"Xizhou Song" is a Yuefu folk song composed by an unknown person in the Southern Dynasty. It is included in "New Odes of Yutai" and "Collection of Yuefu Poems".
This is the longest lyrical poem among the Yuefu folk songs of the Southern Dynasties. It belongs to the "miscellaneous song lyrics" and has always been regarded as a representative work of Yuefu folk songs of the Southern Dynasties. This poem describes a girl's longing for her beloved from early spring to late autumn, from reality to dreamland. It is filled with a strong flavor of life and vivid emotional colors, showing the distinctive characteristics of the Jiangnan water town and her skillful expression skills. . There are thirty-two lines in the whole poem, four lines have one interpretation, and they use the continuous word connection method, which is really connected. The technique is exquisite and can be called wonderful.
Overall Appreciation
This poem is composed of four sentences into one section, basically four sentences with one rhyme change, and the sections are connected with each other using the "joining word" method commonly used in folk songs. , the tone is harmonious and beautiful when read, and the voice is swaying. The whole poem mainly writes about a young girl, depicting her passionate and subtle mood of missing her lover. However, it is neither written in the first-person voice of the girl's self-narration, nor is it written in the third-person objective description of the poet. Instead, it is written by the girl's lover in the form of "memory," so the whole poem is written in the voice of a man. .
Through the description of her various situations, the image of a beautiful, light, pure and passionate girl is vividly created. This is the overall artistic conception of the whole poem.
The language of "Xizhou Song" is as fresh and simple as folk songs, with little use of allusions. Therefore, the difficulty is not that the words are rare and obscure, but that the poetic meaning of the whole poem cannot be understood in a coherent way. A smooth explanation. The reason for this is that the time, place, characters, plot, etc. involved in the poem are all dark and unclear, making it difficult to get a consistent explanation. Perhaps because of this, "some people say that this poem is a combination of several short chapters, and the content may not be complete and unified."
But Yu Guanying added: "I can't believe this, because the beginning and end of the poem mention 'Xizhou', and 'Xizhou' is mentioned again and again in the middle. It is clear that the beginning and end can be connected, and the whole poem must be It is a whole, and it must tell a story related to Xizhou." It can be said that if "Xizhou Song" is not a whole, then there is no way to say that ""Xizhou Song" marks the highest achievement in the artistic development of Southern Dynasty folk songs." rise. Therefore, seeking a complete and smooth explanation of the poetic meaning of "Xizhou Song" is directly related to the evaluation of its status in literary history.