The anonymous translation of "playing songs" in pre-Qin dynasty: cutting wild bamboo and connecting bows; Playing with mud bullets and chasing prey.
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. The whole poem is only eight words, but it writes the whole process from making tools to hunting.