Origin: national style, Qi Feng and July in The Book of Songs, the first collection of poems in ancient China.
Excerpt from the original text: July is fire, and August is reed. Silkworm, moon, mulberry, take axe fork, cut far and wide, as the mother mulberry. Singing in July, achievement in August. Xuan zai Huang, I, for the childe petticoats.
Fire falls to the west in July, and reeds are cut in August. Trim mulberry branches in March to get an axe. Cut off the tall and long branches and climb the thin branches to pick the tender mulberry. Shrike started screaming in July and weaving hemp in August. The dyed silk is black and yellow, and my red is brighter, which is specially made for nobles.
This poem reflects the agricultural production and farmers' daily life in the early Zhou Dynasty. It not only has important historical value, but also is an excellent narrative poem and lyric poem. The whole poem is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter begins with a cold year and spring ploughing.
The second chapter is about women's sericulture; The third chapter describes the production of cloth and silk materials; The fourth chapter writes about hunting wild animals; The fifth chapter writes that a year is coming, and I want to clean up my house for the winter; The sixth chapter writes that collecting and storing fruits and vegetables and making wine are all for the public, and collecting and storing food for oneself is melon, fruit, pitted bitter vegetables and the like; The seventh chapter is about repairing houses or indoor work for the public after harvest, and then repairing their own huts.
At the end of the chapter, I wrote about the labor of cutting ice and the annual year-end swallow drinking. This poem uses the technique of "fu" throughout, and revolves around the word "bitterness". According to the seasonal order, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from farming and sericulture to hunting and cutting ice.
It embodies the multi-level working face and high-intensity labor all the year round. The language is unpretentious and written entirely in a narrative way. The tone is sad, as if telling a heavy history.
This poem, however, is mainly narrative, with vivid images and rich poetry. Through the beautiful narration of the characters in the poem, it truly shows the labor scene, life picture and the faces of various characters at that time, as well as the relationship between farmers and the people, which constitutes a genre painting interwoven by men and women in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
There are three ways to express The Book of Songs: Fu, Bi and Xing. This poem adopts the style of Fu and reflects the reality of life.