Talk about interesting catkins.

In the season when poplars and catkins are flying all over the sky, I remember a fact that was clarified six months ago: in classical poetry, poplars are catkins, catkins are poplars, and the so-called "willow" is the same plant. I still remember my surprise and surprise when I first learned about it. It turns out that I have misunderstood for so many years, but with this explanation, many meanings and things can make sense.

Before I went to college, I lived in the standard north where poplars and willows were everywhere. Poplar is the kind of tall and unyielding roadside poplar in Mao Dun's Praise of Poplar, which will sing with the wind in summer. Willow is He's "Weeping Willow by the River", which is "Jasper dressed as a tree and a tapestry of thousands of strands of moss hangs down" every spring, and then cut into thin leaves by the spring breeze in February. This is a fact like common sense that never needs to be doubted. Therefore, every time I read "Yang Liu Yi Yi" in The Book of Songs Xiaoya Cai Wei, I always wonder how Yang Liu can be described by the word "Yi Yi". In Liu Yong's Yulin Ridge, I will sigh when I meet "Yang Liuan, the wind is fading". Can poplars by the river grow strong? The key is that there is no charm; Then I went to see Ouyang Xiu's Dead Hua Lian and saw "How deep is the courtyard?" I can't understand the sentence "Nothing in the curtain". Ruyan Liu, this is true, but why did Poplar, who has always been careless, join in the fun?

Too many puzzles were finally solved in a small note that I accidentally noticed when I was reading Nalan's ci six months ago. It is said that Huayang is catkin, and "willow" means willow in ancient times. Later, after consulting relevant information, it was recorded as early as "Er Ya Shi Mu": "Chang, He Liu; Liu Ze; Yang, Tao. " Mao Heng, a scholar of the Western Han Dynasty, also said in the Biography of Shi Mao: "Willow, willow." The exegetical monograph "Er Ya Yi Shu" in the Qing Dynasty also said: "The words" Liu Yang Yi Yi ","Liu He who lost his position "and" Dongmen Yang "in the Book of Songs are all the same." "Erya" is called Liu by Yang Tong and Yang Tong, and is also called Yang, which is a common name. From this, I know why the allusion of "piercing Yang with a hundred paces" in the Warring States Policy is aimed at willow trees, and why the "Yang Zhi Water Purification Bottle" held by Guanyin Bodhisattva is inserted with willow branches. However, later generations attributed the origin of "willow" to the emperor, who planted willow trees on both sides of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and the emperor named it Yang. Of course, this is only a legend of later generations.

However, when I understood the difference of "Liu", I was misled by another thing, and I got the information from Nalan's words. In the word "Shanhuazi", he said that "the wind catkins have gone with the wind, and the mud lotus has hardened the lotus root", which is clearly a thing in the water. Why should we start with the catkins flying in spring? This time I noticed that I had been studying and didn't understand much. Is that really the case? Then I remembered the famous poem "Water in Yang Long" that Mr. Dongpo once read. He said, "I don't hate this flower flying away. I hate Xiyuan. When it rains, where are the traces? A pool of ping is broken. " Later, when I was browsing, the lovely Mr. Dongpo also noticed the cloud after the word: "Huayang fell into the water as a ping, and the test was true." In addition, there is a sentence in his poem "Re-rhyme Zeng Li Zhi": "Huayang is full of duckweeds". Still self-note: "Liu Yicheng, flying floc into the water, duckweed for the night." Since then, Li Hongzhang of the Qing Dynasty has continued to say, "I occasionally fall to the ground and get up until I hate Ping." Li Yu also sighed: "Yang enters the water to be flat, which is the first wonder among flowers." He also said: "When a flower withers and leaves the tree, its life is lost, but it will become a thing again. Its birth is about to begin, and it is almost one thing. What about two things that show its body? " This is really a beautiful misunderstanding. Peace in Liu Yang is two completely different lives. Just because they are synonymous with help, one is floating in the wind and the other is drifting with the tide, they are given the same life. Great poets and scholars in ancient times may not really know. They just use their merciful thoughts to continue their lives. I'd rather believe it.

When catkins fly, the most direct association may be snow, just like flying snow in winter reminds people of catkins in spring. Xie Daowen, a talented woman in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, said, "Catkin is not because of the atmosphere" when answering what snow looks like, and has since left a reputation of "singing catkin". Similarly, Han Yu said in "Spring" that "there is no talent in willow pods, only snow in the sky". Speaking of it, snowflakes are much clearer after all. The cold of falling snow will make the world empty, but the dancing of catkins brings excitement and restlessness. However, in the chanting of the ancients, catkins are still very sad and hazy. In He Zhu's Jade Case, it is said that "if you ask how much leisure, Yichuan smoke, the city is full of wind, and the plum rain is yellow", the triple comparison is progressive. Finally, a little leisure has spread all over the world, and even the invisible endless time has no chance to escape. The catkin words in A Dream of Red Mansions are extremely touching. Tanchun wanted to say, "Hanging thin strands in the air is just winding up the silk. Difficult to bind, east, west, south and north. " Baoyu wants to sigh, "I'll see you next spring-the year after next." A poem by Daiyu Tang Duoling laments the fate of catkins falling. "Wandering is like life is thin, empty and romantic."

I haven't seen catkins flying for a long time. Willow is rare in that coastal city. Spring there is measured by flowering from one tree to another. I often see flowers falling like rain, but I seldom see the wantonness of flying catkins like snow. It's quiet and nice, but I miss them occasionally. Although in the dry northern inland, flying catkins, which often bring a lot of trouble, are not a good thing. But the reason why my hometown is my hometown, even catkins will take root in my heart.

Postscript: Count carefully, this article was written eight years ago. Later, the places that came and went were farther and farther away from home. Catkin has never been the standard of spring in the rivers in the southwest and in Europe now, but every spring, I think of them. Think about it, hometown is hometown, so barren natural scenery, but every time I think of every grass and tree there, I feel deep affection. Moreover, Yang and Liu in ancient and modern times, as well as catkins, are very different. At that time, under the article, someone left a message to distinguish it and extracted it intact for your reference:

Remarks: The pictures are collected from the Internet.