Basic information:
Nan Zhou Ge Tan is a poem in The Book of Songs, the first collection of poems in ancient China. The theme of this poem has always been controversial. The ancients regarded it as a classic of moral education, and now people understand it as a poem for working people.
Many scholars in ancient times thought that the woman in the poem was a empresses with good female virtues, characters, looks and merits, and wrote poems about the preparation of the empresses before marriage, praising her virtues. Modern scholars believe that this poem is about a woman who is going home to visit her parents. It describes her expectation of being reunited with her parents when she saw yellowbirds gathering in Ge clothing. After obtaining the consent of her in-laws and her husband, she told the nanny at home to start washing clothes, packing things and preparing to go back to her parents' house.
The whole poem consists of three chapters, each with six sentences, which is better than analogy. It vividly expresses the heroine's joy and longing, and the poem is full of joyful atmosphere, giving people beautiful enjoyment.
Creative background:
"Preface to Mao Poetry" says in the background: "It is the birthplace of empresses. When the empresses are at their parents' home, they are determined to be female workers, bow down and wear washed clothes; If you respect your master, you can go back to your parents and turn the world into a woman. "I think it's about the virtue of empresses.
Fang Yurun's Primitive Book of Songs refuted Mao Xu's point of view, saying, "Behind the palace, you can see Gezhiyan in the valley, and what is the scene of singing trees in the garden?" It is believed that "this is also taken from the people, and it is the same as Guan Yu, which is chamber music, and it is given to Ning Er".
Overall evaluation:
People often use "polysemy" to explain poetry, which is actually inaccurate. "Poetry expresses ambition, and songs always express it" (Yaodian Shangshu). Poets write poems to express their feelings, and their intentions should be clear, and there can be no different meanings.
However, the words used by poets to express their feelings are often ambiguous. If we can relate all kinds of meanings in the context of poetry, it is difficult for the poet to judge what the author wants to express. In order not to be too arbitrary, people have to admit that this poem has "multiple meanings" This is such a difficult question about Nan Zhou Ge Tan.