First, the antithesis of parallel prose.
Parallel prose is a dual style, which is characterized by exquisite diction, harmonious phonology and beautiful language creation. Since the Han and Wei Dynasties, parallel prose has been an art form used by people to express their feelings, expound their views and preface. The dual characteristics of parallel prose, the sense of rhetoric is very obvious, very natural and relaxed. Liu Xie's "Literary Mind Carving Dragons and Beautiful Poems" said: "Natural formation, support must be double, rational use, things are not lonely. The husband is full of words and worries, competing with each other and naturally matching. In Tang Yu's life, his words were not written, and Hao Tao praised the cloud:' The sin is only light, and the merit is only heavy.' Yi Chen Moyun: "Full loss, modest benefit." How can you make a beautiful speech, but you are right. Liu Xie emphasized that the formation of duality is a natural thing, and everything in the world often arises and exists in contradiction and opposition. He took "the crime is only light, and the merit is only heavy" as an example to illustrate the natural appearance of duality in article writing. It is particularly noteworthy that Liu Xie said at the end of "Li Ci Pian": "The body must be planted, and words and deeds must be consistent. A slap on the left and right is both thin and delicious. Ice lotus, quiet in the mirror. Yurun Shuangliu, such as Pepe. " Mr. Zhou explained: "Li Ci is a parallel prose, telling the right sentence, so it inherits Zhang's sentence." (1) Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Zhang Long Sentence" says: "Four words are dense but not fast, and six words are not slow" is about the rhythm of language. Mr. Zhou stressed that this is "using four words and six words, so it is easy to form duality." Ancient prose follows the sound and the language is long and scattered. On the duality of parallel prose and the differences of ancient prose. The parallel prose in the Qi and Liang Dynasties is also mixed with loose sentences in the duality, such as "Li Ci", which means "Li Ci". Mr Zhou's explanation is debatable, because there is no need to form dual words for special reasons. Three words, four words, five words, six words, seven words or even more can form a dual sentence. Compared with parallel prose, parallel prose has a stronger sense of rhythm and rhythm.
Mr. Zhou thinks that "being eloquent and straightforward is a rambling remark", which is a misunderstanding. In fact, what Liu Xie said here is an even sentence, emphasizing nature rather than deliberate management. This is consistent with the emphasis on the "twin" and "natural pairing" of all things in the universe at the beginning of Li Ci. Mr. Zhou said in his notes, "Business: management, purposeful production. Kind words: antithesis. That's right: this is just an unintentional duality. " (2) Inconsistency, which is manifested in inconsistent understanding. We think that Li Ci mainly expounds language rather than style, and its classification and explanation of duality is "internal evidence" without explanation. Of course, in the poem "Beautiful Words", the parallel prose of the Six Dynasties was really opposed.
From Liu Xie's point of view, it is not difficult to see his "natural" aesthetic thought on the operation and application of parallel prose dialogues. The theoretical basis of this idea lies in the essence and presupposition of "nature", that is, the opposition and connection between heaven and earth. Liu Xie traced back to the "classical Chinese" and "copula" in the Book of Changes, saying: "The literary system of the Book of Changes is also the whimsy of saints. If you do four virtues in turn, then every sentence will have a title; A sense of dragon and tiger, so clear pronunciation and mellow voice; Gankun is easy to simplify, and then it's the same; The words of the sun and the moon are intertwined: although the words are different, they have accidental meanings. " In this hurry, the emphasis is on double "wonderful thinking" Mr. Zhou thinks that Liu Xie's intention to compare the binary opposition in Confucian classics with that in parallel prose has ulterior motives, which is consistent with his thought. We think this passage, in Liu Xie's meaning, is not so much "meditation" as "meditation". "Wen Xin Diao Shen Long Si" said: "It is based on the spirit of Tao Jun's literary thought, and it is precious to be quiet, to spare five treasures and to bathe in snow; Accumulate learning to store treasure, use strategy to be rich, learn to be poor, and train written expression; Then the mysterious Dafa was slaughtered, and the ink was ruled by the sound; A craftsman takes a photo alone, peeks at its image and transports its gold; Liu Xie has always regarded duality as a means of writing, and this means has to be constructed by "wonderful thinking" If this is the prescription for the disease of the Six Dynasties, then the prescriptions we see are: "accumulating learning", "enriching talents" and "thinking deeply". Liu Xie's analysis of the prose style of the Six Dynasties is vague and a mere formality, starting with a double analysis. However, Liu Xie did not forget the reminder of "thinking" while writing the subject "controlling the pen". In "Li Ci", Liu Xie said after "Muse": "As for the poet's even seal, the doctor's couplet, even and odd changes, no effort. Praise oneself as a horse, worship for good words, like painting in the Song Dynasty, carved by carvers, beautiful sentences and deep mining flow side by side, even the meaning of * * * is full of charm. With the talent of Wei and Jin dynasties, sentence analysis is intensive, couplets are interesting and detailed. However, cleverness is useless. " Ji Xiaolan was rated as "refined without grinding". ④ Liu Xie is still emphasizing the rules and premises of dual-use: deep use, easy rhyme, mutual benefit and opportunity. Almost all exquisite parallel prose, when using and manipulating dual language, must serve the purpose of the whole article, so the dual sentence has the extensibility, richness, unity and unity of content. When the previous sentence appears, in terms of writing mentality and demand, the next sentence should not only adapt to the duality of the previous sentence, but also fully realize the extension and supplement of the content, and there should be no semantic "crossing hands". Moreover, all duality must conform to the internal logical structure of the whole article, otherwise it will be broken. For example, the poem "A Thousand Red Cliffs" begins with an even number, and after "Autumn of Ren Xu", it is pointed out that "I hope it will be in July". Follow the principles of "the whole first, then the details" and "the appearance is the same". This duality is smooth and natural. It can be said that parallel prose writing is "double assembly and editing", and the flow of subject consciousness becomes a clue. This is the difficulty of parallel prose. Therefore, what Liu Xie emphasized was thinking, rushing and planning.
From this, we can summarize the dual keywords of parallel prose as: nature, thinking, interest and opportunity. This thought has been developed in parallel prose in Tang and Song Dynasties, and has made remarkable achievements. For example, Wang Bo's Preface to Wang Teng-ting, Su Shi's Poems of Qianchibi, etc. , have reached the peak and become popular. After parallel prose, although there were chapters accumulated, it failed to surpass the pace. The reason is that it is difficult to think deeply and seize the opportunity. Although it is dual, it is not necessarily "interesting". By the Qing Dynasty, the creation of parallel prose was on the rise, opposing Tongcheng School's prose, and its works were rich. However, few people can inspire the literary style of a generation. In the Republic of China, although there were successors, they were all lost in the tide of the vernacular movement, so that the research works of Sun Deqian, Li Xiang, Liu, Liu and others did not spread far.
Second, the antithesis of metrical poems.
The comparison between the duality of metrical poems and parallel prose results in the strictness and standardization of the duality of metrical poems. Rhyme is not allowed to waste "resources" because of the small number of words. It is necessary to save the cost of language and words and integrate the richest meanings with the least vocabulary. Therefore, the law poetry began to strictly define the dual form as "antithesis". It is not allowed to have such binary opposition as "crossing the three rivers and taking five lakes, controlling barbarians and attracting Ouyue" and "reciting moon poems and singing graceful chapters". Because the same words are used in the same position of the upper and lower pairs. This is absolutely not allowed in regular poetry.
Compared with other forms of poetry, such as quatrains and ancient customs, the most striking feature of metrical poetry (five-seven laws) is the use of antithesis, and only in this way can it become metrical poetry. "Law" refers to some kind of regulation. Since the Tang Dynasty, the law of phonology has been widely used in poetry creation and appreciation, and it has become a universally observed law and criterion. Metric consists of three elements, namely, rhyme, flatness and duality. The aesthetic method of China's classical poetry lies in observing the metrical rules, making the language have a beautiful image, thus creating the aesthetic mood of poetry. Since the Book of Songs, the flowing beauty and harmony of phonology have always been the pursuit of poets, and the further realization of the sense of rhythm and antithesis of language is after the perfection of modern poetry forms.
The antithesis requirement of the five laws and seven laws is that three or four sentences and five or six sentences must be antithetical (parallel couplets and necklaces), which is common sense. This is the difficulty in writing metrical poems. According to the structural requirements of general poetry, under normal circumstances, couplets and necklaces are just in the position of bearing and turning. In this position, there is often a gap that is difficult to be harmonious and unified, which divides poetry and leads to looseness or even fracture. The most basic requirement of antithetical sentences is the "stability" of sentences and antithetical sentences. It is also common sense that people often oppose each other according to similar things in order to achieve their goals. The problem is that not all these opposites can serve the conception and expression of the whole poem. Therefore, in different degrees, antithesis and ideogram will become contradictions. The "work stability" of caring duality will hinder expression, and caring expression will lead to the "reactive power" of duality. Therefore, poets often sigh: "Rhyme is the most difficult work!"
In addition to self-sufficiency and harmony, couplets and necklaces in metrical poems should also "flexibly" trigger the next antithetical sentence pattern, or respond to and take care of the previous sentence pattern, so as not to be "ambiguous". Because the lack of meaning is the fundamental reason why the whole poem is incomplete, contradictory and redundant in emotion, image, meaning and context. In the same antithetical sentence, in order to seek "job stability", it is often the same kind of thing, which is easy to fall into the forbidden zone of "crossing hands", resulting in the crossing of words or sentences, which is a great burden. It not only wastes language, but also damages poetry. Therefore, how to complete the beginning, inheritance, transformation, combination and smooth and poetic expression of the structure within a limited framework has become the poet's concern and goal.
In his monograph The Laws of China's Poetry (Shanghai Century Publishing Group, Shanghai Education Publishing House, September 2002,No. 1 edition), Mr. Wang Li made a detailed discussion on the antithesis of "modern poetry" and its types, precautions and taboos. Mr. Wang Li focuses on the study of antithesis at the linguistic level, and thinks that antithesis in regular poems is nothing more than "three kinds of antithesis: antithesis of workers, antithesis of neighbors and antithesis of tolerance". The so-called "workers' pair" is the relative of the same kind, such as human relations to human relations, geography to geography, astronomy to astronomy. The so-called "adjacent pair" means that astronomy can be opposite to the season and celestial bodies can be opposite to clothes. The so-called "wide pair", regardless of category, only requires relative part of speech. Mr. Wang Li said, "Workers get the best' wonderful hand' by chance ...... and try their best to work without interfering with artistic conception." (China Poetry Law 173)
Usually, when people talk about the merits and demerits of poetry, they often focus on the details of the word "ownership" in the antithesis, and rarely involve another more important level-the harmony of poetic images and the best expression of the thoughts and feelings of the creative subject. It's not allowed to waste words when writing regular poems. If the antithesis is "steady" and poetry is suspected of "wart", it is not desirable. Let's take a look at Li Bai's seven-rhythm poem "Climbing the Phoenix Terrace in Nanjing", which was selected in "Three Hundred Tang Poems":
There used to be a phoenix on the phoenix platform, and the phoenix went to Taiwan, only Jiangdong returned. Martial arts flowers were laid on deserted paths, and the number of relatives and friends in the Jin Dynasty has become a famine. The mountains are shrouded in clouds, such as blue sky, and the river is divided into two. There is always a traitor in power, like covering the sky, and Chang' an is depressed when he can't see it.
The couplet in the poem is "Wu Gong's path is crooked, and the golden clothes are ancient dust". If we want to say its opposite, Li Bai's "returning to the right" can't be said to be "no". But as far as the whole poem is concerned, these two sentences actually only say one meaning, and they have already "met" in meaning. Mr. Jin commented: "Wu Palace, Sun Wu built a palace in Jinling during the Three Kingdoms period. Jin Dynasty refers to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and its capital was also established in Jinling after crossing the south. Clothing refers to the noble family at that time. Cheng Guqiu means that these characters left a pile of ancient tombs today. " (Three Hundred New Notes on Tang Poems, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1980, first edition, page 24/kloc-0) Li Bai used two poems to express a "mind", which was too unkind. Look at Mao Zedong's seven-tone winter cloud again;
Like cotton fluff, winter clouds are tightly pressed by snow; Now all the flowers have fallen, and few people are still in bloom for a while. The sky is high and the cold current is urgent, and the earth is slightly warm. Unique heroes drive tigers and leopards, no heroes are afraid of bears. Even plum blossoms welcome snowflakes all over the sky. No wonder flies freeze to death down there.
In the poem, the neck couplet is "the only hero drives the tiger and leopard, and no hero is afraid of the bear." What a "stable" duality, but Mao Zedong made the same mistake as Li Bai. Tearing up the "hero" and using it is already suspected of being "dull", and then the tiger and leopard are against the bear. The meaning of these two sentences is nothing more than saying that heroes fight bravely for revolution and liberation and are fearless of evil forces such as tigers, leopards and bears. In fact, one sentence is enough to explain. "Seeing the micro-knowledge" and "seeing the leopard in the tube" are enough expressions. Why should the arrangement of Han Fu be used in regular poems? Not suitable for expression and expression.
In this regard, Du Fu's "Seven Ways to Climb the Mountain" may give us some enlightenment:
The wind is fast and high, the ape cries sadly, and the birds are circling in the white sand. The endless trees are rustling leaves, and the Yangtze River is rolling unpredictably. Li in the sad autumn scenery, a wanderer all the year round, lives alone on the high platform in today's illness. After all the hardships and hatred, the white hair is full, and the wine glasses are damaged.
Lao Du's writing pays more attention to the "elasticity" of antithesis, and the couplets treat "the Yangtze River rolling in" with "rustling trees". The sadness in Lao Du's heart is reflected in the ease of language. As far as dual parts of speech are concerned, it does not seek "work" in a narrow sense, but only expands to what is needed for expression. In the confrontation of necklaces, "Wan Li mourns autumn" and "has been ill for more than a hundred years", giving consideration to both space and time. Poetry develops in this horizontal and vertical aesthetic dimension, and its boundless desolation and lament are shocking.
We found that Lao Du succeeded in inheriting the words "the wind is high and the sky is high" and "Zhu Qing Sha Bai" in the first couplet when he opposed "boundless" and "endless" in the couplet. At the same time, we turn to the subjective feelings of "Wan Li is sad for autumn" and "sick for more than a hundred years" in the necklace, and the reality and reality coexist and echo each other. The "boundless" in front is correspondingly buckled with "Wan Li", the "boundless" is answered with "hundred years", the space "rustling down" and "the Yangtze River is rolling in" are symbols of time. For the "combination" of the tail couplet, the foundation of emotional expression is constructed. Make the aesthetic realm of the whole poem sad and distant, gloomy and strewn at random. Du Fu's application of duality presents a kind of "net structure", which is just in line with the principle of Yi-ology. Yin and Yang interact and cross, you have me and I have you. In addition to self-sufficiency and unity in one union, it also takes into account the "inheritance" of another union. This is the key to writing metrical poems. Unfortunately, for a long time, people didn't see this ingenuity and fell into some kind of "chessboard reaction". It should be noted that antithesis in regular poems is only a rhetorical skill. It is not only a poetic service to realize the unity of opposites, but also a poetic "inheritance" service. The so-called "connection" in metrical poetry is only an "image subsystem" of the whole poem. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible to get rid of the language environment of the whole poem. If it is really necessary to express the meaning independently, it is only a very special case.
Third, the antithesis of couplets.
As the "light cavalry" in China culture, couplets express the thoughts and feelings of the creative subject and reflect real life with their free, light, agile and elegant artistic forms. Its cultural roots can be traced back to the ideological and cultural activities in the pre-Qin period. My article "On the Cultural Connotation of Couplets and Fu Tao" (Journal of Guizhou Education College, No.5, 2000) has already discussed this. There is a binary unity of opposites in the art of couplets, which constitutes the formal framework and aesthetic principle of couplets, so the antithesis of couplets is different from that of regular poems.
The antithesis of couplets itself is a form of thinking and creation, and two couplets come out in parallel to form an independent and perfect art form. From the literary point of view, its aesthetic function is realized through the antithesis of language and the harmonious unity of the meaning of upper and lower couplets. Symmetrical beauty is the formal aesthetic feature of couplets.
The antithesis requirements of couplets are stricter than those of parallel prose and metrical poems, and "work stability" is also a very important aspect, especially for shorter couplets. Because we want to experience the beauty of independence and self-sufficiency, it is not easy to create short couplets that are both "work" and "beauty". To some extent, the creation of couplets is more difficult than the creation of poems. If you give ten words, is it not difficult to express your meaning independently and completely? However, if it is a pair of sentences in parallel prose or regular poetry, it is not necessary or possible to be independent, and it is not easy to be the whole article or poem. To some extent, the creation of couplets will make room for another part than one part of poetry, or wait for another part to form a harmonious "system". Obviously, antithesis in couplets and regular poems is quite different, so we can't study and understand it only from the language level. It should be deepened to a higher aesthetic level. Because, as a literary couplet, the rhetorical meaning of antithesis is diluted and the structural meaning is strengthened. The language skills in couplets are infinitely rich, such as fu, xing, bi, personification, exaggeration, parallelism, lyricism, discussion, description or explanation. For example, Sun Zu's couplet of Daguanlou is simply a wonderful sketch on the antithesis framework.
For a long time, because of ignoring such an easily overlooked difference, many scholars mistakenly think that the two antithetical sentences extracted from metrical poems are couplets, which is really misleading. In the end, there are many problems in writing poems, and the problem of writing couplets can't be solved. Because teacher Lu Xun wrote a unicorn, the story of Lu Xun's flounder has long been included in the classics, regarded as a "wonderful couplet" and became a model of learning. The case of "Sun Walker and Hu Shizhi", which was used to test students, was also passed down as a much-told story. I don't mean to belittle my predecessors, but I think those connoisseurs who mistakenly regard "word games" as classics should take a break! Because this kind of thing, which only has the dual characteristics, can't be on the aesthetic art platform, but can give people the educational function of enjoyment, beauty and entertainment.
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In a word, parallel prose requires a wide range of duality, which is arranged with the article. Its service structure is grand, and its language creation is more natural and opportunistic. The antithesis in metrical poems strengthens the rhetorical meaning, but it is not effective because of its strict requirements. Its antithesis form is a relatively open, partial and independent system. The antithesis in couplets is a relatively closed, complete and independent system, which pays attention to structural meaning and stylistic features.