At the beginning of the 20th century, more than 20,000 volumes of precious ancient documents buried for thousands of years were found in the stone chambers in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, including hundreds of Qu characters in Tang and Five Dynasties. Judging from the lyrics, its content involved all aspects of life at that time, such as military service, love and marriage. Formally, there are five words, seven words, long and short sentences; From the perspective of musical structure, there are single songs and many big songs. From the perspective of singing methods, Quzi Ci gradually broke away from the original simple folk song form and joined the singing and other forms; On the length of music, the same piece of music can often express different contents. Explain that the same song may be ever-changing in processing. In song creation, there are two different forms: one is to write lyrics according to songs; One is self-directed and self-performed music, which is based on words.
The popularity of Qu Zi's ci accords with the historical development at that time. With the development of commerce, the increase of big cities, the strength of citizens and the prosperity of urban culture in the Song Dynasty, Quzi, which was originally rooted in folk music, got the best growth soil and soon prospered. More importantly, most of the literati and scholars in the Song Dynasty participated in it, and the creation of Quzi Ci became a popular fashion in all walks of life in the Song Dynasty, which eventually made this form of citizen music develop into an art form representing the highest level of music and literature in the Song Dynasty-Song Ci. Song Quzi's ci is a magnificent sight, with tens of thousands of ci works, including more than 20 thousand works in Song Dynasty. The number of tunes has developed from dozens in Sui and Tang Dynasties to seven or eight hundred, and from a short poem of more than ten words to a long tune of more than two hundred words. Its variety and great change are incomparable to any previous poetry form.
Compared with Tang people, Song people paid more attention to daily life and inner cultivation. Aesthetic taste has also changed from leisurely and gloomy Tang poetry to delicate and euphemistic Song poetry. As far as artistic style is concerned, Qu Zi's Ci in Song Dynasty can be roughly divided into two schools: the former is represented by Su Shi and Xin Qiji, and the latter is represented by Liu Yong, Li Qingzhao and Jiang Kui. Song people have classic descriptions of these two styles. On one occasion, Su Shi asked a singer who sang well to compare himself with Liu Yong's words to see what was the difference. The singer is absolutely right: "Liu Langzhong's ci is only 178 women, holding red teeth and singing Yang Liuan, and the wind is dying;" The bachelor must be a Kansai man, holding an iron plate and singing no return to the river. " This metaphor is very apt.
As an early representative of graceful and restrained school, Liu Yong wrote more about slow words and long tunes. In order to adapt to the repetition and change of music, slow words are generally divided into two parts: upper and lower. In order to make the music form match the literary content skillfully, Liu Yongduo adopted the structure that the upper part sets off the background and the lower part expresses the feelings, which made the sublimation and deepening of the feelings contrast and synchronize with the music's gyration, and produced excellent artistic effects. This kind of lyrics is suitable for adagio to hum gently, tactfully touching and meaningful. Take Yulin Order as an example: "Cold cicadas are sad, the pavilion is late, and the shower begins to rest." Farewell outside Kyoto, but not in the mood to drink, reluctant to leave, the people on board have been urging to start. Holding hands and staring at tears, I was speechless. Missing thousands of miles of smoke and waves, the evening is heavy. Since ancient times, feelings of sadness and parting are even more worthy of being left out in the cold. Who knows where I am when I am awake tonight? Fear is just the edge, facing the sad morning wind and the setting sun of the waning moon. This is a long time, people who love each other are not together, and I even expect to be satisfied with the good weather and scenery in name only. There are thousands of styles, who to talk to! " This word will show a kind of human emotion that is reluctant to part with the reader, touching and sincere. This style of lyrics can only be suitable for girls who sing softly with red teeth clappers.
It was Li Qingzhao who pushed the graceful wind to the peak. In the past, although poets often wrote lyrics in a female tone, their mentality was male after all. Li Qingzhao, on the other hand, combined her heart and hand into one, perfectly and harmoniously expressing women's subtle and meticulous feelings through words. She often doesn't express her feelings directly. Just a few words, a gesture, a look and a detail can portray the sadness in the boudoir incisively and vividly. "Who sent the brocade book to the cloud? The word goose returns, and the moon is full of the west building. Flowers from Shui Piao to water, one kind of lovesickness, two places of leisure. There is nothing I can do to eliminate this situation. I only frown, but I take it to heart "("Dried Plum ")," Who and * * *? Tears melt residual powder and flowers are heavy (butterfly love flowers), such as "one person has no good dreams, but still cuts the snuff lane at midnight" (butterfly love flowers), "drinking in the east at dusk, with faint fragrance and sleeves", "curtain rolls west wind, people are thinner than yellow flowers" (drunken flowers sing) and so on. , are all words mixed with scenes. It can be said that from Yan Shu, Zhang Xian and Ouyang Xiu to Yan Dao Ji, Qin Guan and Zhou Bangyan, the graceful and restrained ci style finally reached its peak in Li Qingzhao's works.
Among the graceful and restrained schools, Jiang Kui of the Southern Song Dynasty made his own unique contribution to the harmony of melody and the subtlety of rhetoric. Especially in composing his own music, he can write words at will and then compose his own music. In the Song Dynasty, only a few people who had a good understanding of melody could do this. Among his more than 80 existing words, there are 17 self-annotated music scores, which is the only pronoun music document in the Song Dynasty that has been circulated so far. His words are not only beautiful in melody, but also exquisite in rhetoric. He is good at using synaesthesia, personification and other techniques, and created Several Peaks to Suffer (Dianjiang Lip), Leng Yue Silent (Yangzhou Slow), Snow Old on the Waist of the Wall (one calyx red) and One Pillow Cool (cherish red).
Compared with graceful and restrained school, bold and unconstrained ci is undoubtedly a wonderful work in the field of ci in Song Dynasty, and its representative is Su Shi.
Su Shi is a pioneering artist in both calligraphy and painting. Just like he used bold freehand brushwork to transform the rigorous and exquisite calligraphy and painting practice. He also impacted the graceful and implicit creation of lyrics and songs with the heroic spirit of generous elegy. In the past, literati used to retreat to the inner corner and secretly chew their own things; Su Shi's poems are put in the open world and nature, and express his heart incisively and vividly. Most of the previous words represented women, paying attention to sensory enjoyment and subtle emotions; Su Shi's poems dare to reveal his own soul, showing personality charm and honor and disgrace of the times. The words of the past can only be sung in pavilions; Su Shi's ci can be sung in the valley of mountains and rivers. The level of the realm can be seen at the end.
Of course, this is related to the gradual broadening of creative themes. Su Shi changed the graceful and implicit legacy of ci and song creation, which was both feminine and masculine. In the past, people seemed to narrowly understand the feelings of words as "tenderness", but Su Shi showed people that besides tenderness, there was also a kind of "lofty sentiments": a kind of heroic spirit with indomitable spirit, a kind of wild feelings of "holding yellow on the left and blue on the right" (The Hunting of Mizhou in Jiangchengzi), and a kind of "throwing stones across the air" A rainy episode on the way can also show the author's fearless magnanimous mind in the face of rough fate: "Looking back has always been bleak." Go home. No rain or shine. "("Ding Feng Bo ") On the Mid-Autumn Festival full moon night, I miss the ordinary human feelings of my brothers and sisters. Su Shi still wrote with great emotion. "People have joys and sorrows, and the moon is full of rain or shine. It is difficult to finish. May people last for a long time, and thousands of miles are beautiful! "(Shui Diao) shows profound life experience and broad humanistic feelings.
It can be compared with Su Shihao's Ci School and Xin Qiji's in the Southern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty's anti-gold struggle and the patriotic nostalgia for regaining lost territory gave the bold ci school a unique style of fighting with swords and echo each other's heroism. Xin Qiji added a depressed sense of mission and home and country to Su Tong because of the times. When in high spirits, there is the pride of "when I was a teenager, I leaned on the spirit of the tomb and drank hymns and did other things" ("Nian Nujiao"); In the open place, he has the momentum of "looking up at the clouds in the northwest, relying on the sky and Wan Li needs a long sword" (water dragon hidden); When he is lonely, he has the feeling of "seeing, the railing has been photographed all over, no one will answer it, and he has come to the scene" (water); In seclusion, he has the realm of "my house is small, the dragon and snake are outside the shadow, and the wind and rain are in the sound" ("Qinyuanchun"); When he is depressed, he has a "cup, before you come." The rambling language of Laozi's "Verification of Legacy" (Pre-adjustment). As a literary master with diverse styles, Xin Qiji has not only a masculine side, but also a feminine side. His genius lies in his ability to show different faces in different themes, themes and artistic conception. For example, "The crowd looked for him for thousands of Baidu, and suddenly looking back, the man was there, and the lights were dim" ("Jade Case"); " The big boy hoes beans in the east of the stream, the middle boy weaves a chicken coop, and the scoundrel who likes children best, the lotus is peeled in the head of the stream "("Qingpingle "); The smell of "people are far and near, the road is oblique, and the green flag sells wine with people" (partridge sky). Here, almost any thoughts, feelings and things that need to be expressed can easily be turned into words that are harmonious but different and appeal to both refined and popular tastes, giving people a variety of aesthetic feelings such as surprise, sadness and resentment.
From the musical point of view, graceful school pays more attention to the coordination of lyrics and songs, so it pays great attention to metrical tunes, while unrestrained school pays more attention to lyric freehand brushwork of lyrics, and often pays more attention to the meaning and score in metrical style. This has a certain influence on the later words gradually divorced from music and became a literary form that reads only and does not sing.
Gracefulness makes people sensitive and delicate, and boldness makes people open-minded Different styles of Qu Ci give us completely different aesthetic experience and spiritual feelings, so that when we sing these famous works, we can still imagine the elegance of those romantic poets.