In China's ancient poems, "Liu Yang" is a common image with lingering feelings. There are countless famous sentences that contain this image, such as: "I planted a willow tree in Jiang Nanan, and I bid farewell to Jiangnan twice in spring. Think back to Qing Jiang 'an (Tang Bai Juyi's Memory of Jiangnan) and "The willow bend at the water's edge will bother you to fold one at once. Only the spring breeze is the most cherished, and diligence is more popular "(Don Juyuan Yang's Harmony Show)

Only willow trees ")," willow green Jiang Shuiping, I listen to the songs of the waves and rivers "(Tang Yuxi's Zhi Zhu Ci)," I suddenly see the strange willow color and regret to teach my husband to find a seal "(Tang Wang Changling's in my heart forever) and" How deep is the courtyard? When the willow piles up with smoke, the curtain doesn't count "(The Butterfly Loves Flowers by Ouyang Xiu in the Northern Song Dynasty)," The willow trees in Xicheng are tender in spring, moving away from sorrow, and tears are hard to collect, and they still remember their feelings, and once returned to the boat for the department "(Jiangchengzi by Qin Guan in the Northern Song Dynasty)," Liu hates a trace, three points for spring scenery, and two points for rest "(Xue Yuan Angfu)

When reading these poems, many people may think that the "willow" mentioned in these poems is both poplar and willow, but it is not. The "willow" in these poems refers to willow, which has nothing to do with poplar mentioned in modern botanical classification. The proof is as follows: One word in many examples of ancient poetry under the title of Collection compiled by Qing Dynasty was interpreted as "Liu". There are more than ten three-syllable words with Liu Yang as the morpheme in Modern Chinese Dictionary, among which "Liu Yang" also means "Liu", for example, "Liu Yangyao" is a synonym for "Liu Yao".

So, why is willow called "willow"? In this regard, Du Fu in the Qing Dynasty quoted the legendary "Talking about the River" in the book "Old Proverbs" compiled by Du Fu: "When you have finished your work, you should speak to the emperor, make a decision and inject water into the capital of song dynasty. The emperor moved the Grand Canal from Luoyang, summoned the Jianghuai states, and built 500 ships. When the dragon boat is finished, the river flows down the Huaihe River. To the girder, no decoration, build by laying bricks or stones seven treasures. So Wu Yue took 500 folk women of fifteen or sixteen years old and called them temple prostitutes. As for the dragon boat royal boat, that is, each boat has ten colorful ropes, each with ten temple girls and ten tender sheep, so that the temple girls and sheep can walk alternately and lead them. Afraid of the heat in summer, Yu Shiqi, a bachelor of Hanlin, made suggestions. Please plant weeping willows on the two banks of the side canal, one to disperse the roots to protect the river bank, one to lead the boat with people to protect its shade, and three to lead the boat with sheep to eat its leaves. The world is happy, there are willows among the people, and one person is rewarded. Everyone rushed to give it, and parents planted it. It is best for the party and the people to plant one by the emperor himself, followed by the minister. Sometimes there are rumors that' the son of heaven was planted first, and then the people were planted. After planting, the emperor named the weeping willow Yang by imperial edict and called it Yang. ""Later, Feng Menglong, a dynasty man, interpreted the above legend in the twenty-four volumes of Awakening the World, and rewarded the Chu people in the forty chapters of the Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties in the early Qing Dynasty, which made the theory widely circulated among the people.

In the first year of Daye, Yang Di ordered the opening of Jiqu and Hangou, and ordered people to build Imperial Road beside the ditch (later called "Sui Dike") and plant willows all over the dike. Historical records do. In this regard, Bai Juyi, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, also said in his poem "The land of Sui and Liu": "The land of Sui and Liu is old and decadent, with wind and rain, and there are three plants and two plants in the estuary. ..... In the great cause, I planted Liu Chengxing with flowing water, from the Yellow River to the Huaihe River in the west, with a green shadow of 1,300 miles. " However, there is no record about giving "Yang" Liu's surname in Yang Di Ji and Bei Shi Sui Ben Ji, and its authenticity needs to be verified.

In fact, the word "Liu Yang" appeared in The Book of Songs, China's first poetry collection, which was written in the pre-Qin period. There is a famous saying in Xiaoya Cai Wei: "Once upon a time, I was gone, and Liu Yang could not bear to part. I think about it today, it's raining. " In addition, Chang Fei, a man from the Southern Dynasties, also described it in his poem "Thinking of the Spring Dan in Xiao Ji": "Water blooms peach blossoms, and spring returns to willow. Willow returns, lingering. " It is not difficult for us to see that the willow mentioned in these poems obviously refers to willow (weeping willow, to be exact), because in the sense of modern botany, poplar leaves are round and trees are tall and straight, and there is no such thing as "Yi Yi" and "Curly".

In fact, poplar plants in the sense of modern plant taxonomy are called "Populus alba", "Populus cathayensis", "Populus cathayensis" and "Populus euphratica" in China ancient poems, and "Yangliu" is a kind of willow. In this regard, the earliest monograph explaining the meaning of words in ancient China (for Qin and Han scholars to supplement and modify the old texts in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period and the Qin and Han Dynasties) is recorded in the "Poems" section of Erya as follows: "Chang, why flow; Liu Ze; Yang, Tao. " Guang Yun (the most complete, oldest and most important rhyme book in China today, which records the language system from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the end of the Song Dynasty in a complete and detailed way) compiled by Chen Pengnian and Qiu Yong in the fourth year of Jingdezhen or the first year of Dazhong Xiangfu also said, "Yang, Liu with red stems." Mao Heng, a scholar of the Western Han Dynasty, also said in his annotation for the Book of Songs (namely, Biography of Shi Mao, referred to as Biography of 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. That is to say, in ancient China, "Yang" and "Liu" were synonymous, which can be further confirmed by a poem in "The Whole Tang Poetry": The book's "Li Bi" quoted "Biography of Ye Hou" as saying: "The secrete poem satirizes Yang Yue:' East Gate is willow green. "Guo Zhong wrote to Ming Di and said,' If you give vitamins to mock the Qing Dynasty, then give Li Can to mock me?' "With the above understanding, we can solve some cultural puzzles in ancient Chinese. For example, there is an allusion in the Warring States Policy Western Zhou Dynasty: "Chu has Yang and is good at shooting; A hundred-step shot to the willow leaves is a hundred shots. "In this allusion, a good shooter clearly shoots willow leaves, but the idiom summed up from this is' wearing a hundred steps'; In China myths and legends, the bottle held by Guanyin Bodhisattva is called "Yang Zhi Water Purification Bottle", but willow branches are inserted in the bottle; Influenced by folk songs, Liu Yuxi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, created "Yang Liuzhi Ci", also known as "Liuzhi Ci".

Regarding the literary image of Liu, we should start with the word "Liu". The image of Liu: