Chapter 9 Section 2 Yuefu Folk Songs of the Northern and Southern Dynasties
Few of the folk songs from the Cao Wei and Western Jin Dynasties have been handed down, and the most distinctive ones are the folk songs from the Northern and Southern Dynasties after the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Most of the folk songs in the Southern Dynasties are love songs.The Jiangnan area has beautiful mountains, clear waters and beautiful scenery, and the living conditions are better when the political situation is stable, so there are many love poems.Most of these poems are five-character and four-sentence, with soft and beautiful language, novel and ingenious ideas, and the rhetorical techniques of homophonic puns are often used, which are their characteristics.The essence of folk songs in the Southern Dynasties can be divided into two categories: one is "Wu Sheng Song", which was produced in Nanjing, Jiangsu today; the other is "Xiqu Song", which was produced in Xiangyang, Hubei.For example, one of the "Songs of Wu Sheng":
This is the tone of a girl: when they first fell in love with their lover, they expected to form a happy couple.However, lovesickness was in vain, and the luck was unlucky, and I didn't expect it to never come true. "Silk" is a homonym for "si"; "canji" is a broken loom, which means bad luck; "horse" is the length unit of cloth, which means "matching".Of course, the weaving machine can't make a good piece of weaving. It uses homophonic puns to lament that love is not going well. The idea is fresh and inspiring, which is very interesting.Another example:
The previous poem said that the autumn wind blows into the window and the tent floats up, so I see the bright moon hanging in the sky, thinking that the lover in the distance may also be looking at the moon at this moment, just like communicating information with communication satellites today, sending messages to the lover through the moon. , I hope he understands his thoughts.The last one is about the winter scene, the pond water is thick with ice, and the ground is covered with snow; my love can stand the test of severe cold like pines and cypresses, is your love like this?She expects the other party to be steadfast as well.The following two songs belong to "Xiqu Ge", which are dialogues between a pair of lovers:
The first one was said by a woman.She heard that her lover (Huan) was going to Yangzhou (now Nanjing) on an official business trip, so she came to Jiangjin to see him off.Her congratulatory speech was not "Bon voyage", but hoped that the boat's poles would be broken, unable to sail, and teach (make) her lover unable to walk, so she would turn the bow of the boat and come back to reunite with her.The last one is the lover's words of consolation in reply to her: break the pole and replace it with a new one;The eight-line poem expresses all the tenderness, sweetness and inseparable feelings between a pair of lovers.From the above few folk songs of the Southern Dynasties, we can see that they are generally not long in length, with fresh and bright styles, delicate and lingering emotions, euphemistic and subtle words, and have a unique charm.
The simple and unrestrained folk songs of the Northern Dynasties are set against the soft and charming folk songs of the Southern Dynasties.The folk songs of the Northern Dynasties have a wide range of themes, in addition to love, they also reflect more social life, and the style is rough and lively.Such as:
Northerners cannot live without horses.Only when a vigorous son rides a fast horse can he show his bravery, and only when a fast horse carries a strong man can he show his majesty. "跸ba" is the sound of a horse's hoof hitting the ground.Everyone got on their horses and set foot on the yellow dust all the way, who is the hero and who is the idiot in a competition!A young man with excellent riding skills will be regarded as a hero by people, and it is easy to attract the favor of girls.Therefore, love songs in the north are often associated with horses:
The girl's distress is obviously the expectation of getting the love of the person she likes.She would rather become a horsewhip, hanging on his lover's arm at all times, leaning against his knees when walking and sitting (seat), inseparable for a moment.The witty phrases of such folk poets are often beyond the imagination of literati.Northern folk songs even lament the social problems of inequality, using horses as metaphors:
Fast horses are always used for riding, so they are poor and thin; poor people (zhan'er) are often exploited, so they are poor.Huang He fattened the horse, so the horse looked like a horse; only when you had money and hard waist, others would treat you as a human being.
The folk songs of the Northern Dynasties have distinctive features, such as the "Chile Song" that "the sky is blue, the wild is vast, the wind blows the grass and the cattle and sheep are low", which has been widely circulated for more than a thousand years, proving its charm.The famous "Mulan Poetry" was also born at this time, and enthusiastically praised Mulan, a heroine who joined the army in place of her father.Mulan may not be a real person, but similar things are possible in the north where wars are frequent.Because people loved her character and behavior, they added a surname to her later, called "Hua Mulan", hoping that there was someone like her.The emergence of Mulan as a hero is entirely due to this "Poem of Mulan".
