Man Jiang Hong, what is red?

A River Full of Red: Writing Thoughts

(Song Dynasty) Yue Fei

My hair is standing on end with anger, I lean on the railing, the rain has stopped. I look up, I roar to the sky, my heart is full of passion. Thirty years of fame and success are now dust, eight thousand miles of journey are now clouds and moon. Don't wait until your hair turns grey, and then feel sad for nothing.

The shame of Jingkang has not yet been avenged. When will the hatred of the ministers be eliminated? Drive the long chariot and break through the gap in the Helan Mountains. With great ambition, I will eat the meat of the barbarians when I am hungry and drink the blood of the Xiongnu when I am thirsty. Let's start from the beginning, rebuild the old mountains and rivers, and face the sky.

Statue of Yue Fei

Yue Fei was a famous general who fought against the Jin Dynasty in the Southern Song Dynasty. He was unjustly killed in Fengbo Pavilion. Before the 1980s, televisions were not popular in my country, let alone mobile phones and computers. People mainly obtained information through radio. At that time, most radio stations had a column suitable for all ages called "Pingshu Lianbo", which played classical literary works such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "The Complete Biography of Yue Fei", "Water Margin", "Generals of the Yang Family" and popular contemporary novels in the form of storytelling. In this way, many children heard a lot of historical stories and literary works before they learned to read. "Pingshu Lianbo" can be said to be a cultural feast in the pre-television and mobile phone era. Therefore, for those who have experienced that era, Yue Fei's heroic deeds against the Jin Dynasty and his subsequent tragic experience are almost well-known and familiar to everyone. Interested students can search for it by themselves.

What is the name of a ci tune?

In ancient times, when a lyricist wrote a new lyric, there was often no composer to tailor a tune for it, so he had to borrow an existing tune, and often many lyricists shared the same tune. This tune is called a lyric tune. "Man Jiang Hong" is the name of a lyric tune, representing an existing tune. Therefore, "Xie Huai" is the title of the lyric written by Yue Fei. Writing lyric is usually called filling in lyric, which means filling in lyric according to the existing tune.

Nowadays, in my country's pop music scene, different songs often share the same tune but with different lyrics. For example, the song "Misplaced Time and Space" has the same tune but two sets of lyrics, making them two completely different songs.

Why is the river red?

When I was young, I always thought that "Man Jiang Hong" refers to the sunset, when the afterglow of the setting sun shines on the river surface, making the river water red. In fact, Man Jiang Hong refers to a large class of floating plants, or more precisely, a class of lower ferns.

The fern has leaves as small as sesame seeds, which are scattered on the water surface. In summer, it is green, and in autumn, it turns purple-red. This is the origin of its name.

Amaranthus

Plant diversity

Common plants can generally be divided into six parts: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds. In fact, in the evolution of higher plants such as mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms, roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds are not the default standard configuration at the beginning, but evolved step by step. For example, the structure of mosses is very simple, with differentiated stems and leaves, but no real roots, only pseudo-roots. Ferns have differentiated roots, stems, and leaves, but they will not bloom, bear fruit, or produce seeds. Although gymnosperms have further developed real seeds, they will not bloom and have no fruits. Only in angiosperms, all six are complete, not one is missing. Many angiosperms quietly bloom, bear fruit, and produce seeds.

Seeing this, students must have a question: How can mosses and ferns reproduce from generation to generation without seeds? Before answering this question, we need to understand what seeds are. Seeds are formed by fertilization of eggs. Therefore, the formation of seeds requires the plant body to have the ability to produce sperm and eggs. Mosses and ferns do not have the ability to produce sperm and eggs, so naturally they will not produce seeds.

So, how do mosses and ferns continue to reproduce and produce the next generation?

It turns out that mosses and ferns produce spores, which combine in pairs to form gametes that develop into new plants. In addition, they can also reproduce directly by asexual means, producing new plants.

So what is the difference between spores, eggs and sperm?

The main difference is in size. The size difference between sperm and egg is like that between a grain of rice and a football. In the reproductive process, they can achieve specialized division of labor, thereby increasing the survival rate of offspring. The spores of mosses and most ferns are the same size. Only a few ferns have spores that are divided into large spores and small spores, such as the spores of Azolla.

Gymnosperms such as ginkgo, pine, and cypress not only have spores of different sizes, but also form seeds with more complete morphological structures, which can better develop into new plants.

Then there are the angiosperms such as poplar and peach trees, which have sperm and eggs. In order to give sperm and eggs more opportunities to meet, plants will bloom beautiful, fragrant or unique flowers to attract animals for pollination. In order to protect and spread seeds, plants will also wrap a layer of fruit on the outside of the seeds, and ask birds, insects, beasts and other animals to help.