"Guofeng·Zhounan·Futuo"

Pre-Qin Dynasty: Anonymous

Cai Cai Cai Cai, Bo Yan Cai.

There are many things to say.

Picking up the vines and brushing them off with thin words.

I pick up all kinds of things and write them down in thin words.

It’s easy to pick and choose, but to say nothing about it.

It’s easy to pick and choose, but to say nothing about it.

Translation

Let’s come and pick the lush and bright coriander leaves. Let’s quickly circle the lush and colorful Fuyi.

Pick the lush and bright lettuce one by one. The luxuriant and bright-colored leaves were picked down one by one.

Pick up the luxuriant and bright 芋苡. The lush and bright peaches are tucked up in the lapel pockets and brought back.

Comments

Caicai: Caicai again. Fúyǐ: The name of the plant is plantain. Its leaves and seeds can be used as medicine and have obvious diuretic effects. Its spikes produce particularly many seeds, which may be related to the belief in having many children at that time.

Baoyan: speaking words without meaning. It mainly plays the role of supplementary syllables.

Yes: obtained.

Duō: to pick up, to stretch your hand to pick.

拋(luō): to collect by sliding along the stem into handfuls.

袺 (jié): holding the skirt of clothes in one hand and carrying it in the pocket.

譭 (xié): Tie the skirt of the clothes on the belt, and then stuff things inside the clothes.

Appreciation

"裊苢" means plantain, which was a song sung by people at that time when they were harvesting plantain.

Many folk songs in the "Book of Songs" use the form of repeated chapters and overlapping sentences, but it is also true that the song "Fuyu" overlaps so much. Let’s take Chapter 1 as an example: the word “Caicai”, based on the circumstances of each chapter of the Book of Songs, can be interpreted as “cai er cai” or “all kinds of”. Some people feel that the former explanation is too repetitive, so they adopt the second one. However, it is unreasonable to say that plantains come in "all kinds". It should be "picked again and again." In the second sentence, "Bo Yan" is a meaningless particle, and "Caizhi" has no big change in meaning from the previous sentence. The third sentence repeats the first sentence, and the fourth sentence repeats the second sentence, changing only one word. So in the entire first chapter, there are actually only two sentences: Pick Fu Tong, pick it up. That's all. Chapters 2 and 3 are still a repetition of the first chapter, with only the verbs in the second and fourth sentences of each chapter changed. That is to say, in the whole poem of three chapters and twelve lines, only six verbs—cai, you, tuo, lu, 袺, 襭—are constantly changing, and the rest are all overlapping, which is indeed very special.

However, this seemingly monotonous overlap has its own special effect. The continuous overlapping creates a simple, lively and reciprocating sense of music. At the same time, the changes in the six verbs also show the process of collecting more and more until returning home with a full load. The poem does not mention the people who picked up the flowers at all, but one can clearly feel their joyful mood when reading it - the emotions are conveyed in the musical rhythm of the poem. Fang Yurun, a native of the Qing Dynasty, said in "The Original Book of Songs": "Readers try to chant this poem calmly and calmly, and they suddenly hear the women of the Tian family singing, three, three, five, five, in the plains and wilderness, in the beautiful wind and sunshine, singing in reply to each other, the lingering sound lingering, as if far away If it is close, it breaks and continues, and I don’t know how the emotion can move, and how the spirit can be broad.” Although this statement contains more elements of imagination, the experience is still very accurate. This kind of extremely simple ballad with complex diction is indeed suitable for many people to sing together; if one person sings it alone, it will feel wrong. Yuan Mei once said mockingly: "Three hundred articles such as 'Cai Cai Fong Tuo, Bo Yan Cai' and so on are not what future generations should imitate. Today's people read the Bible and praise it. Zhang Zhai parodied: 'Light the candles' , Cut the candle with thin words, cut it with thin words. "("Suiyuan Shihua") It is certainly true that "The Book of Songs" should not be followed blindly, but the examples he took are really nondescript.

A group of people are picking wild grass in the wild, happily picking again and again. It is a natural thing, and poetry can express this joy. And there is a man cutting the candle wick again and again, and singing "Cut the candle, cut the thin words." There is no other explanation other than mental illness. This is entirely a joke created by literati, and it does not mean that "Fu Tiao" is not worthy of praise or absolutely cannot be imitated.

Regarding the use of fenugreek taken by people at that time, Mao Zedong said that this herb was "good for pregnancy" and could cure infertility; another theory is that this herb could cure leprosy and the like. of serious illness. Both of these statements have no basis in traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine now uses this herb as medicine, believing that it has the functions of clearing away heat, improving eyesight and relieving coughs. Grass seeds are said to be able to cure high blood pressure. That's all. It can be said reluctantly that people in the "Book of Songs" era believed that plantain could cure infertility or leprosy. But even so, there is still something incomprehensible about this poem: infertility or leprosy in a family member are extremely distressing things, and it is impossible for a large group of people to happily gather in front of the car and sing songs at the same time. Looking at this explanation based on the scenario Fang Yurun imagined, I feel that something is wrong.

Therefore, another more reasonable explanation should be given to "裊苢". Qing Dynasty scholar Hao Yixing said in "Erya Yishu": "Savages also cook it." This "savage" refers to the poor in the countryside. It can be seen that in the Qing Dynasty, there were still poor people who used it as food. Among Koreans (including those in China and the Korean Peninsula), it is a common custom to eat plantain as food. Its young leaves are picked in spring, blanched in boiling water and cooked into soup, which is very delicious. The Korean nationality is a nation greatly influenced by the ancient customs of the Han nationality, and the Korean language has preserved many pronunciations of ancient Chinese. It can be inferred that people in ancient China also commonly used plantain as food. However, later on, this custom gradually declined and was only occasionally seen among the "savages" called Hao Yixing. However, it is still very common among the Koreans. universal.

It is easy to understand the poem "裊苢" in this way. According to Tian Rucheng's "West Lake Tour Chronicles" of the Ming Dynasty: "Both men and women wear shepherd's purse flowers on March 3. A proverb goes: Wearing shepherd's purse flowers in March makes peach and plum blossoms prosperous." The shepherd's purse flowers are not really pretty, because shepherd's purse is loved by people in the south of the Yangtze River. Wild vegetables are a blessing from heaven for the poor, so people even have a preference for its flowers. Plantain is more common and easier to obtain than shepherd's purse. It must have been more popular among the people many years ago. As Fang Yurun said, every spring, there must be groups of women on the plains and wilderness, in the beautiful wind and sunshine, happily picking its young leaves while singing the song "Cai Cai Pei". "袢" song. It was a heart-warming sight. Although life is difficult, there is always a lot of happiness in the midst of this difficulty.

Extended reading: Classical Quotes from the Book of Songs

1. Give me a papaya, and give me a golden jujube in return. ——"The Book of Songs·Weifeng·Papaya"

The original intention was that she gave me papaya, and I repaid her with jade. It is a metaphor for receiving benefits from others and giving them better rewards.

2. The son returns home and is sent far away into the wild. I can't even look forward to it, and I cry like rain. ——"The Book of Songs·Beifeng·Yanyan"

Unreachable: refers to invisible. This girl wants to marry far away and be sent all the way to the wilderness. Looking in the distance, the figure is gradually disappearing, and strings of tears are like rain. Once a woman marries far away, her family will be very sad when they are separated from each other.

3. Work diligently, like thunder. ——"The Book of Songs·Daya·Yunhan"

Jingjing: fear appearance. Karma: Feeling in danger. Ting: thunder. Sentence meaning: As if surrounded by thunder, I feel danger and fear. Now it means to be careful, conscientious and responsible as "conscientious".

4. There are bandits and gentlemen who are like cutting and discussing, like studying and grinding. ——"The Book of Songs·Beifeng·Drumming"

There was an elegant gentleman who worked hard to improve his studies, just like cutting off bone angles to make bone tools, polishing ivory, and carving beautiful jade. , and the same as ground stone tools. Later, "exercise and study" was used as a metaphor for people to discuss and study with each other in terms of academic ethics and learn from each other's strengths.

5. The clothes are green, and the clothes are green and the clothes are yellow. My heart is full of worries, and I will protect myself. ——"The Book of Songs·Beifeng·Green Clothes".

Green coat, green coat, green coat with yellow lining. The sadness in my heart, when will it stop. The protagonist in the poem looked at the clothes that his beloved wife carefully sewed for him, and he couldn't help but miss her, which aroused his infinite longing for his deceased wife. The poet uses borrowed objects to express his emotions and expresses his sincere nostalgia for his deceased wife through repeated chants of green clothes. Although the sentences are simple, they are touching.

6. The jianjia is green and the white dew is frost. The so-called beauty is on the water side. ——"The Book of Songs·Qin Feng·Jian Jia"

In the golden autumn season, at dawn, the dew is thick and frost is heavy, and the reeds are covered with crystal white frost flowers. A man came to the river and stood there with his head raised, looking for the person on the other side of the river. It expresses the poet's depressed mood that the woman he misses is out of reach.

7. The agreement between life and death is broad, and it is said with Zicheng. Hold your son's hand and grow old together. ——"The Book of Songs·Beifeng·Drumming"

I have sworn to you that I will never change my heart no matter life or death. I hold your hand tightly and want to grow old with you. It is used to describe unswerving loyalty to love, or to express eternal vows.

Extended reading: Introduction to the Book of Songs (the earliest poetry collection in China)

The Book of Songs is the beginning of ancient Chinese poetry and the earliest collection of poetry, which collects poems from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to There are 311 poems in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period (from the 11th century BC to the 6th century BC), 6 of which are Sheng poems, that is, they only have titles and no content, and are called the six Sheng poems ("Nanbei", "Baihua") , "Hua Shu", "You Geng", "Chong Qiu", "You Yi"), reflecting the social outlook of about five hundred years from the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty to the late Zhou Dynasty.

The author of "The Book of Songs" is unknown, and most of it cannot be verified. It is said that it was collected by Yin Jifu and compiled by Confucius. The Book of Songs was called "The Book of Songs" in the pre-Qin period, or the round number was called "The Three Hundred Songs". It was revered as a Confucian classic during the Western Han Dynasty and was first called the Book of Songs, which is still used today. The Book of Songs is divided into three parts: "Wind", "Ya" and "Song". "Wind" is a ballad from various places in the Zhou Dynasty; "Ya" is a formal song of the Zhou people, and is divided into "Xiaoya" and "Daya"; Song", "Song of Lu" and "Song of Shang".

Confucius once summarized the purpose of the "Book of Songs" as "innocence", and taught his disciples to read the "Book of Songs" as the standard for speech and action. Among the pre-Qin scholars, many quoted the Book of Songs. For example, Mencius, Xunzi, Mozi, Zhuangzi, Han Feizi, etc. often quoted sentences from the Book of Songs to enhance their persuasiveness when reasoning and demonstrating. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Book of Songs was regarded as a classic by Confucianists and became one of the Six Classics and the Five Classics.

The Book of Songs is rich in content, reflecting labor and love, war and corvee, oppression and resistance, customs and marriage, ancestor worship and banquets, and even celestial phenomena, landforms, animals, plants and other aspects. It is a masterpiece of the Zhou Dynasty A mirror of social life.