1, labor ballad. This kind of ballad is the earliest ancient poem, and its repetition of labor behavior and summary of production experience were consciously created by our ancestors with obvious utilitarian purposes. According to legend, "Dage" in the era of the Yellow Emperor is the most typical labor ballad in the existing ancient ballads: "Break bamboo, continue bamboo, fly soil and eat meat." In terms of content and form, it is an ancient hunting song. It reflects the working life of our ancestors in the fishing and hunting era, and reproduces the whole process of making bows and arrows and shooting and hunting. It not only depicts and praises the labor itself and the laborers, but also fills the pride and joy of the ancestors who learned to make hunting gear and achieved success, and also shows their infinite desire to get more prey.
2. Sacrificial songs. This kind of ballad shows the fantasy that ancient ancestors prayed for God's blessing or ordered nature to obey themselves, with strong primitive religious consciousness. It can be divided into two types: one is a prayer song, which shows the reverence, obedience, prayer and flattery of the ancestors to ask for God's blessing; One is the incantation sacrifice song, which shows the will of ancestors to resist and conquer. They believe that they can rely on the power of language to coerce the gods to obey people's wishes and let God protect mankind from natural disasters.
3. Totem ballads. This kind of ballad is a poem created by ancestors on the basis of totem worship. Totem is a tribal ancestor mistaken by ancient ancestors in the process of exploring the origin of life. It is the patron saint and ancestor of the tribe and is worshipped and praised by the members of the tribe.
4. Love songs. The original marriage and love in ancient times were different from those in civilized times, and most of them showed rough and savage characteristics. This is reflected in the relatively old short songs preserved in Zhouyi.
5. Warsong. War was the first means for tribes to survive and expand their territory in ancient society, and the ballads at that time also recorded various situations of war at that time.
Four Artistic Features of Ancient Ballads
1, a collective comprehensive art form. Most ancient ballads appeared at the same time as the trinity of ancient music and dance in labor. "Lu Chunqiu? Ancient music recorded the music and dance of Ge people: "In the past, Ge's music and dance, three people held oxtails and threw their feet into the song. One is to carry (lift) the people, the other is to sow birds, the third is to plant trees, the fourth is to compete for food, the fifth is to respect the sky, the sixth is to build the emperor's merits, the seventh is to rely on the ground, and the eighth is to be the supreme beast. " "Three people" is a collective singing, "oxtail" is a prop, "foot wrestling" is a dance with small steps as the beat, and "Eight Ques" is the name of eight original songs. (Attachment: Evidence of "Chen Cang Ancient Stone Painting" and "Three Dances")
2. Reproduce the directness of life. Ancient ballads originated from life and directly expressed life. It is a direct and impromptu reproduction of life, which is life, pure and natural, frank and straightforward. This is different from the realistic creation method of The Book of Songs, which chooses typical life phenomena and characteristic details to express reality and express emotions, but it is obviously the source of the realistic spirit of The Book of Songs.
3. The language is concise and the rhythm is smooth. The language of China ancient ballads is extremely simple, mostly two or three words, with few complicated sentences. First of all, because of the backward production and art at that time, the labor movement was simple, the labor rhythm was short, and it was clear and neat, so the foil poems were naturally short. Secondly, it is related to the low ideological ability and language level of our ancestors. Simple thinking is expressed in simple language, and poetry is naturally short and pithy. Thirdly, the artistic expression technique at that time was immature, and the narrative technique was single, without carving, exaggeration and simplicity. In ancient times, although folk songs were simple, they were not insipid. We have always found their language extremely concise and vivid, with smooth rhythm and refreshing.
4. Endowed expression. Fu is the most commonly used artistic expression in ancient ballads, and "Bi Xing" is extremely rare. Fu is an impromptu artistic method to directly lay out things, and it is the basic form of expression of ancient China ballads. The technique of "Fu" in ancient ballads is also the basis and source of artistic techniques such as Bi Xing in later poetry creation.