Summary of content "Fu on Lotus Picking" is one of Wang Bo's three most representative poems. It depicts lotus picking activities in different scenes and expresses the sorrow and sorrow of different people. In terms of style, it belongs to the four-sixth style parallel fu, and at the same time it is flexibly combined with the form of Sao style fu. The language is clear, profound, beautiful and vigorous without losing the vigor, overcoming the habit of the Qi Liang style being frivolous. Different from previous poems about things, although it is called "Fu on Picking Lotus", it does not take the description of lotus as the main body of the article. The protagonist is the poet's own emotions and ambitions. It is not a simple physical poem or a lyrical poem. This is the key to distinguishing it from other parallel rhymes with gold and carvings. Predecessors commented on this article: "It provides rich and useful reference for the evolution and innovation of Tang Fu."
Keywords Wang Bo; "Cai Lian Fu"; early Tang Dynasty; characteristics of Fu;
Tang Fu is an important stage in the development of Chinese Fu. Whether it is the number of works or its ideological core, it is an insurmountable peak for other dynasties. The early Tang Dynasty was a special historical period, and the Ci and Fu works at that time played a role in connecting the past and the future. On the one hand, it is necessary to eliminate the shortcomings of Ci and Fu in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties; on the other hand, it also requires writers in the early Tang Dynasty to actively explore a new path for the format and genre of Ci and Fu in the middle and later periods. Wang Bo has always been regarded by many literary critics as the first of the four heroes of the early Tang Dynasty in terms of the artistic achievements and ideological core of his works. This can be seen from Du Fu's poem "Wang Yang Lu Luo's contemporary style". As one of the most representative poets in the early Tang Dynasty, Wang Bo's articles have the characteristics of connecting the past and the future. As a celebrity of the era, Wang Bo's works are also a beacon that changes the direction of the era's literary style in a sense. This article attempts to analyze the characteristics of "Cai Lian Fu" and gain a glimpse of its influence on the poems of the early Tang Dynasty.
1. Innovation in Stylistic Forms
"Lotus picking" is a common production activity in Jiangnan. It is favored by poets because of the particularity of the labor scene - flowing water, green leaves and red flowers, together with beautiful and lively girls and brisk boats, form a unique and wonderful Jiangnan scene. The history of poets describing the scene of lotus picking can be traced back to Qu Yuan's "Make lotus flowers to make clothes, gather hibiscus to make clothes." This is probably the earliest poem describing the activity of lotus picking.
Also describing the activity of picking lotus, there are many differences between "Ode to the Lotus" written by Emperor Yuan of Liang Dynasty and "Ode to the Lotus" written by Wang Bo. Xiao Yi's description of the lotus-picking scene mainly expresses the joy of picking lotus and the grace of the human figure. "The boat is about to move and the algae hangs, and the boat is about to move but the rafts are blooming. Its slender waist is bundled with plain material, and it delays the steps. Summer is the beginning of spring, and the leaves are tender and the flowers are beginning to bloom. Afraid of the clothes being stained, they smile lightly, and they are afraid of the rafters leaning over and pulling back the trains. "The handsome men and beauties in this season are rocking the boat with tenderness in their hearts. The kite-shaped boat moves slowly in a roundabout way, and the bird-shaped wine glasses are passed around frequently. The water plants held on to the oars and refused to leave, but the duckweeds moved away to let the boat go. The beauty swayed her delicate slender waist, looking back at her to express her affection. Summer has just begun and the feeling of spring has not yet dissipated. The fresh lotus leaves are set against the newly blooming lotus flowers. She smiled softly for fear of getting her clothes wet, and held on to the hem of her clothes tightly for fear that the boat would capsize. Xiao Yi's language is delicate, vivid and expressive. Each word outlines the joy of the lotus-picking scene and the ambiguous atmosphere between boys and girls. The overall style is graceful and soft. The author describes it from a "God's perspective". The poem does not directly express the author's feelings, but is more of a compliment to the picture in front of him. The poet in the picture has been hidden, including all his footprints and feelings. Xiao Yi's "Fu on Picking Lotus" is a representative of the lyrical poems written during the Qi and Liang Dynasties. On the whole, the content is narrow and the pattern is small.
Wang Bo's "Lotus Picking Ode" does not describe a single lotus picking scene, but describes the grand occasion of lotus picking from multiple angles and directions. The first is the general description of women picking lotus in the south of the Yangtze River: "The brocade sails reflect the pond, and the robes block the river. Flying magnolias are painted on the rafts, and the lotus boats are driven. When I ask where I am going, I pick lotus in the deep pool." Compared with the exquisiteness of Emperor Yuan of Liang Dynasty, The gentle orchid boat and the gentle and prudent girl under the brush strokes, the lotus picking girls in Wang Bo's paintings have a more chic temperament, reflecting the hearty and powerful characteristics of women in the Tang Dynasty. "Ying" describes the width of the brocade sail, while "Sai" shows the number of people picking lotus. "Fly" and "drive" vividly depict the urgent and capable movements of the lotus picking girls. Then the lotus picking is divided into different scenes, and then the lotus picking is divided into various situations: there is "the beautiful concubine in the golden room, the lost girl in the Xuan palace" who picked lotus because "it is a pity for the old age and the twilight is easy, and the king is hurt and the unknown". There are "young men in the palace of Zhugong, young masters of Qimen" who pick lotuses "to excite gratitude and swear, and wear favors to keep their sorrows at bay"; there are "princes and ministers" who "order demon lovers to the stone city, roar to entertain friends in the golden valley" and pick lotus. ; There is "a righteous wife from Nanyan, a trustworthy woman from Dongwu" who picks lotus because "a gentleman comes to do business, and a good man comes to the expedition"; there is a "propaganda woman who is a slut" because "she is willing to take off her pendants to invite her children, thinking about her clothes." And "follow the emperor" to pick lotus; there are "noble sons and grandsons" who pick lotus "in anticipation of new gifts from Beizhu, and to search for secrets from Dongxi"; and then it is always written that picking lotus "even though it is a sign in the water town, it became popular all over the world." I feel extremely sad and happy, and my voice is like Zheng Ya." Judging from each fragment, Wang Bo's language style when describing the lotus picking activities of different characters has subtle differences with the change of characters' identities, but overall, the language in this paragraph is gorgeous and moving, but it does not lose its vitality. The style is neat and powerful, full of vigorous vitality.
Changes in the two genres
According to the "Old Tang Book", "In the second year of the Yuan Dynasty, I went to Jiaozhi to visit my father, and came out of the river to write "Cai Lian Fu". The meaning is very beautiful." The beauty of "Cai Lian Fu" is not only reflected in the choice of words and sentences, but also in the special style of this article.
There are a lot of "Xi" characters in "Poem of Cai Lian", such as "The embroidered buildings are full of green feather tents, the dawn of Yao pond is full of green Han boats", "The purple waves are like the Dongting, the green water is like Xiaoxiang. Or the summer rain is coming. The sky is rising in the morning, the cool weather is blowing, and the sky is rising at dusk." This is Wang Bo's syntactic style of absorbing Sao style fu, and applying "xi" into the narrative to soothe the tone and add emphasis. As far as this article is concerned, the usage of Sao Ti Fu is generally used in sentences describing scenery. "Xi" is not only a hazy barrier between various images, but also the boundary of the entire picture. Sao-style Fu has emerged in endlessly since the publication of "Li Sao", but until the early Tang Dynasty, there were not many authors who truly understood the essence of Sao-style Fu and perfectly combined it with their own works, except for the four major Hanfu writers. Wang Bo's work
At the same time, "Cai Lian Fu" also relatively completely preserves the legacy of the Six Dynasties parallel prose style of four and six styles. For example: "There is again a young man named Zhuo Gong, a son of Qimen. He has emerald hair and eyebrows, and his lips are white and his teeth are white. Above the Fu Fenlan Hall, in the Chili Pepper House. He also regains the title of favor and swears to admire his favor. He keeps silent and inherits the good gifts. The treasures are covered with colorful leaves for swimming. The embroidered buildings are covered with green feathers, and the Yao pond is covered with green flowers. The water flows along the waves. The guard of the Queen Mother is blowing, and the women who are taking over are singing together. The water is beautiful in the evening, and the lotus flowers are picked again in the autumn. I am willing to live in joy and die at the end of the year. "The article is mainly composed of four or six sentences, focusing on it. The confrontation is neat. This is the inheritance of the parallel prose style of the previous dynasty and the development of the four and six styles. But Wang Bo did not stick to formal requirements. Form serves content, and Wang Bo mainly takes advantage of its rhythmic nature here. Sacrificing content and ideas in pursuit of neat form and gorgeous or archaic rhetoric is one of the important reasons for the rigidity of parallel prose in the Six Dynasties. For example, the parallel prose of Xie Zhuang, Yan Yanzhi and others mostly used ancient events and expressions to express their ideas (such as "Moon Fu"). After that, others followed suit and imitated each other, resulting in a pile of unchanging, rigid, difficult, and lifeless prose. By the time Wang Jian and Ren Fang and Wang Rong reached their peak. Until the early Tang Dynasty, parallel prose was still the mainstay of Fu prose, and it further developed in the direction of four or six styles. As one of the most outstanding and literary ideal poets in the early Tang Dynasty, Wang Bo was naturally aware of this. As a historical work in a special transitional period, "Lotus Picking Ode" inevitably has the genre characteristics of the previous dynasty. But the four and six styles are not synonymous with rigidity. On the contrary, in Wang Bo's case, it once again uses the characteristics of four and six parallel prose, alternate sentences, flat and oblique, and sonorous rhyme to make the article appear swaying, harmonious and melodious.
Combining Sao style Fu with Si Liu Ti is Wang Bo’s choice of the content of the Fu. On the one hand, the object described in "Poem on the Lotus" is seven pictures of sorrow and joy with lotus as the background. The article is developed by describing seven scenes, which is obviously inspired by Jiang Yan's "Farewell". In the picture, Concubine Jinshi, Young Master Zhuo Gong, Prince Qimen, scholars, Zheng Ren's wife, and prostitutes all have close activities with Lotus. At the same time, a large number of objective pictures need to be painted to express the inner activities and life scenes of the characters. The advantages of Sao style Fu are that it is convenient to express emotions and pause the tone, which perfectly meets the needs of content and genre. The symmetry of the four-six-body form nicely arranges many sentences describing the scenery, and the harmonious rhythm reduces the boringness of reading, allowing readers to enjoy the visual scene while also experiencing an auditory feast. Not sticking to a specific form, but cleverly combining content and form and using it flexibly is the success of "Poem on the Lotus Picking Lotus", and it is also valuable in inspiring contemporary writers and future generations. This approach is consistent with Wang Bo's literary ideas. "Variations in the literary field, competing for delicate structures, competing for micro carvings. The golden, jade, dragon and phoenix are rubbed, and the crimson, yellow, and purple are chaotic; the shadows are used to show their merits, and the false ones are used to praise their beauty; the bones are all close, but the strength is not known." Young. Wang Bo had already made such a pointed comment at that time, and he has been practicing it since then. "Ode to the Lotus" is a typical example.
It is worth mentioning that Wang Bo also proposed the "spatial relative" model here. In this article, there are two opposing spaces, one is "Fengchi", and the other is "Water District Zeguo, Jiangnan Haiyu", which represents the folk. This "dual opposition" model opens up a new space for the Ci Fu model.
Three Transformations of Social Functions
Since the birth of Fuwen, it has been given the mission of "body". Liu Xizai of the Qing Dynasty said: "Fu is different from poetry in that there are fewer poems and more emotions, and poems have less voice and emotion but more emotion in words." Fu has the rhythm of poetry, but it is different from poetry in terms of length; Fu also has prose. It has a descriptive function, but the format is more demanding than prose. Generally speaking, the characteristics of Fu are "the collection of prose and the use of objects to write down the aspirations". That is to describe objective things to express subjective feelings. The predecessors' "Er Capital Fu" and "Luo Shen Fu" are representative examples.
Wang Bo's "Ode to the Lotus" inherits the creative purpose of "lyric expression on physical objects" of his predecessors, but judging from the proportion of content and the way to express emotions, "Lotus" is not the most important part of "Ode to the Lotus". Just a minor position. Expressing inner resentment and expressing one's ambition are the author's main purposes.
Wang Bo was born into a noble family. As a branch of the Wang family in Taiyuan, Wang Bo's lofty ambitions were the tasks given to him by the glory of his family. However, since the imperial court vigorously suppressed the aristocratic forces and focused on promoting poor bachelors, and his behavior angered the superiors, it was very unlikely to return to the imperial court and serve as a literary attendant. "Lotus Picking Ode" was written when he was demoted for the second time and on his way to Jiaozhi to visit his father. The chance of returning to the court was very slim. One can imagine the author's anguish. At the beginning of "Poem on Plucking Lotus" he puts forward this point of view: "Your precious family is vast and luxuriant, and your kind ladies are well-known.
The empty curve of the Zao River and the Wei River is reduced to ripples by Ju Zhang. The Zhucheng Bay is rotten and rotten, and there are fields of repair and growth. Qi Zhishui District Zeguo, the river, the sea and the sea. "It means that the lotus is such a precious plant that it should only live in the palace, rather than being spread all over the world for people to pick. It can be understood in this way based on the author's life. Wang Bo compares himself with the lotus. There are two opposing spaces here. Concepts, one is "Fengchi", which is the imperial court; the other is "Shui District Zeguo, Jiang Yang Hai Pai", which represents the folk. The lotus should not grow among the people. As a talented "lotus", I should not live in the rivers and lakes, but should grow in the rivers and lakes. In the palace. Then there are seven different descriptions of scenes related to lotus picking. The first six scenes describe different joys and sorrows, and the seventh one is a more direct description of the literati's description of the lotus (that is, on behalf of himself). From the second part, emotions are the focus of Wang Bo's description, and the lotus and lotus picking are just the background of the story. This shows that the author uses "physical objects" here. The proportion of "" has dropped to a very low level, and lyricism has become the protagonist of the article. The author compares himself with the lotus, and also alludes to his own emotions in the joys and sorrows, using the lotus as the background. This is not a simple mode of chanting objects and expressing emotions. The subjective emotion of "parting" is taken as the subject, and the object of praise is diluted and becomes the background of the poem. The objective chanting of objects is drawn by the subjective emotional expression. This is an innovation in the " chanting of objects - lyrical emotion" model and breaks the inherent pattern. Writing mode.
Among the two spatial modes, Wang Bo is in the world but longs for the palace. Among the six protagonists with sad and happy emotions, the "palace concubines" and "the ministers of the bodyguard" belong to the palace. Their sorrows and joys are opposite each other. The intertwining of darkness and light hints at the author's hope: the concubine's lament, "I cherish my age, I am so late, I hurt my king so unknown" is consistent with Qu Yuan's "Li Sao", which is in line with the tradition of "vanilla beauty" and expresses The author shared Qu Yuan's disappointment and frustration when he was forced to leave the court, and the life of a guard who "wanted to be happy but died at a young age, and to take over the throne but had few enemies" is Wang Bo's ideal - to stand in the court with literary talent, that is, "forever." "Purify yourself in the hills and valleys, keep your heart attached to the king" directly expresses the meaning.
Wang Bo's "Fu on Plucking Lotus" has a profound impact on social functions. First of all, "Fu on Plucking Lotus" expresses oneself Thinking is the main purpose, so it takes up most of the article. Although it is a poem about objects, it is quite different from the poems that praise and sing about a certain thing in previous works. Although its name is a complete integration of subjective emotions and objective intentions. It is called "Lotus Picking Ode", but the main part is to describe the joys and sorrows, and the main purpose is not to describe the lotus. This structure changes the structure and purpose of the poem. < /p>
Secondly, he inherited and carried forward the creative technique of comparing things with people. In "Poetry in Seven Steps", Cao Zhi compared his relationship with his brother with beans and beans; while Wang Bo compared himself to a lotus to express his feelings for others. Dissatisfaction with the current situation and expectations for the future. This writing technique was later used by Song Zhiwen to create "Autumn Lotus Ode". It is worth mentioning that Song Zhiwen and Wang Bo also wanted to establish themselves in the imperial court with their literary talents. Young man, the difference is that Song Zhiwen was a scholar from a poor family, and he succeeded. He explained the reason for his writing in the preface: In the first year of Tianshou, the imperial scholar Yang Jiong separated from him in the west of Luocheng. After entering the pavilion, he went to Yulinzhan, where the guards played his name and asked for turtle deeds. He stood in the west of the imperial bridge, where the jade pond was clear and full of red lotus and lotus leaves. Wrong shoes and gates, renting from spring to autumn, seeing their birth, valuing their growth, seeing their prosperity, and cherishing their decline, so that they can live a long life without dying young. It is good to block the immortals and ban, so that no one can spy on them. Xiang Ruo was born in Dongting, Xiaoxiang, Qin'ao, Qinmei. There were Wu Ji Yue Ke and Zheng Nu Wei Tong. Today, I am entrusted with the white dew and the cool breeze. The prosperity and decline will have their time, and the private division will be completed. The story of Fei Ran's wish to sing has been described in "Shu Qiu Lian Fu" for a long time. The different environments in which the lotus grows lead to its completely different fate, which is consistent with Wang Bo's intention and method in creating "Fu on Plucking Lotus".
In short, from the perspective of language characteristics, choice of article style and layout, and social functions, Wang Bo's "Poem on the Lotus" has extremely outstanding characteristics. In a special period of literary style transformation such as the early Tang Dynasty, it played a certain role in reversing the direction. The evaluation of the predecessors as "the evolution and innovation of Tang Fu provides rich and useful reference" is very pertinent.
References:
Li Dong. Where does the lotus grow: A study on Wang Bo’s "Lotus Picking Ode" and the writing mode of Ode to Things
Written by Wang Bo, annotated by Jiang Qingyi , proofread by Wang Xiandu. Annotations by Wang Zi'an [Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House]
Kang Qiaoxia. Chronicle of Parallel Prose in the Early Tang Dynasty
Liu Tao. Criticism of Xiao Zixian's Parallel Prose
Dong Gao , Ruan Yuan, Xu Song. The Complete Tang Dynasty [Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House]
Ma Jigao, Huang Jun. History of Ancient Chinese Literature
Zhao Youwen. Cao Zhi's Collection Annotation