Which is the earliest rhyming poem in China

Generally, the knowledge we gained from textbooks is that the Book of Songs is the earliest collection of poems in China, so many people think that the earliest poem should be the first "Guan Ju" in the collection. In fact, there are written records of earlier poems, this poem is only a short eight words, is a two-character poem, the poem is called "playing song", is an ancient ballad of the ancient period. The poem was recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, and it was also included in the Source of Ancient Poetry compiled by the literati of the Qing Dynasty. About five thousand years ago, China had entered the late stage of primitive society. Poetry in primitive society had also been produced. According to the surviving data, the poems of this period were mainly labor ballads composed by primitive people in collective labor.

The poem is as follows:

Break the bamboo,

Renew the bamboo;

Fly the earth,

Run the Shinji (ròu).

The character "宍" is the ancient character for "flesh". I read in Mr. Zhou Ruchang's "Hundreds of Fine Poems in Two, Three, Four Languages of All Ages" that the original meaning of this poem is: to break the bamboo, to renew the bamboo is to connect the bamboo with leather or string to make a bow, to fly the earth is to make a projectile out of the earth, and to drive away the flesh is to use the made projectile to go hunting. The word "宍" is an ancient word for "meat", which refers to animals and fowls. It describes the scenes of hunting and labor of the ancestors in the ancient times, reflecting the life of the primitive society in the age of fishing and hunting.

Attachment: Ancient Songs

Ancient Songs: Folk Songs and Ballads of the Ancient Period, a kind of folk literature. In ancient times in China, songs were sung in unison and ballads were sung in vain. Ancient ballads are important tools for the ancestors to express their thoughts, express their feelings, and promote production, and they were produced in the primitive era when productivity was extremely low, and they are the earliest literary styles that appeared. According to the subject matter, they can be divided into labor ballads, sacrificial ballads, totem ballads, marriage ballads, war ballads and so on. They are collective, comprehensive and reproduce the directness of life, with simple words and phrases, smooth rhythm, and with fugue as their main means of expression.

The preservation of the ancient ballads

The ancient ballads were preserved in the canonical books of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, and the later generations concentrated on the compilations of the following: Shen Deqian's "The Source of Ancient Poetry" of the Qing Dynasty, and Lu Qinli's "Poems of the Pre-Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, and North and South Dynasties", which contains the most detailed information. However, it is not entirely credible, some such as "hit the soil song", "Qingyun song", "South Wind Song" is out of the latter's pseudo.

Contents of Songs in the Ancient World

1. Recreating the process of labor:

The Song of Playing Bamboo in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue (吳越春秋)：Breaking the bamboo, Renewing the bamboo, Flying the soil, and Shishening?

Legendary for the Yellow Emperor's era, reflecting the labor process in the fishing and hunting era. The invention of the bow and arrow is an important symbol of mankind's escape from the age of ignorance. Engels said: "The bow and arrow is as decisive a weapon for the age of ignorance as the iron sword was for the age of barbarism and firearms for the age of civilization." (The Origin of the Family, Private Ownership and the State) The invention of the bow and arrow in our country is very early, there are the so-called: "Shao Hao was born as a general, it is the beginning of the bow" (The Classic of Mountains and Seas? (The Classic of the Sea and the Interior); "Yi made the bow". (Mozi? In fact, the invention of bow and arrow is not a personal creation, but the accumulation of wisdom and experience of primitive people in a long era. This short song exudes the pride and joy of primitive people in making dexterous tools, and also shows their desire to get more prey.

2. Of the desire to conquer nature:

"Rites of Passage? Suburban Special Adoption" in the "Wax Rhetoric": "The earth goes back to its mansion, the water goes back to its ravine, the insects do not make any work, and the grass and trees go back to their zephyrs!"

It is rumored to be a work from the time of the Yiqi clan. The Yiqi clan, or Shennong clan, is said to refer to Emperor Yao. Wax, is the name of an ancient sacrificial ritual. In the Zhou Dynasty, the ritual of sacrificing to a hundred gods in December was called the Wax Ritual, and the prayer used in the Wax Ritual was called the Wax Ritual. From the commanding tone of this short song, it is actually a "mantra" for nature.

With the flooding of the land, the inundation of the land, the plague of insects, the barrenness of the grass and trees, and the hopelessness of the harvest, under the domination of the primitive religious consciousness, the primitive people attempted to rely on this rhythmic language to command the nature, to change the nature, and to make it comply with their own desires.

3. Reflecting the ancient marriage system:

Tun? Sixty-two": Tuen Ru, not making progress; ride the horse, Ban Ru; banditry, marriage coitus.

This is a poem of marriage snatching. A group of men riding on horses came in a roundabout way, originally thought to be enemy bandits, and only realized that it was for the marriage when they broke into the door and snatched the girl away. The poem reflects the system of bride kidnapping that did exist in ancient times. The poem is short, but it is written in a twisted and figurative way, with a harmonious rhyme scheme.

4. Related to war:

Zhongfu? Sixth Three": if you get the enemy, you may drum, or strike, or weep, or sing.

This is a poem about war, describing the return from war in victory. After winning the war, some are still beating drums to show their courage, some are sitting down to rest, some are weeping, and some are singing at the top of their voices. In a few words, a moving scene is written.

5, pleasant labor life:

"Zhouyi" in the "return to the sister? Shangliu": A woman who carries a basket has no reality; a scholar who cuts open a goat and cuts open a sheep has no blood.

Men and women on the pasture are shearing and gathering wool; the men shear the wool and see no blood; the women carry baskets of wool and feel no weight. Light and vivid, with feelings and scenes.

6. Songs of longing

"Lü Shi Chun Qiu? The Song of the Waiting Man" in the "Tone Beginnings": Waiting for the man Ruoxi.

Legend has it that Da Yu, the great water-conqueror, married a woman of the Tushan clan; Da Yu toured the southern part of the country and did not return for a long time, so the woman sang this song, longing for Da Yu's return. From the point of view of historical development, a more stable conjugal relationship and conjugal affection is only possible after the emergence of monogamy, which was already in the late stage of clan society after the sprouting of private ownership. The two words in a sentence and the tone of voice trailing a long caesura achieve a unique lyrical effect. This is the oldest love poem in China, the first in the tradition of lyric poetry.

The main features of the ancient ballads:

Most of the primitive ballads were in the form of two-word lines. This is because in the ancient times, labor movements were simple, and labor rhythms were short and distinctive, so the rhythms of the poems that accompanied the labor movements were naturally not complicated. In addition, the ancient Chinese language are all monosyllabic words, two monosyllabic word combination is the original sentence, the generation of this sentence is directly related to the way of thinking and language ability of the ancient people.