There have always been different opinions about the content of this poem. To sum up, there are three main arguments: one is the theory of "stabbing Xianggong". "Preface to Mao's Poems" says: "Jia Xu, stab Xiang Gong also. If Zhou Li cannot be used, the country cannot be consolidated. " Su, a modern man, explained in the Book of Songs: "The so-called sage on the water side is a metaphor for the ritual system of the Zhou Dynasty. If you run the country against courtesy, then "the road is blocked and long", "the road is broken" and "the road is correct", that is, the road cannot be taken and cannot be cured. If you follow Zhou Zhili, then' water',' water' and' water' will hopefully govern the country. " The second is the theory of "recruiting talents". Both Yao Jiheng's General Theory of the Book of Songs and Fang Yurun's Primitive Book of Songs are poems that introduce sages. "Yiren" means "sages": "sages live in seclusion on the waterfront, but people want to see them." Or, saying, "You don't follow the path of seeking seclusion, and hermits avoid it." The third is the theory of "love". Today, Lan, Fan, Lu Huiwen and others all say "love songs". For example, Lu Huiwen said: "This is a love song, and the poet is in trouble because the lover he is pursuing is out of reach. It is an implicit metaphor to say that the river is impassable. "
Because the skill of this poem cannot be verified, and the reference to "Iraqis" in the poem is also difficult to win the trust, it is difficult to draw a conclusion on the above three theories. Here, let's take it as a love poem.
[hierarchy]
This poem has three overlapping chapters, and each chapter can be divided into four levels:
The first two sentences begin with an autumn color on the river: the morning in late autumn; Autumn water is Vivi, reed is green, dew is Ying Ying, crystal clear as frost. This state is slightly sad in emptiness and loneliness, so it plays a good role in rendering the atmosphere and setting off the artistic conception of the persistent pursuit and elusive love expressed in the poem.
Three or four sentences tell the central image of the poem: the lyric hero strolls by the river and stares at the "Iraqi people" on the other side of the river. This "Iraqi" is the one he misses day and night. "Being on the water side" is isolated from the world, which means to pursue difficulties and produce an unattainable realm. Although the lyric hero yearns for autumn water and pursues it persistently, "Yi" is ethereal and unattainable, so the poem is full of helpless emotions and empty feelings.
The following four sentences are two levels of juxtaposition, describing two different scenes on the water side. "Going back to the shore, the road is long, but it's Xiu Yuan" is a description of the dilemma when chasing against the current: endless difficulties and obstacles, endless journey, and inaccessible signposts. "Swim downstream in the middle of the water" is the illusion of tracing downstream: the journey is smooth everywhere, the Iraqis are always there, but in the end they can't get close. There are both upstream and downstream, and the significance of pursuing and persisting can be seen; Either the dilemma is difficult to reach, or the illusion is difficult to approach. After all, it is impossible, and the deeper the disappointment. At this point, the situation that Iraqis never dreamed of has been concretely and fully demonstrated.
There are three chapters in the whole poem, and only a few words are changed in each chapter, which not only plays the artistic effect of repeating chapters and sentences, chanting repeatedly, singing three times and sighing three times, but also plays the role of constantly promoting poetry. From "The White Dew is Frost" to "The White Dew is at the End" and then to "The White Dew is at the End", this is the passage of time, symbolizing the long-term gaze and pursuit of the lyric hero; From "on the water side" to "on the water side", then to "on the water side", from "in the middle of the water", to "on the water side" and then to "on the water side", this is a change of location and symbolizes the elusive Iraqi people. From "the road is blocked and long" to "the road is blocked and broken" and then to "the road is blocked and right", it is the repeated rendering of the difficulties in the pursuit process that highlights the indomitable spirit of the lyric hero. Repeating chapter by chapter and advancing layer by layer is a common form of folk songs in The Book of Songs.
[Content review]
If the "Iraqi" in the poem is regarded as a lover, then this poem shows the melancholy mood of the lyric hero's persistent pursuit of good love. The spirit is precious and the feelings are sincere, but the result is slim and the situation is sad.
But the most valuable and striking thing about this poem is not the pursuit and loss of the lyric hero, but the artistic conception of "being on the water side" created by him, which has universal significance. Good poetry can create artistic conception. Artistic conception is a pattern and a structure, which has the performance of containing all heterogeneous things with similar patterns and structures. The structure of On the Water is: chasing troops-rivers-Iraqis. Because the "Iraqi people" in the poem has no specific reference, and the meaning of the river lies in the barrier, all the pursuits that are difficult to achieve because of being blocked in the world can be isomorphic and resonate here.
From this point of view, we might as well understand the poetry of the novel as a symbol and take On the Water as an artistic paradigm to express all the difficulties in social life. The "Iraqis" here can be talents, friends, lovers, achievements, ideals, prospects, and even blessed land, holy land and heaven; The "river" here can be high mountains and deep valleys, patriarchal clan system and ethics, or any other obstacles that may be encountered in real life. As long as there are pursuits, obstacles and disappointments, it is the world that it reproduces and expresses. In this way, the ancients interpreted "Jiaxu" as persuading people to follow the etiquette, recruiting talents and cherishing talents. Today, people regard it as a love poem, and some even regard it as a ceremony for ancient people to sacrifice to the water god. I'm afraid there is some truth. It seems inappropriate to stick to one and exclude the others, because they are all included in the symbolic meaning of "on the water side"
Naturally, when we are in a situation similar to "on the water side", we should appreciate its keen pursuit, not its pessimistic disappointment.
[Artistic features]
Jianjia is one of the best chapters in The Book of Songs. Its main features are embodied in three closely related aspects: the fuzziness of facts, the emptiness of images and the symbolism of the whole.
First of all, the fact is vague.
Generally speaking, the creation of lyric poetry stems from the feeling of specific things, so there are always some real personnel scenes in its artistic conception. But the author of Jiaxu seems to have deliberately blurred all the main events in it. Who is the seeker? What is he after? We don't know; What is the identity of the hunted "Iraqi"? Why is he so hard to catch? We don't know; Even if it is male or female, it is impossible to confirm. In particular, "Iraqis" have no voice, no appearance and no physical appearance. After a while, he was in the upper reaches of the river, the lower reaches of the river, the middle of the water, and the grass by the water. He is erratic and unpredictable, which makes people wonder if he really exists. There is no doubt that the pursuit of people, events and contents becomes illusory and hazy because of the vagueness of the pursuers, especially those who are forced to pursue them. But it is precisely because of this fact that the artistic conception of poetry is so ethereal and symbolic.
Second, the ethereal image
In fact, the scene described in the poem is not a real person, but a psychological image. This psychological image is not the memory of a real thing I have experienced, but a typical psychological situation which is synthesized, condensed and blurred by many similar events and feelings. The biggest feature of this psychological situation is that it is not sticky or greasy, and it is ethereal and rich.
On the Water is the artistic expression of this ethereal psychological situation. Here, due to the vagueness of pursuers and forced people, seemingly real scenic rivers and roads, as well as the upstream and downstream pursuit routes, as well as the "water center" where Iraqis are located, have also become virtual symbolic images. We can't find out when and where they are and what water they have in He Shan. Otherwise, Iraqis are contradictory in the upper and lower reaches of the river, so why even two people don't cross the river becomes a problem. The success of Jia Xu lies in the poet's accurate grasp of people's psychological images, which creates a psychological situation that looks like flowers, making the artistic conception of the poem present as a symbol of integrity.
Third, the overall symbol of artistic conception
The symbol of the poem Jiaxu is not the use of symbolic figures of speech or techniques in a certain word or sentence, but the overall symbol of artistic conception. "Being on the water side" is a common situation in life, so is the dilemma of "going back, it's a long way" and the illusion of "going back, it's natural". People may often be baptized by a complete emotional flow, from the excitement of pursuing, to the troubles of being blocked, and then to the disappointment of being lost, they are often affected by the emotional impact of going upstream or going downstream with empty joy; Readers can think of the situation of love and the experience of arousing love from here, and also think of their ideals, careers, future situations and arouse many life experiences from here. The overall symbol of artistic conception makes Jia Xu really have an inexhaustible philosophy of life. Wang Guowei once compared this poem with Schumann's Dead Hua Lian, "Last night, the west wind withered the green trees, climbed the stairs alone, and looked at the horizon", thinking that it was "restoring the scenery and human feelings", obviously focusing on the symbolic significance of life in its artistic conception.
The vagueness of facts, the emptiness of images and the overall symbol of artistic conception are three aspects of a problem. From the fact to the virtual image, and then to the overall symbol, this is roughly the process of constructing the artistic conception of symbolic poetry.