"Ballad" is a poem spoken by the masses and spread through folk chanting-of course, there will be various changes in this process; After a period of time, it was finally finalized, and its original meaning as a ballad came to an end, which can also be called "stereotyped ballad". What is sung and recited among children is called "nursery rhymes". At first, nursery rhymes may be written by adult busybodies or even politicians with ulterior motives (so political nursery rhymes often enter the "five elements" of history books).

However, children's characteristics have always been fully considered, and they are often concise and easy to catchy. A ballad usually doesn't know its original author. Folk songs are folk literature and oral literature.

The wind poems in The Book of Songs are actually ballads all over the country. Later, it was recorded and sorted out, and gradually finalized. After being approved by Confucius, it became a classic earlier. Other non-classics are still called folk songs. Before the Qin Dynasty, there were not many ancient songs handed down from generation to generation.

After the Han Dynasty, ballads were collected by a central organization called Yuefu, and after finishing and processing, they became so-called Yuefu poems, which completed the process of canonization in time. Some stereotyped songs since the Han and Wei Dynasties were collected by Xu Ling, a famous poet at the end of the Southern Dynasties, and Yuefu Poems, the most comprehensive collection of such works, was published in the late Zhao and Song Dynasties. Further extensive collection of ballads and proverbs, a number of works appeared in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In the eyes of many scholars who forget their ancestors, these songs are probably Xialiba's. They forget that the national style of the 15th National Congress was originally Xialiba's.

Scholars with a downward vision sometimes write their own new poems in a folk tone. This kind of works can be called ballad poems, and a large number of them are so-called quasi-Yuefu or new Yuefu, which is a long-standing and significant tradition in the history of China literature.

In the May 4th New Culture Movement, folk oral literature received further attention. 1922, Peking University established a ballad research society and published a weekly ballad, 152. At the end of the 1920s, Mr. Zhu Ziqing first opened a course on ballads in Tsinghua University, and his handout "Ballads of China".

(The Complete Works of Zhu Ziqing has been included in the sixth volume, Jiangsu Education Press, 1996).

It is a pioneering monograph, but unfortunately it has not been finished.

(Six chapters have been written and four chapters are to be written)

, but it became a classic.

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There are few ancient songs that can be known now. At first, it was very simple, but the rhythmic sound was accompanied by manual labor, which was equivalent to playing the songs of future generations. "Huai Nan Zi Dao Ying Xun" said: "Today's husband is holding a big tree, calling for bad promises before, and then responding, which is also a song of persuasion." Before this, there was a similar statement in Lu Chunqiu's erotic ci. Mr. Lu Xun talked about this kind of work of early people in the article "Talking about Foreign Languages", which was dubbed as "School of Navigation and Navigation".

There is often only one sentence in the oldest ballad. For example, in Lv Chunqiu Yin Chu, Tu Shanshi's daughter was waiting for her husband Dayu, and the only song she sang at that time was Waiting for People, which was called the beginning of Nanyin. There is a poem in Shan Hai Jing Huang Da Bei Jing about the expulsion order of heroes and heroes in the Yellow Emperor's era. There is only one sentence: "God goes north":

Chiyou attacked the Yellow Emperor with soldiers, and the Yellow Emperor ordered Ying Long to attack the wild Jizhou. Ying Long water storage, Chiyou please Fengbo rain division, longitudinal wind and rain. Emperor Huangdi said that when the rain stopped, he killed Chiyou. I can't go back, it won't rain, my uncle is the emperor, and the home front is north of Chishui. My uncles are all ancestors, so I died when I was young. Those who want to drive them away, let them say, "God goes to the north!" " "Get rid of waterways first, and then get rid of ditches.

Hao, a goddess with special functions, was originally invited by the Yellow Emperor to deal with Chiyou. She defeated the rain god Chiyou in Fengbo, but she caused a serious drought, so please ask her to leave. Good weather is always good. It is polite to send God away, so I just said the words "God goes north" without showing any disrespect. It will rain after she is asked to leave, so it is said that the waterway should be cleaned in advance, and the large and small ditches should be dredged to meet the arrival of rain. The poem "God's Journey to the North" has the meaning of a spell. In ancient times, people believed in witchcraft and often thought that language had magical power. At that time, poets and wizards were two in one.

Lu's "Spring and Autumn, Midsummer and Ancient Music" said that "in the past, Ge people, three people fucked the oxtail, and their feet stepped on Song" was "a year's work"

(start)

People, the second is the mysterious bird, the third is the vegetation, the fourth is the vigorous grain, the fifth is the respect for heaven, the sixth is the merit of the emperor, the seventh is the virtue of the earth, and the eighth is the pole of the total beast. "This group of songs is more complicated, and the content is completely productive labor and primitive beliefs. It's a pity that only the names are recorded here, but not the lyrics.

The ancient ballads that can be seen now are "playing songs" and "wax words".

"Biography of Goujian's Conspiracy in the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu and Yue" contains the cloud "Playing Songs": "Break bamboo, continue bamboo, fly soil and eat meat." Here, the word "meat" is used to refer to prey, which describes the production and life in the hunting era very concisely. The poem takes two words as sentences, and the rhythm is fast and powerful. The whole process of making a hunting slingshot was written in only eight words.

"Wax Ci" is found in the Book of Rites, and it is said that it is the information of wax sacrifice in the ancient Yi Dynasty:

Earth, rebel against its home!

Water belongs to its valley!

Insect, don't do it

Vegetation, return to its ze!

This should also be a spell sung by Wu Zhu. "Book of Rites Suburb Sacrifice" says: "The son of heaven is a big wax. Eosin is wax at first. Those are wax, those are cable, and everything will be collected in December, asking for money. " There are eight objects of wax sacrifice: one, two, hundreds, agriculture, postal service, cats and tigers, workshops and water experts. Wax words are the prayers of this wax sacrifice. According to the Book of Rites, La Worship is generally the same as wax sacrifice, but it is described in the Moon of Meng Dong, that is, October. "Suburb worship" uses the weekly calendar, "monthly order" uses the summer calendar, and establishes Yin and his son. October in the summer calendar and December in the weekly calendar refer to the same month, that is, to build a sea moon, which is now the lunar calendar. Wax sacrifice is a ritual offering sacrifices to all gods at this time.

"The Book of Rites and the Moon Order" also wrote: "It is the moon, and the son of heaven begins to marry. An official said:' The weather is rising, the atmosphere is falling, and the world is blocked, making it winter.' I ordered a hundred officials to cover it up, and Si Tuleideng did it, accumulating everything. Build a castle, close the gate, repair the key, be careful, secure the border, prepare the border, finish the fortress, close the beam, block the road, bury the discipline, make clothes ... Another day, drink a lot, the son of heaven prayed for the coming year in Tianzong, and cut down the temple at the commune and the gate. "It turns out that everything will be' closed' when winter comes. Now that the world has been' closed', people have to deal with it and take various measures accordingly. The Book of Songs in July talks about "harvesting crops", "smoking mice in pits" and "stuffing them into households". These are not only things that must be done before winter in production and life, but also the great significance of implementing "occlusion" in the eyes of early people in synchronization with heaven and earth.

If the climate is abnormal and the weather is wrong, it will be quite terrible. "The Book of Rites and the Moon Order" continued: "When Meng Dong arrives in spring, it will be frozen and closed, and many people will go into exile; There will be many storms in the countryside in summer, and it will not be cold in winter, and the stinging insects will return; In autumn, there are snow and frost, soldiers are there, and the land is occupied. " Climate anomaly not only has its direct and obvious consequences, but also has a series of more complex and far-reaching effects, and it will always be manifested in social and personnel aspects, because heaven and people are mutually sensitive.

Reciting such wax words is actually an order to nature, with a strong magical nature; This poem requires soil, water, animals, plants, etc. It should be synchronized with the development of the weather, which embodies the concept of ancient people living in harmony with nature. The general program of China people's primitive thinking is the mutual induction between nature and human beings, and they are mutually causal in a mysterious sense. The ancients believed that natural disasters such as landslides, earthquakes and floods were caused by the failure of human political affairs, while human diseases and disasters were punished by the gods. In order to avoid misfortune, we must strive for the unity of heaven and man, so that heaven and man can maintain a most appropriate and harmonious relationship. In order to achieve this goal, people must make great efforts from their own aspects, including demanding strong natural cooperation with various festivals or inducing them to cooperate with certain ceremonies. Many ancient witchcraft, sacrifices and folk customs are related to this, and its influence can be said that it has not completely disappeared so far.

Primitive thinking infers heaven from man, and then demands man from heaven in turn, so as to regulate man's behavior. Once you ask for anything in the name of the sky, it has mysterious power. It is not difficult to understand wax words from the bottom of early people's way of thinking. Its purpose is to pray for winter and winter, and to ask all parties to act according to the rules, stabilize the situation and not be confused.

"Earth, against its home" is to pray for rusticity, and here "Earth" refers to the land god.

(hereinafter "water", "insect" and "vegetation" all refer to related gods)

Please go back to your mansion to "block" it, so that the simple nature will not be lost.

"Water returns to its valley" means asking the water god to return to his river ditch to "block" it, so that the water level naturally drops and moves in sync with everything.

"Insects, don't do it" means that animals are also "shielded". The "Kun" here has many meanings.

("Da Dai Guo Li Jixia Zheng Xiao": "There are many Kun people." )

"Insect" refers to all kinds of animals. "The essence of caterpillar is called forest, the essence of feather insect is called phoenix, the essence of intermediary insect is called turtle, and the essence of scale insect is called dragon." Even people can call it a "bug": "The essence of a bug is called holiness."

("Dai Li, Li Ji, Ceng Zi, Tianyuan")

Generally speaking, people can be ignored, especially animals. Snakes are called "long worms" and tigers are called "big worms". The heritage of ancient meaning is widely spread. Later generations can only use some derogatory terms to describe people as "bugs", such as "bitches"

("People are all bitches. If you don't fight, you won't confess ")

, "poor bug", "idiot", "sleepy" and so on. , there is still an ancient meaning. The popular word "net worm" is a bit ridiculous. In short, "don't make insects" means asking the gods in charge of all kinds of animals to "block up" so that there will be no abnormal situations such as "the return of stinging insects". Traditional Chinese medicine has been talking about the way of health preservation for the elderly in winter, and also emphasizes "occlusion" to prevent exogenous cold.

"Vegetation belongs to its own nature" means that the God in charge of plants is also required to "block". "Custom Yi Tong Shanze" says that "the grass meets the grass, and the name is Ze". Now it is called wetland-even if the vegetation is "blocked", it belongs to Ze. This sentence is called "all grass and trees are soldiers"

(For details, see Volume I of Poems of Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Zhonghua Book Company, 1983).

Its meaning is particularly clear.

In a word, wax words require soil, water, animals and plants to be "blocked", which is consistent with the weather and personnel, so it will be prosperous.

"Blocking up" is to save your strength and prepare to come back next year. Book of Rites and Moon Order: The Moon in Meng Chun

(first month)

The cloud "is the moon, the weather is falling, the atmosphere is rising, the heavens and the earth are harmonious, and the vegetation is sprouting"; Mid-spring moon

(February)

"It's starting to rain" and "The stinging insects are salty"; Moon to Ji Chun.

(March)

, "Go into the water." After different periods of rest, soil, water, insects, vegetation, etc. Everyone recovered from the "closed" state, and people came out of the house to engage in spring ploughing accordingly. "Three days is death, four days is ok."

(The Book of Songs Qi Feng July)

-The first month

("three-day" weekly calendar)

In February, repairing farm tools in the garden.

("four days" in the weekly calendar)

There is a hoe in the kitchen. The popular version of "stop" is "toe", which is a correction based on the quotation of Mr. Yu in "Hanshu Shihuozhi".

(For details, see New Proof of the Book of Songs in Zeroju, Zhonghua Book Company, 1982).

Refers to an agricultural tool similar to a hoe.

The synchronous and harmonious movement between man and nature is the ideal state of early people. "Wax words" are four kinds of prayers they put forward to realize this ideal realm during wax sacrifice.

In primitive thinking, "all strange phenomena are regarded as the omen of the disaster that will happen later, and at the same time, it is the cause"

(Original Thinking by Levi Brewer, Commercial Press, 198 1 edition)

To prevent this omen and reason, there will be no more disasters.

Although wacky is very old, he has a strong vitality. The sacrificial songs used in the Han Dynasty are different in four seasons, such as Qingyang, Zhu Ming in summer, Xihao by Qiu Ge and Xuanming in winter. "Xuanming" says: "Xuanming's mausoleum is overcast, and insects cover it. The vegetation is scattered, and first frost in winter. It is easy to get rid of chaos and evil spirits. Hundreds of millions of people oppose this and support simplicity and simplicity. Be organized, have faith, and expect the Five Mountains. When the book is closed, cover the Oracle bones. " The meaning of life comes down in one continuous line with Waci. Up to now, Spring Festival couplets have been posted on the eve of Chinese New Year. I still like the eight characters in the big book "Good weather, peaceful country and people", which also means the same thing as wax words.

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"Playing songs" and "Wax poems" all involve the relationship between man and nature, and later some ancient ballads also involve social politics. For example, at the end of the Xia Dynasty, there was a ballad that expressed the people's anger: "It's time to mourn, leave it to you, and die!" Do not hesitate to die with the tyrant. Meng Ziliang quoted these two sentences, saying that they were ballads cursing Xia Jie and should be credible.

There are also some ballads about later generations, such as "Crazy Jie Yu of Chu Ci" contained in The Analects of Confucius:

Feng Feng, the decline of He De.

Don't remonstrate with the past, but you can still pursue the future.

It's just that politicians are in danger now!

The song of dutiful son in Mencius Li Lou;

The water in the rough waves is clear, you can hold my tassel. The water in the rough waves is so turbid that it can be used to drown my feet.

And so on. The sentences of these ballads are free and lively, revealing the information of the transition to Chu ci style.

Some ballads may be later, but the time indicated in the literature is very early, and these works are probably entrusted by future generations by mistake, or the original works are earlier, but they have been greatly modified and polished by future generations, such as Song of Breaking the Earth, Song of Qingyun, Song of Xia People and Song of Mai Xiuge. Such as "Qing Yun Ge": "The clear clouds are brilliant and flustered, and the sun and the moon compete for glory, but Fudan Xi."

(Historical Records, Volume I)

Although this poem is alleged to be a work of the Yu Shun era, I'm afraid such a clever poem can't appear too early, in which ancient ideas and customs are preserved by praising the sun and the moon and worshiping nature.

Similar to folk songs, there are proverbs that express certain truth in simple and popular sentences. They are found in ancient books, such as the Book of Changes, the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Zuo Zhuan, Mandarin, the Warring States Policy and the Book of Rites. For example, "Zuo Zhuan" quoted "auxiliary cars depend on each other, and the lips are dead and the teeth are cold."

(public five years)

"If it is not a house, it is a neighbor."

(Three years in Zhao Gong)

; There is a famous saying in Mandarin: "Good, sincere and evil."

("Zhou Yu")

; In the Warring States Policy, it is quoted that "it is better to be a chicken's mouth than a cow's queen."

("Han Ce")

Wait a minute. Proverbs are the summary of ancient people's labor and life experience, and many proverbs still have vitality today.

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There are two volumes of Ancient and Modern Folk Songs compiled by Yang Shen in Ming Dynasty and four volumes collected by Shi Menglan in Qing Dynasty. Yang Shen also compiled a volume of Ancient and Modern Proverbs, which recorded more than 260 ancient proverbs in chronological order, and most of the selected proverbs were vivid. Shi Menglan, A Qingren, is the author of Pickup in two volumes. 1936, the Commercial Press published two kinds of ancient and modern folk songs, one is ancient and modern proverbs, and the other is Cantonese style edited by Li Tiaoyuan, a Qing Dynasty man.

(Receiving Cantonese songs)

.

Reading ancient songs now, the following two books are the easiest to find and the most reliable:

1. One hundred volumes of Old Proverbs, edited by Du in Qing Dynasty and edited by Modern Times, Zhonghua Book Company 1958 edition.

Secondly, Poems of Pre-Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties edited by Jin Qin, Zhonghua Book Company 1983. Among them, pre-Qin poetry contains quite complete ancient ballads.

(Author: College of Literature, Yangzhou University)