-Bai Pu's "Clear Sand and Autumn"
Dead vines and old trees faint crows, small bridges and flowing water, ancient roads and ancient horses. When the sun sets, heartbroken people are at the end of the world.
-Ma Zhiyuan's "Tianjingsha" Qiu Si
From the time of creation, Bai Pu's Autumn ranks first, and Ma Zhiyuan's Qiu Si ranks last. Obviously, it can be seen that Ma's poems have traces of drawing lessons from white poems, the image of "old tree" has been copied, and the image of "Western jackdaw and lonely village in the west" has been borrowed and changed. Bai Pu's "Sha Chun" has a "small bridge flowing water", and Ma's poems also have a "small bridge flowing water", which is also suspected of being practical. Ma Shi chose the same time as Baishi, which was an autumn sunset photo. The rhyme of these two poems is the same. In all fairness, white poetry is not bad, and it also has the beauty of "wonderful pen and flowers". Some of Ma's poems are still suspected of "following the tradition". Why are Bai Juyi's poems not widely circulated, while Ma's poems have been circulated through the ages? I think the key is that the artistic conception of Bai poetry is not as high as that of Ma poetry.
1. The visual beauty of painting in poetry
"Painting in Poetry" is an important criterion to measure the artistic conception beauty of ancient lyric poetry. Bai Pu's poems can also be painted, but the colors of the pictures are messy, the overall sense is not strong, and the beauty of agility is lacking; Ma Zhiyuan's poems have the artistic beauty of painting in poetry.
First of all, from the picture composition modeling. In order to enhance visual effects such as vividness and intuition, lyric poems often express abstract feelings with concrete and intuitive images. However, if the images in the poem are piled up in disorder, the visual aesthetic effect cannot be formed, that is, the artistic beauty of "painting in the poem" cannot be produced. Therefore, images should be presented in a certain time, spatial order and logical order to form a sense of picture. Writing scenes and objects, from far to near, from near to far, or from top to bottom, from bottom to top, must have a sense of spatial orientation; Writing people and things should also have a sense of space and time, so that personnel content can be presented in an orderly manner, which is conducive to the formation of a sense of picture. Bai Pu's poems also have a sense of visual space and a vision: sunset, sunset glow, a little brilliance; Mid shot: lonely village, light smoke, old trees, Western jackdaw in the west; There are close shots (or medium shots): white grass, red leaves and yellow flowers; There is a panoramic view: green mountains and green waters. However, the author did not make an orderly combination, the image was messy, and the overall sense of time and space was not strong; The order of image presentation is not conducive to the formation of a sense of spatial orientation, lacking close-ups and close-ups with visual impact, and the visual effect is not very clear. Although this poem also has a three-dimensional sense and a beautiful overall shape, its aesthetic intensity is not as good as that of Ma's poem. Ma Zhiyuan's poems have a strong sense of visual space. Close shots: dead vines, old trees and faint crows; There is a middle scene: a small bridge with flowing water; There are close-ups: the ancient road west wind horse; There is a vision: the sun sets; There is a panorama: people are at the end of the world. One sentence, one scene, no chaos. The poet goes from the close shot to the middle shot, then from the middle shot back to the close shot, and then writes the vision from near to far and from bottom to top. The last sentence of the panorama, "People are at the end of the world", connects all the pictures into a whole, forming a wandering picture, giving readers a feeling that the lens is gradually pushed away and faded out. The poem has a distinct sense of time and space, an orderly combination of images, a distinct sense of spatial orientation and three-dimensional sense, which strengthens the visual impact with close-ups and close-ups and can give people a picturesque aesthetic feeling.
Secondly, look at the coloring effect of the picture. The beauty of poetic painting also includes color effect. Generally speaking, there should be a color tone so as to contain some emotional tone. Autumn is colorful on the surface, including Xia Hong, red leaves, white grass, yellow flowers, green hills, green water, black (crow), gray (red shadow) and gray (smoke). From a realistic point of view, white stone really looks like a sketch of autumn scenery. In the simple lines of poetry, the colorful colors of autumn are truly presented, which is also ingenious. However, it is this gorgeous color that destroys the overall coloring effect of the poem. This purely objective and realistic coloring method lacks the poet's selectivity, suggestion and creativity, and it is difficult to see the poet's subjective intentions such as emotional support, so it lacks affection and deep meaning. Qiu Si's color dominated the whole poem with gray tones. None of the words in the poem clearly express color, but they can all reflect a kind of thick or light gray. Even the "sunset" has faded red, showing a gloomy tone under the gray tone of the whole poem. Therefore, the picture of the whole poem is like an ink landscape of ancient literati. It is through this ink landscape that the poet not only writes the desolation of autumn scenery everywhere, but also sets off the sadness of travelers' long journey.
Third, from the relationship between the dynamic scene and the static scene of the picture. One of the important techniques of painting art is to bring people and scenery to life and make them move, which is called vivid. The creation of poetic scenes should also be combined with static and dynamic. Static scenes form the background atmosphere or emotional tone, while dynamic scenes show vitality. There is an obvious dynamic scene in Bai's poems: Hong Fei, with three dynamic images: sunset glow, light smoke and western Western jackdaw. Generally speaking, static scenery is more than dynamic scenery, which is of little significance except that it can reflect the "quiet" beauty of autumn. There are three obvious moving scenes in Ma Shi's poems: a faint crow, running water and west wind, and three dynamic images: horses, sunsets and people at the end of the world. Generally speaking, moving scenery is more than static scenery, which not only shows the scene of autumn wind blowing gently, but also shows the tired situation of wandering, and can also hint at the rhythm of wandering in the end of the world with the fluency of poetry. Therefore, poetic scenes have the beauty of agility and the moral function of emotional changes.
Second, the beauty of the implication of scene blending
"Scenery blending" is another important criterion to measure the artistic conception beauty of ancient lyric poetry. Autumn is a poem about scenery, with more scenery than meaning, lacking deep affection and deep meaning, and the scene cannot be perfectly matched and unified; On the other hand, Qiu Si has the artistic beauty of blending scenes.
First of all, from the conception or theme of the poem. Autumn is a masterpiece of scenery, and Qiu Si is a lyric masterpiece. Bai Pu wrote four poems about the four seasons with the tune of "clear sand". From the perspective of pure scenery writing, white poems can really capture the scenery characteristics of different seasons. For example, "Tianjing Shachun" wrote: "Spring mountains warm the sun and the wind, pavilions dry up the moon, and willows sway in the courtyard. Birds are singing and dancing, and bridges are flying red. " It's also pretty good. Therefore, the key to the value of Bai poetry and Ma poetry lies not in whether the scenery is realistic, but in whether the poet's selection and conception are creative and whether the theme of the poem has cultural aesthetic connotation. The artistic conception of white poetry only stays at the level of landscape painting, without participating in strong personalized emotional experience or containing profound cultural connotation, and becomes a general landscape painting. Ma Shi, on the other hand, borrows autumn scenery's homesickness to describe the wanderer on earth, which not only integrates the poet's strong emotional experience, but also is ambitious and dares to touch on the major themes generally described by ancient poets. Qiu Si is a lyric theme with the meaning of "cultural prototype", and it is an ancient poet's understanding of endless life experiences and situations. Because ancient poets often travel abroad on official business, they feel homesick every autumn, and the theme of "Qiu Si" is the most popular among scholars. Poems about "Qiu Si" written by ancient literati abound, and it is hard to be original. Ma dares to act boldly. He creates feelings with scenery, enters the scenery with feelings, and writes a swan song with mutual metaphor, which is superior to Bai Pu.
Secondly, from the perspective of the correspondence between emotion and scenery in the realm of poetry. The wonderful scenery of poetry should have the characteristics of scenery in emotion, emotion in scenery and the unity of scenery. There is only "landscape language" in autumn, but no "emotional language". Of course, no lyric sentence does not mean no emotion. Images with adjectives themselves imply hidden emotions, such as "loneliness, falling, disability, lightness, old age and cold" in autumn. Therefore, poetry is also sentimental, but mainly based on scenery. The first four sentences in Qiu Si describe the scenery, while the last one is lyrical, which is compatible with the language of scenery and emotional appeal. The selected images also contain emotional colors, such as "withered, old, faint, ancient, cold and late". Poetry is full of emotion and scenery, and it is dominated by emotion. However, from the perspective of scenery, it is impossible to distinguish the two. We should distinguish their advantages and disadvantages from the fit and typicality of emotion and scenery. The emotional color reflected by the white poetic image is quite messy. The images in the first three sentences and the last sentence all show the loneliness and quietness of autumn, interspersed with the images of "green mountains and green waters", which makes the poem look neither fish nor fowl. Although there may be green mountains and green waters in autumn, poets can't copy reality, otherwise there will be no artistic typification. Or someone will see it that way. Poetry first writes about depression, then happiness, and neutralization is the harmonious beauty of "mourning without hurting". However, the "white grass" in the last sentence of the poem "Autumn" refers to dry grass, and the "red leaves" refer to frost-dyed dry red. Only "yellow flower" can be both yellow flower and autumn chrysanthemum. Only by understanding chrysanthemum can we express our joy, but it is contrary to the emotional tone of "white grass" and "red leaves". Therefore, the emotional color contained in the image of poetry is a bit messy, and it is difficult to form the overall emotional tone. The first four sentences of "Qiu Si" describe the scenery, and the last sentence ""expresses the strong emotion generated, which really reaches the infinite realm of the scene. The emotional color of images in poetry is unified and diverse. The first sentence expresses the desolate scene of autumn with "dead vines" and "old trees", points out the season, and points out the time with "dim crows" to stimulate homesickness. The second sentence evokes the wanderer's homesickness with an idealized and beautiful image ("running water bridge"), which forms a contrast with the first and third sentences and strengthens the wanderer's homelessness. The third sentence further shows the tragic situation of vagrants. The fourth sentence uses the image of time (it's getting dark, who doesn't want to go home) to stimulate the homesickness of the wanderer. The fifth sentence finally shows the homesickness that generate can't restrain. The emotional tone reflected by the poetic image is concentrated, typical and changeable, and the rhythm change of emotion and meaning can be connected, which is superior to the single lyric mode of "seeing one scene to express one emotion", that is, it can combine change with unity. It can be seen that Qiu Si has truly achieved the artistic beauty of "the scene is wonderful and boundless".
3. The implicit beauty of the combination of reality and reality
"The combination of reality and fiction" is also an important criterion to measure the artistic conception beauty of ancient lyric poetry. Bai Pu's poems are purely realistic and have no imaginary content, so they are relatively plain and straightforward; But Ma Zhiyuan's poems are full of implicit beauty. The combination of reality and fiction contains a lot of content, which is mainly reflected in several aspects in this poem.
First of all, the coexistence of reality and reality includes the meaning of coexistence or not. Inaction has "reality" and "emptiness". "You" refers to the content that appears in the work, while "Nothing" is an artistic blank in the work. Ancient poems and paintings all emphasize each other's existence, with little pen and ink, but endless meanings. "Autumn" is a panoramic view, and the whole is arranged by autumn scenery. There is no word "autumn" in the whole poem, but it is full of autumn, and there is also the beauty of "nothing, everything is romantic". However, the scenery in the poem is more solid and unobstructed; It also lacks personnel content, emotional implication and blank space for people to ponder, so it is implicit. On the other hand, in the same space, Qiu Si only pointed out several groups of images, and then wrote the necessary human landscape. One shot at a time, only the last sentence is scanned in panorama. Each shot only selects a few most distinctive images to form a picture, and each picture has a lot of blanks, and there are also blanks in the jumps between shots. There are characters, landscapes and metaphors in the picture, which not only brings endless associations to people, but also enhances the smart beauty of poetry. Therefore, the poem is not only "silent and full of romance", but also "infinite in four shapes"
Secondly, the combination of reality and fiction also includes the combination of real writing and virtual writing. The scenery and feelings in autumn are mostly realistic, which is a common autumn scenery. There is no sign of fiction, and there is no profound meaning. For example, as mentioned above, truthfully list and display the colors of autumn, which is purely realistic. The colors of Qiu Si are fictional, processed and selected, and full of meaning. The scenery, characters and emotions in Qiu Si are both real and imaginary, and also reflect the artist's subjective intention of choice, processing and creation. On the surface, this picture of the vagrants at the end of the world has its own scenery, characters and feelings, but in fact it is all coincidences, especially the images such as "crow", "home", "west wind" and "thin horse", which carry different suggestive functions in their proper positions: "crow" reminds vagrants to go home, and "home" encourages vagrants to go home. However, the combination of these images is seamless, and there is no trace of artificial carving. Fiction is like realism, and the truth is in it. This is the so-called "natural sound".
Thirdly, the coexistence of reality and reality also refers to the mutual growth of image and image. That is, poetic scenes can stimulate people to have rich associations, images outside images, scenery outside scenes, feelings outside scenes and so on through images in the text. Autumn scenery has only one moral, that is, autumn colors are everywhere. Most images in Qiu Si can inspire readers to think of different images and meanings beyond images. The "old vine tree" represents autumn scenery, which has a sense of loneliness and depression, as well as vicissitudes. As a crow seeking to go home at dusk (some people interpret it as a groggy or sleepy crow ③, which is inappropriate), it not only indicates the time (dusk), but also implies that the wanderer is homesick by "seeking to go home". This crow should be hovering and flying, which also enhances poetry. The sentence "small bridge flowing water" is even more meaningful, which will be explained below. This "home" alone can inspire people to think of images such as lights, cooking smoke and laughter. "Ancient Road" is an image with vague meaning, which is unimaginable and unclear, but it can enhance the autumn colors and vicissitudes of poetry. The image of "West Wind" not only shows autumn scenery, but also has the power to remind people to return home. It is more dynamic and sculptural, which makes people imagine a series of images beyond the image: the thin horse can no longer resist the blowing of the cold west wind, and its footsteps are trembling and shrinking; A wanderer riding a thin horse was blown by the west wind, and his hair hung in the direction of the wind. The image of a travel-stained traveler jumped from the paper. The image of "thin horse" is also very profound: the horse ran away, and there are plenty of fragrant grass in the end of the world; Readers can also imagine that the horse is tired and staggered; In this case, the wanderer had to hurry home, but only such a thin horse, unable to bear the load, would return far away, which would add a heavy sadness. "Sunset" is the only image that describes the high sky, which has the function of expanding the sense of space, and at the same time indicates the time, suggesting that there are not many days and urging people to go home. It can be seen that many of these images are profound and can inspire readers to think of many images and meanings beyond images.
In addition, the first and third sentences of this poem use lonely and depressed autumn scenery to set off sadness, and the second sentence uses beautiful scenery to set off the situation of wanderers. There are positive and negative contents, obvious and hidden, and hidden and appropriate. Judging from the proportion of the emotional tone of the image, the whole image is bleak and sad, with the image of "small bridge running water" as the contrast, and the light and heavy are handled properly. This is another kind of beauty born of reality and reality.
4. Beauty with endless aftertaste
"Endless charm" is also an important criterion to measure the artistic conception beauty of ancient lyric poetry. Charm is uncertain, which can be a clever use of words and rhythm, a unique technique such as structure, and a profound connotation of image symbols. Bai Pu's poems are straightforward, so they have less aftertaste; Ma Zhiyuan's poems are memorable. Here are a few examples.
First of all, from the perspective of language and rhyme. The language in Autumn is elegant and concise, full of certain emotional symbolic meanings, which can fully show the bleak atmosphere of autumn. Images such as "Western jackdaw in the West" and "Hong Fei" also have certain cultural connotations and aftertaste. Rhyme is the rhyme of one, two, three and five, and the fourth sentence changes rhyme, which can be changed continuously. But it's not as good as Qiu Si. Besides elegance and conciseness, Qiu Si's words also have cultural connotations. Some words contain rich cultural and historical connotations. Poets choose some common words, but they can make people magic, such as withered vines, old trees, bridges with flowing water, people's homes, ancient roads, westerly winds, heartbroken people, Tianya people and so on. , are common words commonly used by ancient literati. Here, they just have cultural connotation, which not only gives people a sense of deja vu, but also makes people feel magical. The poet also created a unique image of "black crow" with multiple meanings, and skillfully used the profound image of "thin horse". Therefore, the language of poetry is full of charm and originality, and many images are memorable. From the perspective of rhyme, the poem has rhyme at the end and no rhyme change in the middle, which is the link between poetry and poetry, urging heartbroken feelings to rush out in one go and playing a role in fueling the situation. Besides, adjectives of several images in Qiu Si are well used, such as "withered vine", "old tree" and "ancient road". These three words give the poetic realm a sense of simplicity and vicissitudes, create an appropriate environmental atmosphere, and show the wanderers' homesickness for Qiu Si.
Secondly, the implication and emotional color of the image of "small bridge flowing water". In addition to the above, there are at least the following points: this is a beautiful picture, which is not only a scene that induces the wanderer to be homesick, but also a symbol of the wanderer's ideal destination, and at the same time it is an image full of movement and life. The beauty of the poet is also reflected in the fact that the images representing the ideal residence are not bright, but dark, which not only conforms to the overall tone of poetic landscape, but also does not destroy the overall coloring effect of this ink landscape painting. There are many misunderstandings because the poem can remind people of images other than rich images. For example, a textbook says, "The small bridge is lonely, the stream flowing in the mountain stream is lonely, and this farmer who is far away from the hubbub is even more lonely. This is a cold and lonely picture, showing the loneliness of the author. " Others say that this "small bridge with flowing water" is a "desolate and terrible sight". "Look at the quietly flowing stream under the black wooden bridge. There is a small house next to it, where a lonely family lives. How can this depressing and lifeless scene not make people feel sad? " This association is too outrageous. Not only is the emotional tone completely contrary to poetry, but it is also a bit whimsical. Critics lack the basic knowledge of China traditional culture. Ancient literati generally yearned for the rural life of people with small bridges and flowing water, unlike people today who generally yearned for cities. Besides, Ma Zhiyuan is a person who yearns for seclusion and rural life, and Bai Pu's "Little Bridge Flowing Water" comes first, so the emotional color of this group of images can't be imagined at will. It can be seen that those who generally regard this group of images as the emotional tone of loneliness, desolation and loneliness do not understand the rich and complex symbolic meaning and other complex charm contained in this group of images.
Third, the problem of "heartbroken people are at the end of the world" and its meaning. There are two punctuation methods for this last lyric: one is "heartbroken, at the end of the world" and the other is "heartbroken, at the end of the world". The first reading is often interrupted because "heartbroken man" is a common word in ancient poetry, such as "heartbroken man to heartbroken man". But the effect of this reading method is far less than that of the latter reading method. From the perspective of syntactic structure, the first one is read according to a simple declarative sentence, which means: heartbroken people wander around the world. This is just a statement of the fact that although the text itself is lyrical, the meaning of the sentence is simple and has no lasting appeal. According to the latter reading method, the sentence pattern is an inverted exclamatory sentence, meaning: heartbroken, and heaven remains our neighbourhood, how sad! It not only states the facts, but also highlights the sadness. The author puts the lyric word "heartbroken" at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize it, in order to achieve the emotional effect of "sighing desolation all over the paper" Lyric sentences in poetry generally use exclamatory sentences and inverted sentences, and seldom use declarative sentences, so as to have a strong lyric effect. Such as "Affectionate Ying Xiao Wo, Early" (Su Shi), "Waiting for You in the Rain" (Yu Guangzhong), etc., all use inverted sentences to enhance the lyrical effect. Judging from the relationship between the definition and modification of the word heartbroken, if we read it in the former way, heartbroken, as the attribute of "person", only modifies "person" and can only play a role in explaining the mentality of the word "person" in Chinese, which means "grieving person". According to the latter reading, "heartbroken" and "people are at the end of the world" constitute a causal relationship, and "heartbroken" can only be achieved because "people are at the end of the world". "Man at the End of the World" is a panoramic view, which is a retrospective summary of the pictures written in the previous three sentences (as pointed out above). Therefore, the causal relationship between heartbroken and people in the end of the world is actually the causal relationship between heartbroken and the whole content, that is, it is this wandering picture that makes people heartbroken. Thus, the lyric sentence of "heartbroken" has the function and effect of controlling the whole article. This is in line with the original intention of the poem.
In a word, compared with Bai Pu's Autumn in Clear Sand, Ma Zhiyuan's Qiu Si is richer and more profound in poetry, which can stimulate readers to have more reading experience and create more space. Its many "artistic blanks" and "undetermined points" form a fascinating "summoning structure", and readers are expected to participate in exploring its endless artistic charm.