The poem "A graceful lady, a gentleman is a good man" comes from "Guan Ju", the first poem in the "Book of Songs", the first collection of poems in ancient China. It means a beautiful and virtuous woman. It's really A gentleman makes a good spouse.
Original text of the work:
"Guan Ju"
The Book of Songs·Guofeng·Zhou Nan [Pre-Qin]
Guan Guan Jujiu, in River Island. A graceful lady, a gentleman is fond of quarrels.
Scattered waterlilies flow left and right. A graceful lady, I long for her.
I can’t get what I want, so I sleep hard and think about it. Leisurely leisurely, tossing and turning.
Pick them from left to right. A graceful lady, she is a friend of the piano and the harp.
There are different kinds of waterlilies, with leaves growing on both sides. The fair lady is played with bells and drums.
Vernacular translation:
The chirping doves accompanying each other on the small island in the river. A beautiful and virtuous woman, she is truly a good spouse for a gentleman.
Various water-lilies are picked from left to right. A beautiful and virtuous woman, she is unforgettable when she wakes up from her dream.
Good wishes are hard to come true, and I miss you when I wake up and in my dreams. I kept thinking about it, tossing and turning, and it was hard to fall asleep.
The uneven water-lilies are picked from left to right. A beautiful and virtuous woman plays the harp to show her love.
Pluck the uneven watercress from the left or right. A beautiful and virtuous woman, ring bells and beat drums to please her.
Word and sentence annotations:
Guan Guan: Onomatopoeia, the calls of male and female birds in response to each other. Jujiu (jū jiū): the name of a water bird, namely Wangjiu.
Continent: land in the water.
Yaoyou (yǎo tiǎo) lady: a virtuous and beautiful woman. Slim, with a beautiful figure. Yao, profound, is a metaphor for the beauty of a woman's soul; Yao, graceful, is a metaphor for the beauty of a woman's appearance. Shu, good, kind.
好馑 (hǎo qiú): a good spouse. Qiu, a borrowed word for "Qiu", matches.
Uneven: uneven length. Nymphoides (xìng): aquatic plants. The leaves are round and thin, and the roots are at the bottom of the water. The leaves float on the water and are edible.
Flow left and right: sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right to select water plants. Here, struggling to get watercress is a metaphor for a "gentleman" striving to pursue a "lady". "Liu" has the same meaning as "seeking", here it refers to extraction. Which: refers to watercress.
Wù mèi: waking up and sleeping. Refers to day and night. Oh, wake up. Sleep, fall asleep. Also, Ma Ruichen's "General Notes on Mao's Poems" says: "Being asleep is like sleeping in a dream." It can also be understood.
Sifu: missing. Accept, think. "Mao Zhuan": "To obey is to think about it."
Youzai Youzai: It means "long", which means long. This sentence means that longing for you is endless. Yo, thoughts. See Guo Pu's annotation in Erya·Exegesis. Alas, modal particles. Carefree, leisurely, still saying "I miss you, I miss you".
Tossing and turning: unable to sleep. Rolling, the ancient Chinese character for "zhan". Turn around, that is, turn to the opposite side. On the other side, it's still overturned.
Friends of the harp and harp: Play the harp, drums and harp to get close to her. Qin and harp are both stringed instruments. The zither has five or seven strings, and the harp has twenty-five or fifty strings. Friend: used as a verb, here it means closeness. This sentence says, use the harp and harp to get close to the "lady".
芼（mào）：choose, select.
Chimes and drums: Use bells and drums to make her happy. Le, use the method to make...happy.
Appreciation of works:
"Guanyong" is the beginning of "Wind" and the first chapter of "The Book of Songs". The ancients ranked it at the top of the 305 articles, indicating that they thought highly of it. "Historical Records: A Family of Wife and Family" once recorded: "The Book of Changes is the foundation of the universe, the Book of Songs begins with the Guanyong, and the beauty of the Book of Books descends... When a husband and wife are together, human nature is also great." Also in "Book of Han· "The Biography of Kuang Heng" records Kuang Heng Shuyun: "The moment of marriage is the beginning of life for the people and the source of all blessings. The etiquette of marriage is correct, and then the goods are valued, and the destiny is fulfilled. Confucius generally talks about "Poetry" in terms of "Guan Ju" This is the beginning. ...This is the beginning of the discipline and the end of the Wangjiao." Their focus is pedantic, but their summary of the original meaning of poetry is basically correct. The question is what kind of marriage it represents. This is related to our understanding of "Wind". The "Preface" of Zhu Xi's "Collected Poems" says: "The so-called wind in poetry mostly comes from the compositions of ballads in lanes. The so-called men and women sing together and express their feelings." Also in Zheng Qiao's "Tongzhi·Lelue" "The Preface to Zhengsheng" says: "Poetry lies in sound, not in meaning. Even if there are new sounds in the city today, and people are singing in the streets, is it because of the beauty of the words and meanings? It is because of the new sounds." Zhu Xi is It was discussed from the perspective of poetic meaning, while Zheng Qiao explained it from the perspective of tone. Combining the two, we can think that "Wind" is a ballad that expresses the love between men and women sung in local tones. Although Zhu Xi's interpretation of the theme of "Guan Ju" is not this, judging from the specific performance of "Guan Ju", it is indeed a romance work between men and women, and it is about a man's pursuit of a woman's love. Its voice, emotion, writing and meaning are all excellent, enough to be the first of the three hundred chapters in "Wind". Confucius said: ""Guanyong" is happy but not obscene, sad but not sad." ("The Analects of Confucius·Bayi") After that, people commented on "Guanyong" and they all "compromised with Confucius" ("Historical Records·Confucius' Family") ). But what exactly is "Guan Ju" like?
This poem was originally composed of three chapters: one chapter with four lines, two chapters with eight lines, and three chapters with eight lines. Zheng Xuan divided the last two chapters into two chapters each according to the literary meaning, with five chapters and four sentences in each chapter. Now use Zheng Xuan’s method of division.
Chapter 1: The doves sing harmoniously on the river island, and their virtuous ladies are stable, and they are a good match for a gentleman. The beauty of this chapter is that it has a soothing tone and leads the entire poem to form the tone of the entire poem. The whole poem is unified by "A graceful lady, a gentleman loves to fight".
The "Assorted Nymphoides" in the second chapter is derived from the "Guanguan Jujiu" and is also based on the things growing on the continent. "Liu" is taught as "Qiu" in "The Biography of Mao", which is incorrect. Because the word "Qiu" is already used in "寤梦愿之" below, there should be no further meaning of "Qiu" here. The word "seeking" is the center of the whole poem. The whole poem expresses the process of man's pursuit of women, that is, from deep yearning to realizing the desire to get married.
The third chapter expresses the sorrow of not getting what you want. This is the key to this article and best embodies the spirit of the whole poem.
Yao Jiheng's "General Theory of the Book of Songs" comments: "The four chapters before and after, the four sentences in each chapter, the meanings of the words are all in harmony. Today, these four sentences are included under '夤梦愿之', 'Friends', 'Le' Above the two chapters, the spirit of the whole article is here. It must be covered with these four sentences to make the two meanings of "friend" and "le" in the lower part fully satisfactory. "Qiu", "Friends" and "Le" are mentioned below, and their momentum is weak. This ancient article focuses on the main points, and its tone is also urgent, which is different from the gentle tone in the whole poem. Importance analysis is the most accurate. It should be added that this chapter not only uses complex strings to promote the literary spirit, but also writes vivid and lifelike images, which is what Wang Shizhen said in "Yuyang Poetry Talk" that "the three hundred poems in the Poetry are really like the portraits of painters." Lin Yiguang's "The Book of Songs" says: "Tossing and turning when you first wake up while sleeping, you are still in bed." This description of missing your lover can be described as "sad but not sad". Chapters 4 and 5 write about the joy of getting what you ask for. "Friends with harp and harp" and "music with bells and drums" are all scenes after vested interests. It is called "friend" and "乐", and the words used have different weights and depths. It is extremely happy and satisfying but does not involve extravagance. It is the so-called "pleasure but not obscenity". The whole poem is about a man's longing for and pursuit of a woman, the anxiety about not getting what he wants and the joy about getting what he wants.
Creative background:
The Zhou Dynasty was founded by Wen and Wu, and Cheng and Kang prospered. After Zhao and Mu, the country gradually declined. Later, King Li was expelled, King You was killed, and King Ping moved eastward, entering the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the royal family declined, princes merged, barbarians and Di invaded, and society was in turmoil. In the Zhou Dynasty, there were officials who collected poems. Every spring, they would go into the folk to collect folk songs while rocking wooden poles. They would sort out the works that could reflect the joys and sufferings of the people and give them to the Taishi (the official in charge of music) to compose music and sing them to the emperor as a gift. A reference for governance. The Book of Songs, which reflects the social life from the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, is, on the whole, an image reflection of the social life in China during these five hundred years. It contains hymns about ancestors' entrepreneurship, music for worshiping gods and ghosts, and songs about nobles. There are also touching chapters reflecting labor, hunting, and a large number of love affairs, marriages, and social customs.
Zhounan refers to the land south of Zhou Dynasty. It was the fiefdom of Zhou Gongdan, which is the area in the southwest of Henan and northwest Hubei today. Most of the poems in "Zhou Nan" were written in the late Western Zhou Dynasty and the early Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The first one, "Guan Ju", is a poem about love, a love poem about a man pursuing a woman.
Writing technique:
The main expression technique of this poem is Xing Ji. "The Biography of Mao" says: "Xing Ye." What is "Xing"? Kong Yingda's explanation is the most accurate. He said in "Mao Shi Zhengyi": "'Xing' refers to rising. Taking examples to attract others and arouse one's own mind. In "Poetry", there are references to plants, trees, birds and animals to express one's thoughts. They are all "Xing" words. "The so-called "Xing" means that the thing to be chanted is first derived from other scenery as a sustenance. This is a euphemistic and implicit expression technique. In this poem, the juju dove is "sincere but distinctive", which makes a lady worthy of a gentleman; the watercress flows in no way, so it is hard to find a lady; and the watercress is already available, "picking it" and "spinning it", it makes a lady happy Having gained it, "friend it", "enjoy it", etc. The advantage of this technique is that it is far-reaching and can produce an effect where the text is exhausted but more than intended.