Original text and notes of bamboo slips

Feng Jiajian in Qin Dynasty is one of the Book of Songs, a collection of China's ancient realistic poems. Let's take a look at the original text and notes of Jiaxu that I compiled for you. Welcome to read, for reference only.

The original text and notes of "Jian Jian"

Pre-Qin Dynasty: Anonymous

The Millennium is frost. The so-called Iraqis are on the water side.

Tracing back and forth, the road is blocked and long. Swim back from it, in the middle of the water

It's been a long time, and it hasn't changed for thousands of years. The so-called Iraqis are in the water.

Tracing back and forth from it, the road is blocked and broken. Swim back from the inside and swim in the water.

Jia Cai, peace and prosperity have not passed. The so-called Iraqis are in the water.

Go back and follow, the road is blocked and turn right. Swim back from the inside and swim in the water.

translate

The river is green with reeds and frost in autumn. Where is the right person? Just across the river.

It's too long to go upstream to find her. Follow the running water to find her, as if in the middle of the water.

The reeds by the river are dense, and the morning dew is not dry. Where is the right person? Just beyond the river bank.

Sail against the current, it is hard to go climbs. Follow the running water to find her, as if on a beach.

The reeds by the river are thick and thick, and the dew has not been completely collected in the morning. Where is the right person? It's just beyond the water.

It's hard to find a way to find her against the current. Follow the running water to find her as if she were in the water.

To annotate ...

Jiān: Reed without long spikes. Jiā: a new reed. Pale: bright and lush. In the following, "planting" and "mining" have the same meaning.

Cangshan: lush appearance.

Condense into: condense into.

So-called: what I said refers to what I missed.

Iraqi: That person refers to the object of admiration.

One side: that side.

Backwater: upstream. Hereinafter, "upstream" refers to downstream. One said that "rotation" refers to a curved waterway, and "swimming" refers to a DC waterway.

From: Pursuit.

Obstacles: difficulty walking.

Wan: Now it seems.

Me (xρ): Fuck.

May: Where the water meets the grass is the coast.

Jο(jο): the highland in the water.

Chí: The beach in the water.

By the water.

Right: twists and turns.

Zhǐ: The beach in the water.

The Qin land in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is roughly equivalent to most of Shaanxi and eastern Gansu today. Its land is "close to Rongdi", and such an environment forces Qin people to "practice combat readiness and value their strength" (Hanshu Geography), and their emotions are also passionate and generous. The ten poems preserved in Qin Feng are mainly about hunting, mourning, satire and persuasion, while the sentimental feelings like Jia Xu and Morning Wind are more like Zheng's style.

The poem "White Dew is Frost" conveys to readers that it is late autumn and the dawn of genius, because there are frost flowers condensed by dew at night on reed leaves. On such a late autumn morning, the poet came to the river in pursuit of the person he longed for, and an endless reed appeared in front of him, showing cold silence and loneliness. Where is the man whom the poet expects? All I know is that it is on the other side of the river. But is this a definite existence? Seen from below, this is not the case. Whether the poet doesn't know where the Iraqis live at all, or whether the Iraqis are like the "South Americans" in the fourth of Cao Zhi's Seven Miscellaneous Poems, who travel east to the north bank of the river and spend the night in Xiaoxiang, is impossible to know. This may be a hopeless but tempting pursuit under the poet's feet and pen. Understanding "upstream" and "upstream" as upstream and downstream, or along a winding waterway and along a DC waterway, will not affect the understanding of poetry. In Bai Juyi's Song of Eternal Sorrow, after the death of Yang Guifei, Xuanzong was lonely and sleepless. Through the above search, he found the green void. Below, in the yellow spring, a Taoist priest was still "but he didn't find the person he was looking for in two places", but after all, he found the immortal Yang Guifei on the "illusory" overseas fairy mountain and met again on Tanabata. However, in Jiaxu, after the poet's hard pursuit, the Iraqi people seem to be in the middle of the river, surrounded by waves, still inaccessible. In Hanguang, Nan Zhou, the poet can't find a "wandering girl" either, because the Hanjiang River is too wide to cross. Chen Qiyuan said: "Those who speak (say) will seek it, while those who can only see it without seeking it will benefit." (Appendix to Shi Mao's Argumentation) "Visible but unreachable", which is within reach, deepens the degree of longing. The word "Wan" in the poem shows that the figure of the Iraqi people is vague and ethereal, and perhaps it is simply an illusion born out of the poet's obsession. The latter two chapters are only slightly changed from the first chapter, and this kind of repeated singing with only slightly changed words is a common technique in the Book of Songs. As far as this poem is concerned, this change is all about rhyme-the first chapter "Cang, Shuang, Fang, Chang and Yang" belongs to the rhyme of Yang, the second chapter "Qi, Mei, Ji and Gui" belongs to the rhyme of Fat, and the third chapter "Cai, Ji, Huan, Right and Turbid" belongs to the rhyme of Yang. At the same time, this change has also caused the reciprocating advancement of semantics. Such as "white dew is frost", "white dew is not wet" and "white dew is not exhausted"-dew condenses into frost flowers at night, frost flowers melt into dew due to rising temperature, and dew evaporates under sunlight-indicating the continuation of time.

This poem was once regarded as a mockery of Qin Xianggong's failure to consolidate the country with Zhou Li (Preface to Jian Zheng Shi Mao), or as a regret that it could not attract hermits (General Introduction to the Book of Songs, Yao Jiheng, Primitive Book of Songs, Fang Yurun). But unlike most poems in The Book of Songs, the content is often more specific. There are no specific events and scenes in this poem, and even the gender of "Iraqis" is difficult to identify. The above two understandings may be based at the beginning, but these bases have not survived or are not convincing enough, so their conclusions are questionable. Annotators of the Book of Songs in past dynasties often pursue deeper, but they get the opposite result of giving up the root and getting the end. Moreover, "all history is contemporary history" (see the concept of history by British philosopher and historian Collingwood), and the interpretation of the text is also contemporary. Most scholars in modern times regard it as a love poem, which begins with pale prosperity and then writes that men pursue the right person. Where are the people they are chasing? In the dense jungle, it seems invisible and sometimes hidden. This poem uses repeated chapters to express suspense. "Cang Cang", "Lush" and "Caicai" have similar meanings; Millennium is "thawing", "thawing" and "unfinished", with similar contents. In a word, the heavy chapter of this poem is neat and concise, with bright rhythm and pleasing to the eye.

The emptiness of poetry brings trouble to interpretation, but it also expands the inclusive space of its connotation. When readers touch what is hidden behind the description object, they will feel that the images in this poem are not only used by poets to sing, but also contain some symbolic meanings. "On the Water Side" is a symbol of admiration, which is described in detail in Qian Zhongshu's "Pipe Tapes". "Swim back", "Swim back", "The road is blocked and long" and "Wandering in the middle of the water" are just symbols of the difficulty and uncertainty of repeated pursuit. The poet searched up and down, but Iraqis were faintly visible but still out of reach. In The West Chamber, Yingying failed to combine with Zhang Sheng in Pujiu Temple because of her mother's constraints. She lamented that "people are far apart", and the poets in Jia Jian felt the same way.

It seems that the poet's pursuit will be successful, but it is still a mirage. There is a story in ancient Greek mythology that King Tantalus was punished for boasting that he had committed a crime-enduring eternal thirst and hunger. He stood in the big lake, the water was as deep as his chin, there were fruit trees by the lake, and many fruits hung on his head. However, when he was thirsty and bowed his head to drink water, the lake receded; When he was hungry and reached for the fruit, the branches swung open, and the beautiful spring fruit was always within his reach. The proximity of the goal makes failure more painful and regrettable. The most unacceptable failure is the failure that is only one step away from success.

Works that explore the profound experience of life always get constant response in later generations. "Building four" and "building one person" have become cliches in old letters. Cao Zhi's Ode to Luoshen and Li Shangyin's Untitled Poetry are also responses to the theme of Jiaxu. A romantic novel by Qiong Yao, a contemporary popular novelist in Taiwan Province, is called On the Water, and the theme song of the TV series of the same name is based on this poem.

Vagueness of facts

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. However, the author seems to have deliberately blurred all the main events. 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. Undoubtedly, because the pursuer, especially the pursued, is vague, the whole pursuit of characters, events and contents becomes illusory. But it is precisely because of this fact that the artistic conception of poetry is so ethereal and symbolic. Emotion expressed in the works: the man who pursues "Iraqi" failed to find his "Iraqi" after three pursuits, which shows that the so-called Iraqi is just an elusive dream and a virtual environment. But the dreamer didn't give up, but sought for the dream, not afraid of difficulties and obstacles.

An 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, the "water center" where Yiren is located has also become a virtual symbolic image because of the ambiguity between the pursuer and the pursued, the seemingly real scenic river road and the pursuit route of the upstream and downstream. We can't delve into when, where and what rivers and mountains they are, otherwise Iraqis are contradictory in the upper and lower reaches of the river, and 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.