虞美人杂考

现今虞姬墓在安徽灵璧。但从文献资料来看,虞美人自刎处有安徽灵璧和淮南定远两说,因此,虞姬墓历史上实际两地皆有。美人死后,鲜血化为原上之草。这是一种能应曲而舞的独特的草,并非现在所见能开鲜艳之花的虞美人。虞美人草本花卉明代以来才从欧洲传入我国,历史上庞大的歌咏虞美人的诗词,也就经历了由咏草到咏花或花草兼咏的过程。《虞美人》曲流行于唐代,也与这个悲艳动人的故事有关。第一个以该曲填词的是唐代的无名氏,五代时《虞美人》词已多见。历代书面文学中的虞美人形象经历了从同甘共苦到贞节烈妇的演变过程,而在一些民间传说故事中,虞美人却是一位巾帼英雄。

A Comprehensive Study of "Yu Mei Ren"

It is agreed today that the tomb of Yu Ji(? B.C.-202 B.C.) is in the Lingbi county of Anhui province,but literature shows that there were two places where Yu Ji was said to have killed herself,i.e.,Lingbi and Dingyuan;that means there were actually two tombs of the beauty in the history.After her death,Yu’s blood turned into a strain of grass that danced to music,instead of the flower known today as corn poppy.As a matter of fact,the herbaceous flower of corn poppy was introduced into China in as late as the Ming dynasty(1368-1644),and that accounts for why the multitudes of poems in ancient Chinese literature praised it either as grass or flower,or as both.The rise of "Yu Mei Ren" as a musical tune during the Tang dynasty(618-907) was also related to the real story of Yu’s killing herself.The first Ci poem to this tune was written anonymously in the Tang dynasty,but the succeeding Five Dynasties(907-960) witnessed the prevalence of such poems.While in the written literature the images of Yu the Beauty have evolved from a woman who shares her joys and sorrows with her beloved to a chaste wife,in the folklore Yu has been a heroine.