Original link: https://codechina.org/2022/10/horse/
A friend recently asked if the phrase “the ancient road west wind thin horse” in Tianjingsha Qiusi is the Yangzhou thin horse.
I replied,
Of course not. First of all, the atmosphere and realm of the poems are not the same as that of Yangzhou Thin Horse. In addition, Ma Zhiyuan was from the Yuan Dynasty, while raising thin horses in Yangzhou was only popular in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Unconvinced, he quoted a passage,
The debate becomes fun. We will discuss this issue in detail today.
First of all, what is the original text of the famous Tianjingsha Qiusi?
Withered vines, old trees and crows,
Small bridges and flowing water people,
Ancient road west wind thin horse.
sunset,
Heartbroken people are in the end of the world.
This is a work that I like very much. The sense of vicissitudes, the sense of bleakness, and the sense of detachment are very rich.
And what is Yangzhou thin horse?
In fact, Yangzhou thin horse is not a horse, but a relatively deformed sex service industry popular in Yangzhou during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Yangzhou has always been a place where flowers are blooming. Yangzhou is also a prosperous place for brothels and entertainment industries. Du Mu has a verse of “Yangzhou dream in ten years, winning the reputation of brothel”.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, because Yangzhou salt merchants monopolized the national salt transportation industry and became the richest in the world, many complicated and extravagant lifestyles and deformed aesthetic tastes were developed. Huaiyang cuisine is an example, pursuing the ultimate knife work, complicated practices, light but low-key luxurious taste. The Yangzhou Thin Horse is another example.
Zhao Yi’s “Yuyu Cong Examination · Raising Thin Horses”: “People in Yangzhou raise virgins and sell them as concubines, which is commonly known as raising skinny horses. The meaning is unknown. Baixiangshan’s poem says: ‘Don’t raise skinny horses, don’t teach little prostitutes , the funeral is at present, do not believe that you remember: the horse is fat and walks fast, the prostitute can sing and dance, and in three to five years, it has been heard that the owner has changed.’ Song Mantang cited it, thinking that the idea of raising thin horses is the truth.”
The Baixiang Mountain mentioned here is actually Bai Juyi, and the word thin horse is actually the source of Yangzhou thin horse.
In the late Ming Dynasty, Zhang Dai’s “Reminiscence of Tao’an Dream” stated: “There are hundreds of people in Yangzhou who eat and drink on thin horses every day.” The Qing Dynasty Wu Chichang’s “Gussiao Window Gossip” volume 4 “skinny horses” records: “Jinling The gangsters sell young girls in the four directions, choose their handsome ones, adjust their skin, modify their clothes, and teach them through teachers. Eunuchs, merchants, and wealthy households are concubines, or even go to brothels, called ‘raising thin horses’. If there are good women from poor families, they will lure them in a hundred ways.”
In fact, in ancient China, it was quite common for brothels or some human traffickers to raise some little girls, teach some how to play and sing, and finally sell themselves in brothels or sell them to rich people to be concubines.
However, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Yangzhou had a lot of rich salt merchants. The behavior of Yangzhou has the unique deformed aesthetic taste of local wealthy merchants, as well as its standards and market prosperity. Therefore, a brand, or a standardization, a fashion has been formed, and it has obtained such a widely circulated name of Yangzhou Thin Horse.
Like there must be sex workers all over the country today. But a few years ago there was a well-known term called Wan-style service, which was even called IOS-standardized sex service.
Let’s talk again. I found the article mentioned in the screenshot of that friend. This article is an article written by Professor Lin Meicun from the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museology , Peking University. Part of “West River Moon” .
The main meaning of this article is that he thinks that this piece of Tianjingsha Qiusi may not be written by Ma Zhiyuan, but written by another Yuan Dynasty dramatist, Di Junhou, which is part of the “Yangzhou Recalling the Old” set. Since it is Yangzhou Recalling the old days, then the thin horse is likely to be the Yangzhou thin horse.
Evidence includes a fresco unearthed in 2008 from a Yuan Dynasty fresco tomb in Shanxi with the song “The Moon over the West River”.
The content is very similar to the current circulating “Tianjingshaqiusi”, which is: thin vines, tall trees, dim crows, small bridges and flowing water, people on ancient roads, west winds and thin horses, the sun sets in the west, and I am alone in the end of the world.
and various other analyses. First of all, I am not an archaeologist, and my view on Professor Lin Meicun’s inference that the author is Di Junhou and not Ma Zhiyuan is that the evidence is insufficient. There is no solid evidence to support this conclusion, and whether the thin horse is a Yangzhou thin horse has little to do with who the author is.
In particular, Professor Lin Meicun said that Tianjingsha Qiusi, or the mural Xijiangyue, should be another one of Di Junhou’s “Yangzhou Recalling the Old” six songs. Let’s also transcribe and compare.
First, “Double Tunes: Boats on the Night”: “Recalling the old Yangzhou Niansi Bridge, where the jade people also played the flute. The red candle burns the spring, the golden boat swallows the moon, and there are many laughter in the good night.”
Second, “Wind into the Pine”: “Dongfeng willow dance is long, like learning to slim the waist. The brocade and brocade cables are not consumed, and it is difficult to get rid of the prosperity. The ancient fisherman’s song is faint, and the tobacco in the palace is weak.”
Third, “Qiao Pai’er”: “Sorrowful in time and space, and walking slowly while enjoying the scenery. The scenery of the country should be young, and the money is often drunk.”
Fourth, “New Water Order”: “Don’t come here. The temples are already making things rude, and Qiluo Cong dreams are frequent. Thinking about the day before yesterday, it’s tonight, Luowei Basao, and I am embarrassed.”
Fifth, “Sweet Water Order”: “The world is ups and downs, the years are fast, and people’s feelings are upside down. There is no plan to find the yellow crane. One day, the old track will be rediscovered, Lanzhou will be bought again, and Wu Ji will make an appointment, and arrange a hundred thousand waistbands.”
Sixth, “Leaving the Pavilion Banquet”: “The spring is early in the ten miles of the bead curtain, and Liang Chen is full of singing, and the scenic spot needs to be taught and played. The slanting sun and the embankment, the warm wind and the flower market, the drizzle and the city view. Jinpao, Wusha hat without words to blame. Everywhere is sparse and mad. Who knows what the current affairs are like, and it seems that we are few.”
The mural version of “The Moon on the West River”: “The thin vines are tall and the trees are dim with crows.
I think it’s more obvious in comparison. These six Yangzhou Memories are basically all about brothel and erotic content.
The first one is the Jade Man, the flute, the red candle (red means big red), the burning spring, the golden boat, the good night, and the laughter. The second one is willow, dance, slender waist, yah (a mast made of ivory, describing the feeling of luxury), brocade cable, palace, tobacco. The third song, Fu Jing, Xing Le, scenery, Qianjin, Drunk. The fourth song, Double Temples, Diao Sao, Qiluo, Cong Meng, , Tonight, Luowei (a kind of singing insect), Banana, Embrace. The fifth song, Human Love, Yellow Crane, Lan Zhou, Wu Ji, Waist Wrap. The sixth song, Bead Curtain, Shili, Chunguang, Liangchen, Biandi, Warm Wind, Flower Market, Drizzle, Yue Jinpao, and Style.
Many of the words listed in these six songs are commonly written in sentences that are more fragrant or related to brothels and entertainment. And each capital echoes before and after.
Regardless of whether it is Tianjingsha or Xijiangyue, only a thin horse can be far-fetched to go to Yangzhou thin horse.
According to the level and feeling of these six Yangzhou memories, first of all, they do not look like the same group of poems, nor do they look like the works of the same person.
It is not uncommon for a poet to write poems of different content in different contexts, even if written by the same person. It is not uncommon for great poets to write poems about brothels, concubinage, love, and pornography. However, it would be strange if one poem could not talk about a brothel, and every poem was a brothel.
For example, I said just now that Bai Juyi wrote “Don’t raise a skinny colt, don’t teach a little prostitute”, but Bai Juyi also wrote “The Charcoal Seller”, you can’t say that “the poor shirt is in a single line” is sexy, “Pleasantly elegant” “Who are the two riders coming?” is the demeanor and charming, “half a red silk and a ten-foot silk” is the luxury of a drunken fan.
Another example is Du Mu’s “Yangzhou dream in ten years, and won the reputation of the brothel.” He also wrote “Twenty-four bridges on the bright moon night, where can the jade people teach flute”, Di Junhou’s “Yangzhou Recalling the Old” No. 1 One also pays tribute to Du Mu’s allusion. However, it is also Du Mu, writing brothels and erotica is different from writing other things. You can’t say that Du Mu’s “shepherd boy points to Xinghua Village from a distance”, Xinghua Village is also a brothel.
Or, today chrysanthemum has a serious homosexual eroticism, but you can’t draw a conclusion from Tao Yuanming’s “picking chrysanthemums under the east fence” that Tao Yuanming likes homosexuality for a reason.
The style and meaning of Tianjingsha Qiusi and the mural Xijiangyue are very clear. They are all about vicissitudes and sadness, rather than eroticism and joy.
In fact, there are many thin horses in the poems. I searched the poem search website ( https://sou-yun.cn/QueryPoem.aspx ). There are 641 poems in history since the Tang Dynasty, 34 poems in the Tang Dynasty, and 34 poems in the Song Dynasty. There are 210 pieces, 108 pieces in the Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, 189 pieces in the Ming Dynasty, 177 pieces in the Qing Dynasty, and nearly 100 pieces in modern and contemporary times.
I have probably turned through hundreds of poems, and they can be regarded as thin horses of Yangzhou thin horses. There are only a few poems:
A guest with a teacher, Qian Tangfan, Yu Shiyan wrote a poem after returning home in March Yuan·Yuan Yi
The lantern flower still remembers the time when it is red, to repay the king and return to me.
What does it mean that Huang Chen is obsessed with thin horses, and Shang Yan has blue eyes to send Feihong.
The mountains are covered with snow, and the trees and plums are empty.
He Xun thinks about reducing his talents in Yangzhou, and tries to call the spring breeze with witty words.
Linjiang Xianqiyi Yingchun Late Ming and early Qing Dynasty · You Dong
Last night, there was three inches of snow in winter, and Xiaoguang Russia announced the return of spring.
Green poplar, green grass and red plum.
The east wind is working hard, and it is sent to my door.
The flute, drums and colors greeted him, and the tourists and ants walked along the long street.
The golden hairpin laughs in the shadow of the bead curtain.
Lao Ji packs a thin horse and plays low cards.
The first one is not 100% sure. The second one is more obvious.
This is also very understandable. Most of the works of the ancients who mentioned the concept of Yangzhou thin horses are notes and miscellaneous notes. Yangzhou thin horse can be regarded as a concept, but it is not a particularly elegant concept, a bit similar to Dongguan-style service. If there are brothel poets in modern times, they may write poems praising the beauty and beauty of sex workers, but is praising it a Dong-style service?
In addition, the concept of thin horses is actually a concept in the process. The process of raising little girls and training them in brothels is called thin horses. But once married to a wealthy businessman, a wealthy businessman or a poet may use other words when referring to the thin horse he bought, such as concubines, such as beauty, beauty, jade and so on. And You Dong’s Linjiang Immortal happened to tell a picture of an old prostitute carrying a thin horse on the stage, and then whether it was a sexual service or a sale. But it is more appropriate to call this instant a thin horse.
Some people say that Tianjingsha is telling the story of Yangzhou’s twilight, so obviously it shouldn’t be called that, there are many more appropriate names.
If we search for “West Wind Slender Horse” on the poetry search website, we will find that there are also many poems before Yuan. Lu You’s “Western wind and yellow leaves fill the river village, and thin horses pass through the clouds of the ferry.”, “The persimmon leaves in front of the old tree are red, and the thin horse rides the west wind.” Jin Zhao Bingwen’s “The thin horse is in the west wind, and things are so fast. .”, before Tianjingsha Qiusi, it can be regarded as a good and historical combination of West Wind + Thin Horse.
Song Li Mixun’s “The long spurs the thin horse, send me to the side of the ancient road.” It can also be seen as evidence of the connection between the ancient road and the thin horse.
After I read about 200 ancient poems, thin horses are a common theme, and Du Fu’s “Skinny Horses” is a big contributor. “The thin horses in the eastern suburbs hurt me: the bones are like a wall.” Many poems Mention Du Fu directly, or quote Slender Horse. There are also many things related to the theme of the thin horse map. Next is the line poems, the thin horse is rugged, the thin horse Leitong, the thin horse cedar marks are the most common content, and so on. Then there are the common writings such as riding a thin horse, whipping a thin horse and so on. Then there are a large number of poems in the Ming and Qing Dynasties that have the feeling of citing Tianjingsha, or paying tribute.
To sum up, I think Tianjingsha Qiusi’s ancient road, West Wind Thin Horse, has nothing to do with Yangzhou Thin Horse.
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