Original Book of Songs" both say that this is a poem to recruit talents, and "Yiren" means "virtuous talents": "A wise man lives in seclusion by the waterside, but others admire him and want to see him." Or: " It is not a good idea to ask for recluse, and the recluse will be avoided." The third is the theory of "love". Modern people such as Lan Jusun, Yang Renzhi, Fan Shuyun, Gao Heng, Lu Huiwen, etc. all hold the theory of "love songs". As Lu Huiwen said: "This is a love song. Because the sweetheart he is pursuing is elusive, the poet is in trouble. Saying that the river is blocking it is an implicit metaphor."
Because of the ability of this poem There is no way to verify it, and it is difficult to trust the name "Yiren" in the poem. Therefore, it is difficult to make a final conclusion on the above three theories. Here, let’s interpret it as a love poem.
[Hierarchical structure]
This poem has three overlapping chapters, and each chapter can be divided into four levels:
The first two sentences start with the rise of Jian Jia, showing A picture of autumn colors on the river: early morning in late autumn; the autumn water is rippling, the reeds are green, the dew is full, and it is crystal clear like frost. This realm is slightly desolate and pathos in the midst of purity and loneliness. Therefore, it plays a very good role in rendering the atmosphere and contrasting the mood of the persistent pursuit and elusive love described in the poem.
The third and fourth sentences show the central image of the poem: the lyrical protagonist is wandering by the river, staring and pursuing the "beau" on the other side of the river. This "beauty" is the one he misses day and night. "Being on the side of the water" means isolation and impassability, which means the pursuit is difficult, creating a realm that is elusive and out of reach. Although the lyrical protagonist sees through the autumn water and pursues it persistently, the "beautiful woman" is elusive and difficult to reach. Therefore, the poem is filled with helpless feelings and feelings of emptiness and melancholy.
The following four sentences are two parallel levels, describing two different situations on the water side and the realm of hope and difficulty. "Retracing our steps, the road is long and full of obstacles." This is a description of the dilemma when pursuing against the current: endless difficulties and obstacles, and a long and endless journey, which means that it will never be reached. "Swim along it, and you will feel like you are in the middle of the water." This describes the illusion of pursuing along the current: the journey is smooth everywhere, and the beauty is always there, but in the end it is not close. Both against the current and with the current, pursuing in every possible way, the persistence is obvious; either the dilemma is difficult to reach, or the illusion is difficult to approach, and in the end, it is not possible, and the feeling of despair becomes deeper. At this point, Yiren's elusive and unattainable situation has been concretely and fully demonstrated.
The whole poem has three chapters, and only a few words are changed in each chapter. This not only exerts the artistic effect of repeated chapters, repeated chants, and three sighs, but also has the effect of continuously advancing the poetic meaning. From "white dew is frost" to "white dew ends" and then to "white dew ends", this is the passage of time, symbolizing the length of time the lyrical protagonist stares and pursues; from "on the side of the water" to "on the water's edge" , then to "in the water", from "in the middle of the water", to "wan in the water", to "wan in the water", this is a change of location, symbolizing the beauty's elusiveness and elusiveness; from "The road is blocked and long", to "The road is blocked and yet it reaches the right", and then to "The road is blocked and right" repeatedly exaggerate the difficulty of the pursuit process to highlight the perseverance of the lyrical protagonist. Repeated chapters and repeated sentences, advancing layer by layer, are common expression methods in folk songs in the Book of Songs.
[Content Comment]
If the "Yiren" in the poem is identified as a lover or lover, then this poem expresses the lyrical protagonist's persistent pursuit and pursuit of beautiful love. Extremely melancholy. The spirit is valuable and the feelings are sincere, but the results are slim and the situation is sad.
However, the most valuable and evocative thing about this poem is not the pursuit and loss of the lyrical protagonist, but the "beyond the water" created by him-a hopeless and elusive thing. This artistic conception of universal significance. Good poetry can create artistic conception. Artistic conception is a pattern and a structure, which has the ability to contain all heterogeneous things with similar patterns and similar structures. The structure of "On the Water Side" is: pursuer - river - beautiful person. Since the "Yiren" in the poem has no specific reference, and the meaning of the river lies in the barrier, all kinds of pursuits in the world that are difficult to achieve due to obstruction can occur here. .
From this point of view, we might as well understand the poetic meaning of "Jianjia" as a symbol, and regard "On the Water Side" as an artistic model that expresses all the difficult and difficult situations in social life. . The "beauties" here can be talents, friends, lovers, achievements, ideals, futures, or even blessed places, holy places, and fairy worlds; the "rivers" here can be mountains, deep chasms, patriarchal clans, Ethical ethics can also be any other obstacles that may be encountered in real life.
As long as there is pursuit, obstruction, and loss, it is the world of its reappearance and expression. In this way, the ancients interpreted "Jianjia" as an exhortation to follow Zhou rites, recruit talents, and cherish people. Today, people regard it as a love poem. Some even regard it as an ancient water god ritual. I'm afraid there are some. To a certain extent, it seems inappropriate to stick to one and reject the others, because they are all included in the symbolic meaning of "on the side of the water".
Naturally, when we are in a situation similar to "On the Water Side", what we should appreciate is its determined pursuit, not its pessimism and disappointment.
[Artistic Features]
"Jian Jia" is one of the best chapters in the Book of Songs. Its main characteristics are concentrated in three closely related aspects: blurring of facts, ethereal imagery, and overall symbolism.
1. The blurring of facts
Generally speaking, the creation of lyric poetry is inspired by the feeling of specific things, so in its artistic conception, you can always see some Real personnel scenes. However, the author of "Jianjia" seems to have deliberately blurred out the main characters and events in it. Who is the pursuer? Why is he pursuing? We don’t know; what is the identity of the “beau” being pursued? Why is he so difficult to get? We don’t know either; so much so that we can’t even confirm whether they are male or female. Especially "Yiren" has no voice, appearance or appearance. Sometimes he is in the upper reaches of the river, sometimes in the lower reaches of the river, sometimes in the middle of the water, and sometimes in the grass beside the water. He is erratic, coming and going indistinctly, which makes people doubt whether he really exists. physical presence. Undoubtedly, due to the blurring of the pursuer, especially the forced seeker, the entire pursuit of characters, events, and content becomes illusory and hazy; however, it is precisely because of the blurring and hazyness of this fact that the artistic conception of the poem is It seems so ethereal and symbolic.
2. The etherealness of the image
In fact, the scene described in the poem is not the actual people and events that exist in the eyes, but a mental image. This kind of mental image is not a memory of a real thing that has been experienced, but a typical psychological situation that is synthesized, condensed and virtualized by many similar events and similar feelings. The biggest characteristic of this psychological situation is that it is neither sticky nor sluggish, and is ethereal and multi-aggregated.
"Beyond the Water" is an artistic expression of this ethereal psychological situation. Here, due to the virtualization of the pursuer and the forced seeker, the river, the dangerous road, and even the upstream and downstream pursuit routes, as well as the "middle of the water" where the beauty is, and other places that seem to be real scenery, are also missing. All have become virtual symbolic images. Neither of them can be studied deeply about when, where, what mountains and rivers. Otherwise, it would be contradictory if the Yi people were both upstream and downstream of the river. It would also be a question why the two people did not cross the river. The success of "Jianjia" lies in the fact that the poet accurately captured people's mental images and created a psychological situation that resembles a flower but is not a flower, and is ethereal, so that the artistic conception of the poem is presented as a symbol of integrity.
3. The overall symbol of the artistic conception
The symbol of the poem "Jianjia" is not the symbolic rhetoric or technique used in a certain word or sentence, but the overall symbol of the artistic conception. "Being on the side of the water" and facing difficulties is a common situation in life. The dilemma of "traveling back and following it, the road is long and blocked" and the illusion of "traveling back and following it and wandering in the middle of the water" are also common in life. Situation; people may often be baptized by the complete emotional flow from the excitement of pursuit, to the trouble of being blocked, to the melancholy of loss. They may also often be impacted by the pain of fighting against the current or the joy of going downstream; readers can From here, it can be associated with the situation of love and the experience of arousing love. It can also be associated with the situation of ideals, career, future and many aspects of life, and it can also evoke many aspects of life experience. The overall symbol of artistic conception makes "Jian Jia" truly have an inexhaustible philosophical meaning of life. Wang Guowei once compared this poem with Manshu's "Butterfly Loves Flowers" "Last night the west wind withered the green trees, I went up to the tall building alone, looking at the end of the world", thinking that it "regained the charm of the people", which was obviously focused on its artistic conception. The symbolic meaning of life.
The blurring of facts, the emptiness of images, and the overall symbolism of artistic conception are three aspects of a problem. From the blurring of facts to ethereal imagery, and then to overall symbolism, this is roughly the process of constructing the artistic conception of symbolic poetry.