"There is a beautiful woman in the south, peerless and independent" comes from "There is a Beautiful Woman in the North" by Li Yannian of the Han Dynasty.
Original text
Song of Li Yannian
Han Dynasty: Li Yannian
There is a beautiful woman in the north, peerless and independent.
Look at the Qingren city, then look at the Qingren country.
Would you rather not know about Qingcheng and Qingguo? Beautiful women are hard to come by.
Interpretation
There was a beautiful girl in the north who was independent from the world. She glanced at the soldiers guarding the city. The soldiers abandoned their weapons and the wall fell;
She took one look at the emperor who ruled the world. The emperor fell in love with her, but the country was destroyed! Beautiful girls often bring about disasters that "capture the city and the country".
Even so, you cannot lose the good opportunity to get a beautiful woman. Beautiful girls are rare to find in this world and can never be found again!
Creative background
"Li Yannian Song", Guo Maoqian's "Yuefu Poems" is included in "Miscellaneous Songs and Ballads". "Book of Han: Biography of Foreign Relatives" records: At a palace banquet, Li Yannian sang this poem while performing a dance. After hearing this, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty couldn't help but sigh: How can there be such a beautiful woman in the world? Princess Pingyang, the sister of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, recommended Li Yannian's sister. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty summoned her to see her, and she was indeed beautiful and good at dancing. From then on, Li Yannian's sister became Emperor Wu's favorite concubine, Mrs. Li. Li Yannian also gained more favor.
Appreciation
"Li Yannian Song" has three characteristics.
First, the words are exaggerated and suppressed in order to exaggerate. The poet praised the beautiful woman whom he was praising as the only one of her kind in the contemporary era. Her beauty was so beautiful that the city would fall if she looked at her again, and the country would fall if she looked at her again. The idea of ??"beautiful women will perish the country" was first seen in "The Book of Songs" in Daya. "Zhan Xian": "A wise husband makes a city, a wise woman conquers a city", it talks about the talent of men to build a country, but the talent of women destroys the country. It is intended to satirize the fact that King You of Zhou favored the beauty and was fond of slanderous remarks, which led to the destruction of the country. Since then, "Qingcheng" and "Qingguo" have become synonymous with stunning beauties. In "Song of Li Yannian", the poet goes to great lengths to exaggerate and make alarmist remarks, but he is not using this to show off the king or learn from past history, but to use it in the opposite direction, using it to express his words with the huge charm of captivating the city and the country. The beauty of a beautiful woman achieves the purpose of arousing the king's desire for beauty.
Second, the sincerity of love overflows in the poem. The poem "Li Yannian's Song", apart from the fact that "the words come out of the mouth without any pretense", the emotions it expresses are very sincere. The beauty Li Yannian sang was his sister. Whether it is out of deep love for his sister and hoping that she will have a brilliant future, or out of self-interest, the praises expressed in his poems are all fervent. In a short poem of just a few lines, the words "Qingcheng" and "Qingguo" appear again, and the purpose of recommending beauties is very clear. First, let me talk about the existence of such a beautiful person, and then talk about the amazing charm of the beauty, and then I sincerely appeal to the king: Don’t you know that this beautiful woman with the beauty that will captivate the city and the country will be difficult to get once you miss it! The heart of the fists and the ardent emotions were fully expressed in one chant and three sighs, which produced a refreshing appeal and touched the heartstrings of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Third, use simplicity to overcome complexity, and use virtuality to create reality. Chinese paintings use ink as the color, and there are very few colors. But the single ink color can transform into a variety of colors in the mind of the appreciator. Just like Qi Baishi's paintings, there are a lot of blank spaces, but those blank spaces can make people imagine an infinitely rich realm. "Li Yannian Song" only sings about the beauty's incomparable beauty without any specific description, which inevitably makes the image of the beauty become a mysterious and attractive blank, thus stimulating the poet's admiration, imagination and longing for her. At that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty must have imagined the most beautiful image of a woman in the world in his mind. Later generations of poetry readers can even imagine the stunning beauties in their hearts based on their own aesthetic ideals, historical knowledge and unique psychological qualities. In ancient Chinese poems praising beauties, there are many fine lines that describe the beauty in detail, such as "Hands are like catkins, skin is like gelatin". At the same time, there are also some good stories that win through profile and fictional writing. For example, in "The Book of Songs·Zhounan·Guanju", there is only one sentence to describe a woman's appearance: "A graceful lady, a gentleman loves to marry", while what is emphasized in thick ink is the man's longing for her, his passionate pursuit and the joy after the union. This shows the beauty and loveliness of the woman. "Song of Li Yannian" obviously also succeeds with this artistic technique of creating reality from fiction.
Reference materials
Ancient poetry website: http://so.gushiwen.org/view_47938.aspx