"The Yellow River is far above the white clouds. It is an isolated city, Wan Ren Mountain.
Why should a strong brother complain about willow? The spring breeze does not pass through Yumen Pass. "
But I don't know whether the minister was nervous or other reasons. He copied one word less, leaving the word "between the Yellow River and the white clouds" missing in the whole poem. Of course, Empress Dowager Cixi easily found out, so she flew into a rage and punished the minister. The old minister used his wisdom to save his life at the critical moment. He said that what he copied was not Liangzhou words, but a "long and short sentence". Empress Dowager Cixi ordered him to read it. Minister holding a sector recited:
"The Yellow River is far away, white clouds fill the air, and Wan Ren Mountain is an isolated city.
Why complain about Qiangdi? Willow is spring breeze, Yumen Pass is not closed. "
Empress Dowager Cixi naturally knew that the minister had lied, but she was happy to see that he had a brainwave and was able to skillfully change a missing Tang poem into a "long and short sentence", and she just laughed it off.
This story was heard ten years ago, so there is no need to verify it. It was common in the past to change a poem into a game of long and short sentences. I vaguely remember that the Chinese teacher in high school said that Du Mu's Qingming can also be read into short sentences:
"It rains in the Qingming Festival, people are on the road, and pedestrians want to break their souls.
Excuse me, where is the restaurant? There is a shepherd boy, pointing to Xinghua Village. "
Of course, this is just a joke. But if you put this story and this joke together, you will find a very mysterious thing: even if the words and images have not changed much, the seven-character quatrains and long and short sentences are quite different in artistic conception and aesthetic style. Wang Zhihuan's Liangzhou Ci is full of sadness, but like many frontier poems in the early Tang Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty, although it is sad, it is somewhat magnificent in bitterness. "The Yellow River is far away among the white clouds, and it is an isolated city of Wan Ren Mountain". Together, it is the vastness of the frontier fortress. "Why should the strong flute complain about the willow? The spring breeze is just like Yumenguan." Although there is sadness, there seems to be some shrewdness behind it. However, if we interpret it as "why complain that the flute is strong, the spring breeze is strong, and the door is closed", that kind of chic will no longer be felt, but it will be euphemistic and low-key, and it will look tearful. The images of "Qiangdi", "Liu Yang", "Spring Breeze" and "Yumenguan" have not changed, nor has the arrangement of characters. Perhaps the superposition of different images will affect the reader's inner vision, but this is by no means the whole reason, because when we read a poem, we convey that others should receive auditory signals first, and the changes in audio-visual perception have caused different inner feelings. The rhythm of seven-character quatrains is relatively even. Compared with musical instruments, it is still like the rhythm of percussion (such as drums): "da-da-da-da-da-da". That's it. This rhythm makes people sound, and it is difficult to be particularly touching. Once the sentence length is dispersed, especially after the poetic style of "Ci" is formally formed, its rhythm changes from the monotonous beauty of percussion to the choking sound of orchestra. If the rhythm of each sentence is different, you can play Sanda. So it will be tactfully low. Especially the modified song "Tomb-Sweeping Day":
"Where is the restaurant? There is a shepherd boy, which refers to Xinghua Village. "
The three verses are actually three "phrases": the first sentence is six words, "dadada", which looks a bit tortuous; The second sentence is shortened to three words, "da-da-da", and the rhythm of the first sentence is gathered at once. It seems to be an emotional brewing; The last sentence is five words, but the rhythm is a little slow. "Da-da-da-da" suddenly reveals the desolation of five-character ancient poems. The change of rhythm forms the barrier and rotation of emotions, so the taste is very different.