This cheerful and clear folk song of Han Yuefu was first seen in Records of Le Shu. The first two words in the first sentence of this poem are entitled Jiangnan, and then the first sentence is entitled picking lotus in Jiangnan, also known as Jiangnan Qu. Because of its fresh language, agility and liveliness, beautiful artistic conception and fluent phonology, it has always been loved and sung by people. Not to mention some well-known anthologies of poems, even the anthologies of ancient poems for Chinese majors in universities and other teaching materials mostly contain this folk song. The Book of Songs (Volume 21), Le Zhi San (Volume 26) and Yuefu Poetry (Volume 26) classify it as "harmony". Yu Guanying's Selected Poems of Yuefu thinks that the following may be harmony. Because harmony songs are originally sung by one person and by many people. This analysis is of great enlightening significance for us to understand the structure of the last few poems more objectively. However, in order to fully understand and deeply appreciate the artistic conception and interest of this folk song, it is very important to correctly interpret the word "Tian Tian" in the first sentence "Lotus can be picked in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are lotus leaves in Hetian".
Comments on "Tian Tian" are not as simple and consistent as people think. The most representative views are as follows:
One is to explain it as the way leaves float on the water. For example, Etymology (revised edition) said: "Leaves float in water." After quoting this poem, I quoted the poems in Chronicle of Tang Poetry and Jiangting Ji Chun: "The fence is barren and the fields are vast, and the river is beautiful." (The Commercial Press, 1983, page 2 102)
Second, it is interpreted as "lotus leaf appearance" or "dense appearance" (Ci Hai, Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 1979 edition, p. 3824; 2000 edition, page 4747). Zhu Dongrun's "Selected Literary Works of China in Past Dynasties" notes: "Tian Tian, Lotus Leaf Mi." (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, version 1958, vol. 1, p. 364) The Chinese dictionary is also interpreted as "lotus leaves are full and dense". After quoting this poem, I quoted Xie Tiao's Song on the River in the Southern Dynasties: "The lotus leaf is still in the field, and the water can't pass." There is also Zhu Ziqing's Moonlight on the Lotus Pond: "On the winding lotus pond, I am looking forward to the leaves of Tian Tian." (Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, version 1986, volume 7, page 127 1)
Third, it is interpreted as "tall and straight" (Selected Notes on China's Literary Works edited by Yuan Xingpei, Zhonghua Book Company, vol./kloc-0, p. 409, 2007.
The author thinks that the second explanation is closer to the original intention. The first explanation is not only unclear, but I'm afraid it doesn't make sense. What kind of leaves and how many leaves float on the water are called "fields"? Can't it be called "Tian Tian" without "floating on the water"? If so, it is impossible to explain the description in Mr. Zhu Ziqing's Moonlight on the Lotus Pond. He said, "You can see Tian Tian's leaves on the winding lotus pond. The leaves are high above the water, like a slim skirt. " It is also said that "among the layers of leaves, some white flowers are dotted sporadically, some bloom gracefully and some bloom shyly." It can be seen that these "beauty" and "leaves in the field" are really high in moisture. Because of their large water output, the author can clearly see that there are some white flowers among those "layers of leaves". Obviously, the "leaves" of the Tian Tian are no longer floating on the water.
Then, can these "Tian Tian leaves" mentioned in Moonlight on the Lotus Pond also be used to explain Tian Tian's "tall and straight" in Jiangnan Qu, that is, is the third explanation true? The answer should be no, because Moonlight on the Lotus Pond is about the lotus pond on the campus of Tsinghua in autumn, and there is not much water in the pond, so there will be a description of "leaves grow high". At this time, Mr. Zhu Ziqing thought of the sentences in Xizhou Qu, not Jiangnan Qu. He said: "This reminds me of a sentence in Xizhou Qu,' Picking Lotus in Nantang'. If there are lotus pickers tonight, the lotus here is too crowded, except for some shadows of running water ... "
Jiangnan Qu should be written as picking lotus in spring and summer in Jiangnan. At this time, it is not "lotus" or "lotus seed" but "lotus". According to the Five Classics of the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty is an ancient word in the south of the Yangtze River, "Gaimei Square has a beautiful morning and is easy to travel" (Ding's Continued Poems in Past Dynasties, Zhonghua Book Company, 1983 edition, p. 24). The History of China Literature, edited by Mr. You Guoen and others, thinks that this may be a love song combined with labor. The ancients often used lotus as a symbol of love and fish as a metaphor for women. May be the "Wu Chu Runan Songs and Poems" adopted by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. We believe that this folk song, like many Yuefu folk songs and ancient poems, expresses love through duet between men and women, and also uses rhetorical devices such as homophonic pun. For example, "Lian" and "Xi" here are homophonic puns, and "fish" and "jade" are homophonic puns, while "Lian" often refers to women and "Xi" often refers to women. Ou Yangxun's Collection of Literature and Art in the Tang Dynasty (Volume 82), under the poem "Picking Lotus in the South of the Yangtze River", quoted the poem "Ancient Poetry", saying: "Picking hibiscus in Shejiang River, Lanze is full of fragrant grass. Who wants to leave, Philip Burkart. " Fu Shuo, a poet of the Jin Dynasty, said, "Crossing the south of the Yangtze River, picking lotus, adding hibiscus and flowers like stars. Green leaves reflect long waves, return air capacity, and dynamic fibers. " There is also a saying in Liang Wuyun's Poem of Picking Lotus: "The icing on the cake is mixed with flowers, and the clothes are hung on the Qingjiang River. Ask my son where to go today, picking lotus in Jiangnan. ..... May you turn early, this lotus is fresh. " (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, version 1982, Volume II, page140/-1402. Therefore, this kind of lotus picking is different from that in Xizhou Qu, and the leaves of Tian Tian in this case are also different from those of Tian Tian in Moonlight on the Lotus Pond by Zhu Ziqing.
In spring and summer in the south of the Yangtze River, there is abundant rainfall and the lake is full of rivers. No matter from a distance or from a close distance, the lotus leaves seen in ponds and lakes are mostly lush and interlaced. Of course, many lotus leaves are above the water, but it is not appropriate to describe them in a "straight" posture. This is not difficult to understand from countless descriptions of the ancients. For example, there is an ancient poem saying, "Before the water came out, the lotus leaf had been repaired" (Yongle Dadian, volume 92, Zhonghua Book Company, 1986 edition, volume 1, page 365); Sun Lin, a native of Tongcheng, wrote "Jiangnan Qu": "The spring days are long, the spring water is deep, the fields are lotus leaves, and the south lake is cloudy." (Selected Poems of the adherents of the Ming Dynasty by Qing Zhuoerkan, Zhonghua Book Company, 196 1 Edition, Volume 6, p. 634) Even in the north, you can see very spectacular scenes, such as the poem "Watching Lotus in Wanliutang" written by Zhao as a gift to geisha to explain the story, which is also described as "Ten south of the city" ..... I have seen the good lotus leaves in Tian Tian, and I love to kill Zhao Wangsun (Collection of Chen Yuan and Qing Wu Changyuan, Volume XIII, Beijing Ancient Books Publishing House, 198 1 edition, p. 258). Picking lotus ponds is naturally another scene. There is a sentence in Liang's "Song of Picking Lotus": "The golden paddle Mulan boat plays the lotus in the south of the Yangtze River. Lotus fragrance is separated from Purdue, and lotus leaves are fresh all over the river. " (Qi's Poems in the Pre-Qin, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Liang's Poems, Volume 18, Zhonghua Book Company, 1983, page 1868) There is a sentence in Li's Summer Poems: "The tung branches are full of jade, and the lotus leaves are full of silver ponds." (Poems in the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Selected Poems of Sui Dynasty, Volume II, p. 2644) Yang Wanli's Jingci Temple Seeing Lin Zifang in the Southern Song Dynasty is even more "after all, the scenery of the West Lake is different from the four seasons in June. The famous poem "The lotus leaves are infinitely blue the next day, and the lotus flowers reflect different colors in the sun", and at the same time, Xiao Qinghu also has such a sentence: "The West Lake in June is beautiful, and thousands of green leaves cover all kinds of red makeup." It goes without saying that from the descriptions of Quanshui, Nanhu, Tang Yin and Xihu in the quotations, it is impossible for the lotus leaves growing in them to stand up obviously. Poems such as Lotus Leaves in Hunan in the Field, Fresh Lotus Leaves in the River, Lotus Leaves in the Silver Pond, Infinite Lotus Leaves in the Sky and Thousand Kinds of Red Makeups vividly depict the lotus leaves in spring and summer in the south of the Yangtze River. For another example, Qing once described the lotus pond in Kunshan County in summer: "The wicker is still curled up on the shore, and the lotus leaves are out of the pool." There is another saying: "In the first summer, the fields were leveled, but now the leaves are against the wind." (Xu Qingsong's "On April 8th, I was not out of date when the Lotus Festival was full moon" and "Looking at the Lotus in front of Su Gong 'an on June 24th (commonly known as Lotus Birthday)", etc., can be found in Volume 6 of Hundred Cities of Smoke and Water, edited by Kunshan County, and Zhang, Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, 1999 as an example. There is a sentence in Yang's "Rebuilding Taiping Temple Monument": (Textual Research on Old News in the Sun, edited by Qing Yumin, Volume 53, Beijing Ancient Books Publishing House, 198 1 Edition, Volume 3, p. 857. )
It is also worth noting that the word "Tian Tian" in Jiang Nan Qu "Lotus Leaf He Tian Tian" has no phonetic notation in various collections and anthologies, so according to the convention, people read it as tián tián, and all the reference books and anthologies mentioned above are the same. But today, this reading may not be accurate. Duan Yucai's Notes on Explaining Words: "Heaven, Yan Ye. Every book is old, and it is correct today. The arrogant are also listed. In ancient times, both' Tian' and' Yu' were pronounced as' Chen', so we take rhyme as our motto and its neatness as our field. Anyone who says' Tian Tian' is Xiangyin, chenchen, and Chen chen regards it as a slap. " (Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 198 1 Edition, p. 694) Press "Yi" as the voice of the ordinary today. Duan Yucai, a native of Jintan, Jiangsu Province, who lives in Qiao Feng, Suzhou, has made outstanding achievements in phonological exegesis. However, his explanation of the sound and meaning of this word does not seem to attract the attention of scholars.
Le Shu Zhi of Song Dynasty said: "The ancient words in the music movement are all today's survivors, belonging to the street ballads in Han Dynasty, lotus picking in Jiangnan, Five Tones, Tenth Five-Year Plan and White-headed Songs respectively. Angkor's zaju, which appeared in Jiangzuo, has been slightly broadened since the Jin and Song Dynasties. " (Zhonghua Book Company, 1974 edition, page 549) shows that this is an ancient Jiangnan song that originated in the Han Dynasty. Then the understanding and interpretation of "lotus can be picked in the south of the Yangtze River, and lotus leaves are sweet" can be closer to the original meaning. Explaining the sound and meaning of "Tian Tian" with "Yi Yi" not only rhymes in Jiangnan dialect, but also proves its authenticity and vividness with reference to the following documents. Liang of the Southern Dynasties wrote in the poem "thousands of feet Cave on the Upper Building of Wangbei Temple": "Lotus leaves grow in the fields, and Linghua shakes." (Poetry Talk in Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Poetry Talk in Liang, vol. 24, p. 20 13) Xu Xiake wrote a lotus leaf cave cloud in Journey to the West of Guangdong: "If you go through the door, you can make a gap, and there are stone lungs hanging in the cave, which are green and green." Another cloud said, "Climb high and look at the Dongqu Palace, and the evening smoke is vivid. Zhu Meng and Hetian can be seen in the west, the reflection of Liu Ma Mountain can be seen nearby, and the peaks and peaks of Houshan can be seen in the distance. " The "evening smoke is vivid" and "lotus leaf field" in the quotation are the results of "overlooking the east" and "overlooking the west", which are obviously long-term prospects. There is another saying: "The lotus leaf field in the city is red and white, fragrant and beautiful, far away from the Qingfeng powder field, which is very superior." Zhao Wei's Gull in Wu Guanzhong Palace in Autumn: "Wild boats are in the west and the blue water reflects the blue sky. Take clothes into the water, hold jade out of the mud. The leaves are green and the lotus leaves are red. The shock wave is the only candidate, and there is already wind. " (Song Fan Chengda's Wu Junzhi, Volume 30, Quotations and Supplement to National History, Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, 1986 edition, page 45 1) The poem "Tian Tian Lu" can be understood as "Louis Lu". Obviously, the sound and meaning of "Tian Tian" in these sentences are consistent with the paragraph notes, and it is even more inappropriate to interpret it as "Ye Fu's water features" or "tall and straight faces".
It is precisely because the sound and meaning of "Tian Tian" are "Yi Yi" that the ancients used it not only to describe the lotus leaf, but also to describe the leaves of other plants. For example, there is a saying in the poem "Picking Ling" by Liang in the Southern Dynasties: "The branches are uneven and the ridges compete with each other. Turning leaves makes the wind fragrant and flowers flow in the sun. Shoot birds in the waves and swim fish out. " (Yiwen Collection, Volume 82, belongs to Grass, Volume 2, page 1406) The poem Jiangting Ji Chun in Li Ying's Chronicle of Tang Poetry is quoted from Qu Yuan: "The river is barren, the fields are vast, and the river is beautiful." Also belong to this category. For another example, in the book, Stone of the Qing Dynasty likes to eat cheese, so he uses Ouyang Xiu's poem "Eating the head of a chicken for the first time" to recite it. There is a line in the poem: "The chicken head is fat in June in my hometown, and the green leaves are full of sand. The flavor is the most Qiantang Lake, and the Lotus Building is poor. " (Yan Song's poem "Giving Great Grandpa a Boat" says: "The blue boat overflows. Entering the deepest part of Qiongbo, the Jade Hall and the Golden Hall are in the west. " (Textual Research on Old News of the Sun, Volume 36, Cited Qian Shan Tangji, Volume 2, Page 575) The ancients used it not only to describe leaves, but also to describe flowing water. For example, Li Dongyang's "Re-crossing the West Cliff": "The dangerous bridge without shore is broken, and the savages can't meet each other. In the sound of pulleys, the fields are filled with water, willow branches are trees, and warblers sound. ..... I don't know how many springs are outside the city, and the city is full of grass smoke. " (Sun Qing Chengze's Tianfu Guangji, Volume 44, Beijing Publishing House 1962, p. 687)
To sum up, not only the "Tian Tian" in Jiangnan Qu is Chen's prosperous and dense posture, but also the word "Ye" in Zhu Ziqing's Moonlight over the Lotus Pond should be the application of this meaning, neither "Ye Floating in Water" nor "Tall and Straight". Interpreting "Tian Tian" as "Chen chen" is more vivid and charming in the expression of poetry and prose.
[This article is the phased achievement of the national social science fund project "Poetics of Yuefu in Han and Tang Dynasties" (14BZW029)]
(Author: College of Literature, Suzhou University)