This song "Jiangnan" was written by an anonymous person in Han Dynasty. It is a lotus-picking song in Yuefu folk songs in Han Dynasty. The original poem is as follows:
Jiangnan can pick lotus, lotus leaves, and fish play between them.
Fish hits the lotus leaf east, fish hits the lotus leaf west, fish hits the lotus leaf south, and fish hits the lotus leaf north.
Extended data
This is a lotus picking song, which reflects the scene of lotus picking and the happy mood of lotus pickers. There is not a word about people in the poem, but we seem to hear their voices, see their people, feel a vibrant youth and vitality, feel the inner joy of lotus pickers, and feel the joy and sweetness between young men and women.
This poem outlines a bright picture with concise and lively language, repeated tones, beautiful and meaningful artistic conception and fresh and lively style.
The whole poem does not directly describe the happy mood of lotus pickers, but fully reveals their joy through the description of lotus leaves and fish, as if hearing and seeing many lotus pickers singing and laughing with their own eyes, and many young men and lotus pickers are still flirting and courting.
First of all, the song begins with the sentence "Lotus can be picked in the south of the Yangtze River", and the word "Ke" has revealed the news. Lotus was originally a common cultivated plant in Zegoutang, a lake in the south of the Yangtze River, but the singer insisted that "lotus can be picked in the south of the Yangtze River", because although the lotus cultivation area is very wide, it is the most prosperous in the south of the Yangtze River; Most of the lotus pickers in Jiangnan are young men and women, especially young women.
At the same time, the folk customs in the south of the Yangtze River are soft, and it is very common for young men and women to flirt for love when picking lotus, so the folk love songs prevailing in the Southern Dynasties are actually very popular in the south of the Yangtze River in the Han Dynasty. In this kind of folk love songs, metaphors and puns are often used. "Lotus" and "pity" are homophonic, symbolizing love. Obviously, this song is also a metaphor and pun.
The word "picking lotus" in the first sentence also means having fun and courtship. It can be inferred that this singer is a romantic minority. He may not be from Jiangnan, but from other places. He came to Jiangnan to pick lotus seeds, but it was actually "the meaning of drunkenness is not wine." Otherwise, he can't pick lotus flowers and stay in Jiangnan alone, which shows the meaning of the word "guest".
Secondly, the second sentence, "Lotus Leaf Tian Tian", from the previous sentence, is obviously a beautiful lotus leaf, which is a metaphor for a large number of girls picking lotus leaves with beautiful posture. The third sentence "Fish playing between lotus leaves" and the last four sentences "Fish playing with lotus leaves in the east, fish playing with lotus leaves in the west, fish playing with lotus leaves in the south and fish playing with lotus leaves in the north" are metaphors of happy scenes in which men and women flirt for love.
This song is only seven sentences, as clear as words. The last four sentences are basically the repetition of the third sentence. The beauty of this song lies in the use of metaphors and puns commonly used in folk songs, which makes the joy of flirting between men and women very subtle and intriguing. The whole poem goes in one go, and the first three sentences reveal the theme. The last four sentences further show the joyful scene and broad scene when picking lotus.