The oldest lantern poem
Today I talks about the oldest lantern poem which named TingLiao in the world, in the modern time, lantern poem and the lantern riddles are often written on the Chinese lanterns in the Lantern Festival.
Before the invention of the light, our ancestors used to light the torch, the torch known as the “candle” at the time, candle is divided into two types: “out side the door named Large Candle (大烛), in the home named TingLiao (庭燎).” At about the 6th century BC, there is poem that named TingLiao in the “The Book of Poetry“.
The Book of Poetry
庭燎
夜如何其?
夜未央,庭燎之光.
君子至止,鸾声将将.
夜如何其?
夜未艾,庭燎晣晣.
君子至止,鸾声哕哕.
夜如何其?
夜乡晨,庭燎有煇.
君子至止,言观其旗.
The means
- The first paragraph describing the scene at midnight, courtier lit candles in the middle of the night was ready to enter the palace to prepare for meetings in the morning,
- The second paragraph is the description of candles have a brightly lit by the courtier and emperor before dawn.
- The third paragraph said that the candlelight was already covered by the sunlight in dawn.
This poem depicts a scene of audience palace in the morning, it showed the emperor rule the country hardly.
This is the oldest lantern poem, its vivid description, rhetorical, jingle, can be said to create the form of lantern poem, is the originator of lantern poem.
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