1. The three elements of rhythmic poetry mentioned by Mr. Wang Li
The four elements of my rhythmic poetry: level, rhyme, reconciliation, and adhesion.
Mr. Wang Li also mentioned the "three elements" of rhythmic poetry in his book "Chinese Poetry and Rhythmology".
1. The number of words must be consistent.
A five-character poem must have 40 characters, and a seven-character poem must have 56 characters.
Lao Cai has not mentioned this element because it is basic common sense.
To explain this element in more detail, we can say: Rhymed poetry must be a Qiyan poem, that is, each sentence has the same number of words, one with five characters and one with eight sentences, which is the five-character rhythm. For example, Ma Dai's "Autumn Residence in Ba Shang":
In Ba Yuan, the wind and rain are steady, and you can see frequent flying geese in the evening. The deciduous foreign trees, the lonely night under the cold light. The empty garden is filled with white dew drops, and there are wild monks standing by the lonely wall. I have been lying in the suburbs for a long time. When did I get this body?
Seven characters to one sentence, eight sentences to one sentence, is the seven-character rule. For example, Cen Shen's "Fenghe Zhongshusheren Jia arrives at the Daming Palace in the early morning":
The rooster crows on the purple road, the dawn light is cold, and the orioles sing in the spring scenery of the imperial state. The golden palace opens thousands of households at dawn, and the jade-level immortals support thousands of officials. The flowers welcome the sword and the stars have just fallen, and the willow flags are still wet with dew. There is only one guest in the Phoenix Pond, and it is difficult to sing a song in spring.
Rhymed poems with five characters to one sentence and four lines to one are the close-style quatrains of five characters. Five characters to one sentence and more than eight lines are five-character rhymed poems; the same is true for Qijue and seven-character rhymed poems.
However, this is only one of the standards. It is definitely impossible to judge just by meeting this requirement.
2. The rhythm of antithesis
When Mr. Wang Li explained the rhythm of antithesis, he said: The middle two couplets of the rhymed poem must be in opposition. For example, the poem exemplified above:
The golden gate opens thousands of households at dawn, and the jade-level immortals support thousands of officials. The flowers welcome the sword and the stars have just fallen, and the willow flags are still wet with dew. "Fenghe Zhongshu Sheren Jia Zhi Early Dynasty to the Daming Palace"
This refers to the eight-line verse, while the four-line verse (quatrain) does not need to have antithesis. For example, Li Bai's Qijue "Wanglu Mountain Waterfall" is also a rhymed poem, so there is no need for counterpoint:
The sun shines on the incense burner and produces purple smoke, and you can see the waterfall hanging in front of the river in the distance. The flying stream plummeted down three thousand feet, and it was suspected that the Milky Way had fallen into the sky.
And there are more than eight lines in the arrangement, and there are not only two couplets in the middle. Except for the first couplet and the last couplet, all the couplets in the middle are in opposition:
Good at drums, clouds and harp, I often hear the spirit of the emperor's son. Feng Yikong dances by himself, and Chu Ke cannot listen. The bitter tone of the metal and stone, the voiceless sound enters the darkness. Cangwu comes to complain and admire, and the white peony moves to bring fragrance. The flowing water flows through Xiaopu, and the sad wind passes through Dongting. At the end of the song, no one can be seen, and there are several green peaks on the river.
However, there are some "rhythmic poems" that are inconsistent with each other. For example, the jaw couplet of Cui Hao's "Yellow Crane Tower" exemplified above is inconsistent with each other:
The Yellow Crane is gone and never comes back, and the white clouds are gone. The load is empty.
As for Li Bai's "Night at Niuzhu Nostalgia", the two middle couplets are not contradictory:
The night at Niuzhu Xijiang River, the blue sky is cloudless. Climbing the boat and looking at the autumn moon, I recall General Xie. I can also chant loudly, but this person cannot hear it. In the Ming Dynasty, sails and mats were hung, and maple leaves fell one after another.
Poems such as "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Nostalgia for the Past in Niuzhu at Night" are all classified as rhythmic poetry in "Three Hundred Tang Poems". This kind of "rhymed poetry" that meets the word count requirements but does not meet the antithesis requirements is the ancient style rhymed poetry.
3. The rhythm of parallel and oblique lines pays attention to the adhesion of pairs
Mr. Wang Li’s third element of rhythmic poetry is:
The rhythm of equal and oblique lines must be consistent with each other. A certain format, and pay attention to sticking to it. "Chinese Poetry and Rhythm"
Ping-Zi rhythm refers to the four basic sentence patterns that must be used in metrical poetry:
Ping-Ping-Zhe, Ping-Ping-Zhe-Ping, Ping-Ping-Ping-Zhe, 廄廄廄平平.
In these four sentence patterns, the characters in individual positions can be flat or oblique. In addition, there are variations of flat, flat, oblique, flat, oblique, flat, oblique, and several variations of awkward sentences. I won’t go into details here.
Sticking means adhering (the second character of the second sentence is the same as the second character of the third sentence, and so on), and the pair is a contrast (the second element) .
It can be seen that the first four sentences of "Yellow Crane Tower" do not meet the third element, so it is an ancient style rhythmic poem.