(Source: Hakka Magazine, Issue 50. By Gu Guoshun )
I’ve read so many of these articles and I’m going to contribute, but I’m only sorry that I’m not a good writer, so I’ll just have to transcribe lo!
I. A First Look at the Eighteen Touches
Eighteen touch” is a popular ditty, as if anyone can hum a few lines, but in the end who can sing, I’m afraid it is very doubtful. As the name suggests, both known as the “eighteen touch”, its main lyrics should be at least eighteen paragraphs, but the current folk artists can sing less than eighteen, Professor Yang Zhaozhen in the book “Hakka ballads nine cavity eighteen tone of the study” book, the collection of only sixteen paragraphs, Taoyuan County Hakka ballads published by the Association for the Promotion of Hakka ballad research, edited by Mr. Lin Chung-cheng, “Hakka ballads teach the book”, the recorded with the same as the book before, and states that “The following two paragraphs have been lost”. Is it true that they have been lost? Are there still people in the folklore who have preserved the written version of the notes? Is there even someone who remembers all the lyrics? In short, unless the lost part of the reappearance, otherwise, only recognized as lost.
In the process of learning Hakka songs, I usually learn the cadence first and the lyrics later. The reason is that I have been learning huqin since I was a child, and what I learned at the beginning were mostly some so-called “string poems”, such as the Nine Linked Rings, the Bride of Liu, the Yellow Dame, the Open Golden Fan, the Great Open Door, and so on, which seemed to have only melodies but no lyrics, and so I always pay attention to the cadence of the songs first.
As for the mountain songs, my late father thought that they were “cattle songs” sung only by cattle herders, and would never teach me to sing them, although I also “pawed the cattle” all day long, and the only thing he ever taught me seriously was “December Ancient Songs”. The only thing he ever taught me was “The Ancient of December”.
As for “Eighteen Touches”, I have heard him sing it a few times, but it seems to be just a few verses. At that time, I had also asked how to sing the following? But there was no answer.
II. Structure and content of the Eighteen Touches
The whole piece of “Eighteen Touches” has twenty-nine bars, each bar has two beats, and the lyrics are as follows (take the first verse as an example): “Stretch out your hand (one line)”.
“Touching the Iya Sisters.
“Touching my sister’s head.
“Sister’s head smells of osmanthus” (four lines)
“This man is a wild beast.
“Which ouch” (six lines)
“Which ouch” (seven lines)
Ouch. (Eight lines)
Bosses.
“Which ouch” (ten sentences)
“This man is a wild beast”.
“Nay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay” (twelve lines)
Of the above twelve lines, only the first four are meaningful, and the fifth and following lines are all in rhymes, the same for each section. The second line is also the third and fourth lines, and the only words that really change are “the side of the head” and “the fragrance of osmanthus flowers on the head”, a total of eight words only, so it should be a song that is both easy to sing and memorize. With this understanding, we can now line up the sixteen passages that have been handed down to us and take a look at them.
1. The side of the head – the fragrance of osmanthus flowers on the head
2. Head hair edge-head hair round and round
3. Puffy head side – Puffy head to welcome the immortals
4. Bun Mane Edge – Bun Mane Round as a Circle
5. Sideburns – Sideburns to the sky
6. Frontal corners – frontal corners will be glistening
7. Eyebrows – Eyebrows curved at both ends
8. Eyeballs – Eyeballs to Heaven
9. Nostril Side – Nostril Good Nose
10. Lips – Red Lips
11. Lower jawline – lower jawline with upper jawline
12. Earholes – earholes to be heard
13. Neck edge – cleaned at the base of the neck
14. Shoulder and neck border – shoulder and neck connection
15. Both hands – hands as white as bamboo shoots
16. By the backpack – the backpack is itchy.
In the above sixteen paragraphs, the first three words of each paragraph are the parts to be touched, and the last five words are the sensations of touching, most of which are visual, such as Wu Yuan Yuan, welcoming the gods, etc.; some of them are olfactory, such as the fragrance of cinnamon flowers; and some of them refer to the functions, such as the fragrance of a good nose, the hearing of the present, and the itchy claws. Looking at the order of the stanzas, stanzas one through five are all about hair, stanzas six through twelve are all about the head, and stanzas thirteen and following extend to the neck, shoulders, hands, and back. Clearly, the song is describing the process of caressing. Special mention is made of the fact that all the above words for side are not beside, but this side.
Third, let’s look at another set of “Eighteen Touch
If the song “eighteen touches” is really describing the caressing process, then the whole body, when more than eighteen parts, so we might as well look at the early circulation in Taiwan, sung in Minnan language read “eighteen touches” is how.
Japan Taisho nine years (1920) out to be the Taiwan data series of books, Kataoka rock by the “Taiwan customs”, included in the Minnan sung this song, the first recorded as follows.
lit. beat the drum tightly but beat the gong slowly
Stop the gong and listen to the song.
All the gossip is singing.
I’ve sung eighteen touches (four lines)
Reach out and touch your sister’s face.
Dark clouds flew halfway across the sky
Reach out and touch the front of your head.
Heaven is full and addictive (eight lines)
Reach out and touch Sister Boldy Bay
Dispersion of the outside of the risk of the middle width
Reach out and touch your sister’s little eye
Black Eyes, White Sight (12 lines)
Reach out and touch your sister’s little nose pin.
Yau Yau’s breath is coming out.
Reach out and touch your sister’s mouth.
Baby’s eyes are smiling (sixteen lines)
Reach out and touch the tips of your sister’s bottom
The lower daggers are in front of the chest.
Reach out and touch your sister’s ear.
Bumpy head and ears playing on a swing (20 lines)
Reach out and touch your sister’s shoulder.
Shoulders and Ruan General Year
Reaching out to Sis Wakizashi Bay
“The limbs are curved around the shoulders.
Reach out and touch your sister’s hair.
It’s better than a wool pen.
Reach out and touch your sister’s breasts.
My breasts are in your body (28 lines)
Reach out and touch your sister’s palm.
Palms curved at the sides
Reach out and touch your sister’s nipples
The buns are all the same (32 lines)
Reach out and touch your sister’s belly.
Planting rice paddies in Bishop 1 area
Reach out and touch your sister’s belly.
“A small belly and a soft heart fit my brother’s eyes” (36 lines)
reach out and touch her belly button
Well, it’s been quite a year.
Reaching out and touching a girl’s ass.
It’s like a big white sheep (40 lines)
Reach out and touch your sister’s thigh.
Hao Sang Winter Melon with White Shredded Pork
Reach out and touch Sister White Knee Bay
A good plowman’s ox pulls the dust (44 lines)
Reach out and touch your sister’s calf.
Don’t turn it on, don’t open it (idiom). Don’t touch anything, don’t open anything.
Reach out and touch your sister’s feet.
Small Feet on Brother’s Shoulder (48 lines)
I’ve touched you all over your body.
Lost both sides.
Zuo Ping touched his adopted son
The right side of the shuttle raised the head (52 lines)
lit. one from the east comes the other from the west
High-beam swallows turn into nests on the surface
Two-faced needle needle spine-like
“Like a machinist weaving a shuttle.
lit. one left move, one right move (idiom); fig. to make a bold move
A hot house fire in the middle of the cold
The good-looking bearded man drinks soju.
The body is as white as jade (60 lines)
Open palm leaning on the edge of the basin
The good-looking bearded man is drinking roasted soup.
Your ass is as big as a mill.
Half a catty of San Tan Sesame Wine (64 lines)
Willow trees are planted on both sides
In the middle of it all, I’m on a horse and a boat.
both sides of a paved pathway
“Nakamata’s Vegetable and Melon Shack” (68 verses)
The old man hears 18 touches.
Even as a teenager.
A young man hears 18 touches.
“Day and night, I crave flowers and cry for my wife” (seventy-two lines)
I’ve listened to the 18 touches.
I’ve been crying on my pillow. I’ve been crying on my pillow.
The monk listened to the eighteen touches
“I embrace my disciple and call him brother” (76 lines)
The nuns heard the 18 touches.
Sleeping in the middle of the night has nothing to do.
We’ve heard it all before.
He’s also greedy for flowers and wives (80 lines)
Sleeping halfway through the night to see the heartbeat
rub one’s fingers together
lit. push up the high dial and hit the high dial. (idiom); fig. to come up high and hit the low dial
“The trade is prosperous and lively” (84 lines)
The song is entirely in seven lines, totaling eighty-four. Structurally, it can be divided into three main parts: (a) the opening lines: the opening four lines.
(b) In this article: from the fifth line, “I reach out and touch my sister’s noodle”, to the sixty-eighth line, “In the midst of it, I can put up a vegetable and melon shed”.
(c) Conclusion: From the sixty-ninth line, “Old age has heard eighteen touches,” to the end.
The entire lyrics are in seven lines, so the singing style should be very different. The introductory and concluding parts aside, in the case of this text, before the forty-eighth line, it is a two-sentence paragraph, the first of which is equivalent in content to the first to third lines of the Hakka “Eighteen Touches,” such as: Reach out and touch your sister’s face – reach out to your sister, touch your sister, touch your sister’s head, oh that’s alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, and alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, alas, alas. If the latter three lines are condensed to become: reach out and touch the side of the sister’s head, then the type of sentence is the same, and in turn, the former line can also be extended into three lines, then the word “lining” must be added.
The structure of the second sentence of each paragraph is also different from that of the Hakka, as in “Dark clouds have flown halfway across the sky” and “The sky is full of addicts”, all seven words are different, while in the Hakka, only the following five words, namely “Ah Sister”, are replaced by “Ah Sister”, and “Ah Sister” is replaced by “Ah Sister”. The Hakka version has only the following five words: “A-sister”.
IV. Comparison of the two sets of Eighteen Touches
Now, let’s arrange them, see what they mean, and compare them.
1. Facing Silk – Dark Clouds Fly Half the Sky
2. The front of the brain – Tianting full Ruoxi addicts
3. Eyebrows curved – dispersed outside and wide in the middle of the bubble
4. Small eyes – black eyes and white vision
5. The tip of the small nose – you burn the gas outwards
6. Little Mouth – Baby’s Eyes Smile
7. Lower corner tip – lower corner tip in front of chest
8. Earring side – bumpy head ear to ear swinging
9. Shoulders – shoulders of my age
10. Bend of the limbs – Bend of the limbs over the shoulders
11. A little hair is better than a woolen pen.
12. Chest on side – my chest is in your body
13. Palm center – palm curved at the sides
14. On the nipple – the buns are no longer the same
15. Big Belly – Kissing a Rice Planting Field
16. Small Belly – Small Belly is Soft and Suitable for Brother’s Eyes
17. Navels – good year Maitreya navels
18. Butt side – like a big white sheet of rice.
19. Thighs – good-looking winter melon with white threads
20. White Knee Bend – The Good Plowman Pulls Dirt and Dust
21. Small eyes – don’t turn them on and off.
22. Small Feet – Small Feet on Brother’s Shoulders
There are at least twenty-three segments in the above play of “Lost Two Sides and Touched the Right Center”. Comparing with the sixteen sections preserved by the Hakka, only sections 1 to 9, plus the 13th, totaling ten sections, are equivalent, and the rest are all extra.
However, Hakka’s first through fourth are also absent from Minnan’s Eighteen Touches.
As for the sense of touch, except for the fifth paragraph, they all resort to the visual, though because there are seven transformable characters, the variations are naturally more numerous, and there are many metaphorical sentences, which are quite rare. However, from the point of view of simplicity, the Hakka one is superior.
V. Conclusion
On the basis of the foregoing, several conclusions can be drawn.
(a) “Eighteen Touches” is a ditty circulated by the Hakka people, but there is also “Eighteen Touches” in the Minnan language, which is sung in a different style but has very similar content.
(b) From the content of the lyrics, “Eighteen Touches” describes the process of caressing.
(c) The Eighteen Touches can have more than eighteen paragraphs.
(d) If we compare the lyrics with those of the Minnan language, we can get a rough idea of what has been lost.