[The Book of Songs and the Chinese Style of Zhounan]②
Guan Guan ③ Jujiu, in the river island ④.
A graceful lady, a gentleman is a good man⑤.
Assorted waterlilies ⑥ flow left and right.
A graceful lady, I long for her.
I can’t get what I want, so I will sleep hard and take it.
It’s leisurely, tossing and turning.
Pick them from left to right.
A graceful lady, a harp and a friend ⑨.
There are different kinds of watercress, left and right.
A graceful lady, played with bells and drums.
[Introduction to the work]
"The Book of Songs" is the earliest poetry collection in my country, containing 305 poems from the Zhou Dynasty. Originally called "Shi" or "Three Hundred Poems", it was first called "The Book of Songs" by Confucian scholars in the Han Dynasty. The existing "Book of Songs" was handed down by Mao Heng of the Han Dynasty, so it is also called "Mao Shi".
It is said that the poems in the Book of Songs had lyrics that could be sung at that time. According to the nature of the music, it can be divided into three categories: Feng, Ya and Song. "Wind" includes the styles of 15 countries including Zhounan, Zhaonan, Bei, {, Wei, Wang, Zheng, Qi, Wei, Tang, Qin, Chen, Hui, Cao, Bin, etc. Most of them are folk songs from the Yellow River Basin, and a small part are Works processed by nobles, ***160 pieces. "Ya" includes Xiaoya and Daya, with 105 articles. "Elegance" is basically the work of nobles, and only part of Xiaoya comes from the folk. "Song" includes Zhou Song, Lu Song and Shang Song, with a total of 40 chapters. Songs are the lyrics used for sacrifices in the palace. Generally speaking, the ballads from the folk are lively and lively, while the poems written by the court nobles pale in comparison and have little poetic flavor.
The Book of Songs is the source of Chinese verse and the glorious starting point of the history of Chinese poetry. It has various forms: epic poems, satirical poems, narrative poems, love songs, war songs, carols, seasonal songs and labor songs. It is rich in content and reflects all aspects of social life in the Zhou Dynasty, such as labor and love, war and corvee, oppression and resistance, customs and marriage, ancestor worship and banquets, and even celestial phenomena, landforms, animals, plants, etc. . It can be said that "The Book of Songs" is a mirror of the society of the Zhou Dynasty. The language of the Book of Songs is the most important material for studying the general situation of the Chinese language from the 11th century BC to the 6th century BC.
[Note]
① Guan Ju: title of the chapter. It is taken from the first line of Psalm'. This is how the titles of the Book of Songs came about.
② Zhou Nan: In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Gongdan (1063 BC - 1057 BC) lived in the eastern capital Luoyi (in today's Luoyang City, Henan Province) and ruled the eastern princes. "Zhou Nan" are all southern poems under the rule of Duke Zhou. "Guan Ju" is a love song about an aristocratic man who fell in love with a girl who was picking water plants, longed for her, pursued her, and wanted to marry her.
③Guanguan: onomatopoeia, the cry of a bird.
④In the River Continent: (Male and female doves) live on land in the river. Describe their harmony.
⑤Haoqiu: equivalent to saying "good couple". Qiu: Spouse.
⑥Nyceps with varying lengths: Nymphoides with varying lengths. They vary in length, height, and size. Nymphoides, an aquatic plant, has round leaves and thin stems, roots at the bottom of the water, and leaves floating on the water surface, which are edible.
⑦寤: Awake. Meng: Asleep.
⑧Sifu: miss. Service: Think.
⑨Friends of the harp and harp: Play the harp, drums and harp to express your love for her.
⑩d: Touch, here it means to choose.
[Translation]
Jujiu Pass is singing on the small island in the river. A kind and beautiful girl, the boy's ideal partner.
Fresh waterlilies, long and short, are harvested along both sides of the river. A kind and beautiful girl whom I want to pursue day and night.
My pursuit failed, and I worried about it day and night. The long night never ends, turning over and over again makes it difficult to fall asleep.
Use both hands to pick the long and short fresh waterlilies. A kind and beautiful girl, she plays the harp, drums and harp to express her love.
Choose the long and short fresh watercress carefully, the kind and beautiful girl, the sound of the bell brings her smile.
[Appreciation]
The chirping of the doves aroused the young man's infatuation, making him alone and intoxicated with his deep love for the girl. All kinds of complex emotions arise spontaneously, longing and disappointment intertwined, happiness and suffering coexist. The mentality of an innocent young man in love is vividly revealed here. Pairs of doves are like loving lovers. Looking at the harmonious scene of them relying on each other on the small island in the river, the young man's eyes were attracted by the woman picking watermelon. The poet here uses words such as "liu" and "cai" to describe the young man's psychological change process.
Many sentences in the poem contain deep and beautiful meanings. One of the best lines that has been praised throughout the ages is "My Fair Lady", which not only praises her "beauty" but also praises her "beautiful heart". But It is said that they echo and complement each other. Another example is the sentence "Tossing and turning", which expresses the pain of lovesickness of lovers very vividly. Later, Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" "It is extremely difficult to fall asleep under the lonely lamp", and Qiao Ji's "Toad Palace Song Sends Away" "If you don't eat with a spoon, sleeping is like turning a cake." , are all famous sentences derived from here.
And the last sentence, "The music of bells and drums" is the origin of stories such as "It's hard to buy a beautiful woman's smile". Through the pen of this unknown author, we are completely moved by this simple love and beautiful and picturesque scenes.
The expression technique of this poem belongs to "Xing", one of the three methods of chanting things and expressing ambitions in "The Book of Songs" - "Fu, Bi and Xing", that is, starting from something that seems to have nothing to do with the theme. , draw out your inner voice and express your feelings. This poem has a rich vocabulary, such as the use of verbs such as "liu", "qiu", "cai" and "friend", and adjectives such as "graceful" and "jagged", which show the poet's literary skills. The whole poem is catchy and the rhythm is harmonious and pleasant to the ear. There are double tones, overlapping rhymes, and the rich rhyme of the foot "Zhi". In addition, the rhyme pattern of the first sentence has the greatest influence on later generations of Qilu and Qijue, making this poem the pioneer of ancient Chinese rhythmic poetry.