Original text:
Yu Xin’s articles have become more mature over time, and Ling Yunjian’s writing style is full of creativity.
Nowadays, people sneer at the spread of Fu, but they don’t realize that the sages of the past are afraid of those who come after them.
Wang Yang and Lu Luo were in style at that time, and their writings were frivolous and frivolous.
Er Cao’s body and name will be destroyed, and the flow of rivers will not be destroyed forever.
Even though King Lu was good at calligraphy and calligraphy, he was inferior to Han and Wei Dynasties.
The king controls the dragon, the tiger, the spine, and you and Cao have been seen throughout the history.
It’s hard to praise many people for their talents, but who is the best among them now?
Or look at the emerald orchids and the whales in the blue sea.
Modern people love the ancients no matter how much they love them, and their clear words and beautiful sentences must be their neighbors.
If you secretly climbed into Qu Song Yifang's chariot, you might be afraid of following in the footsteps of Qi Liang.
Don’t doubt it if you haven’t reached the level of the sages who came before you. Let’s tell the ancestors who came before us.
Comments:
⑴Yu Xin: a famous poet in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Article: General Literature. Older and more mature: When you reach old age, you become more mature.
⑵Lingyun Jianbi: Superb and powerful writing power. The meaning is vertical and horizontal: the literary thoughts are like a tide, and the writing style is free and easy.
⑶Scoff: ridicule and blame.
⑷ Former sage: refers to Yu Xin. Fear of future generations: This is what Confucius said: "The future generations should be feared." Housheng refers to the person who "sneers" Yu Xin. But this is a sarcastic remark, which means that if Yu Xin were still alive, I am afraid that he would really feel that "their future life is terrible".
⑸ Wang Yang and Lu Luo: Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaolin, and King Luo Bin. These four people were all famous writers in the early Tang Dynasty, and were called the "Four Heroes of the Early Tang Dynasty". The poetic style is fresh and vigorous, sweeping away the decadent legacy of Liang. Contemporary style: refers to the genre and style of the Four Masters' poems that were self-contained at that time.
⑹ Frivolous (bó): words and deeds are frivolous, meaning toying. This refers to the aggressive attitude of the conservative literati at that time towards the "Four Heroes". 哂(shěn): to ridicule.
⑺Er Cao: You people.
⑻Not abolished: no impact. Here, the eternal flow of rivers is used to describe that the names and works of outstanding writers, including the Four Masters, will be passed down through the ages like the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers.
⑼Hanmo: pen and ink.
⑽Fengshao: "Wind" refers to "Guo Feng" in "The Book of Songs", and "Sao" refers to "Li Sao" in "Chu Ci". Later generations used it to refer to literature in general.
⑾Longwenhuji: a metaphor for the magnificent diction.
⑿Jade: the name of the bird. 兰苕(tiáo): orchid and wildflower. Guo Pu's "Poetry on Immortals": "The jade plays with the orchid, making the appearance more vivid."
⒀掣(chè): pull, pull.
⒁Bo: look down upon, look down upon, despise.
⒂Must be neighbors: Must be regarded as neighbors, which means not to exclude.
⒃Stealing: Pursuing in the heart. Qu Song: Qu Yuan and Song Yu. Fang Jia: drive side by side. This is what the poet said to the frivolous scribes: "If you want to be as famous as Qu Yuan and Song Yu, you should have the spirit and talent to keep pace with them." Qi and Liang wrote in a flashy style, emphasizing form over content. In this sentence, the poet follows the previous sentence and says: "If not, I'm afraid you are not as good as the literati of Qi and Liang!"
⒄Don't doubt that you are not as good as the predecessors: This sentence means that those frivolous people are not as good as the predecessors! There is no doubt about it.
⒅According to each other’s ancestors: learn from each other and inherit the excellent traditions of our predecessors. Who should be reinstated first: no need to prioritize.
⒆Distinguish and eliminate poems that are poor in form and content. Close to Fengya: Study the tradition of style and elegance in The Book of Songs.
⒇Zhuanyiduoshi: Find teachers from many aspects. Ru Shi: Your teacher.
Translation:
Yu Xin's articles have become more mature in his old age. His writing power is superb and vigorous, his thoughts are flowing, and his writing is free and easy. People today ridicule and criticize the articles he left. If Yu Xin were still alive, I am afraid that you, the younger generation, would really be frightened.
Under the conditions of the times, the works of Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaolin and Luo Bin had reached the highest attainments. The articles of the Four Masters were considered frivolous and ridiculed by conservative literati. You conservative literati are insignificant in the long river of history, so you can only lose your reputation and your reputation, but the four heroes are like a river that will not fade away and will last forever.
Even if the four great heroes Wang, Yang, Lu and Luo wrote poems, their works were not as good as the poems of the Han and Wei dynasties but close to the Book of Songs and Songs of Chu, but they were still horses capable of driving a king for a king. , galloping vertically and horizontally, unlike you who will fall when you run a long distance.
Your talents should be difficult to surpass those mentioned above. Who can achieve more than them now? The rich and delicate poems written by you people are just like emeralds flying above orchids, lacking in grandeur and not as powerful and magnificent as grabbing a whale in the blue sea. , just some small and delicate gadgets.
When you study poetry, you must love the ancients, but you must not despise modern people like Yu Xin and the Four Great Masters. You must use their clear words and beautiful sentences as the same tone. If you want to pursue Qu Yuan and Song Yu in your heart, you should have the spirit and ability to keep pace with them, otherwise you will lose your source and fall into the footsteps of the frivolous and sideways people of the Qi and Liang Dynasties.
There is no doubt that those frivolous people are not as good as their predecessors. There should be no priority in inheriting the excellent tradition of predecessors and learning from each other. Distinguish, trim, and eliminate poems that are poor in form and content, learn the elegant tradition of the Book of Songs, and humbly learn from the past sages. The more teachers you have, the more you have. This is your real teacher.
Appreciation:
Li Chonghua, a man of the Qing Dynasty, commented on Du Fu's quatrain poems in "Zhen Yizhai Poetry Talk": "Qijue is a Tang Dynasty movement with the most workers. ... Li Bai and Wang Changling Later, Liu Mengde (note: referring to Liu Yuxi) was the most famous. His origins were vague and vague, his coming and going were endless. , the most elegant poet." He said that Du Fu "went off a different path" and found a new path among the seven unique works of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. This is something that anyone who is familiar with Du Fu's quatrains can feel. Except for a few chapters such as "Giving Flowers to the Queen" and "Jiangnan Meets the Year of Li Gui", his Qijue is indeed unique.
First of all, it expands the field of quatrains in terms of content. Du Fu also wrote quatrains on all themes, including current affairs, political discussions, art essays, and narration of trivial matters around him, which could be expressed in other poetic styles. Secondly, related to this, in terms of art, this type of quatrain poem is not a hazy and ethereal work that is known for its rhyme; it also lacks the sound of singing and sighing that can be used in orchestral music. The unique beauty it creates is that it triggers interest, is filled with wonderful thoughts, and is full of emotion, just like chatting with readers around the fire, cutting candles and having a heart-to-heart talk; whether it is sighing with emotion, or laughing and cursing, it can give people With a sense of intimacy, sincerity, and sincerity, readers feel like seeing the person and hearing their voice. The unique style of simplicity and elegance is endless.
"Six Quatrains for Play" (hereinafter referred to as "Six Quatrains") is one of the specimens of Du Fu's quatrain poems. The most common form of discussing poetry based on poetry is quatrains. Each poem can talk about an issue; many poems can be connected into a group of poems to express a complete artistic view. In the theoretical heritage of Chinese poetry, there are many famous quatrains on poetry, and the earliest and most influential one is Du Fu's "Six Quatrains". The first three poems of "Six Quatrains" comment on the writer, and the last three poems reveal the purpose of the poem. Its spirit is connected from front to back and interconnected, forming an indivisible whole.
The first poem of "The Six Quatrains of Play" is about Yu Xin. Du Fu once said in "Recalling Li Bai in Spring", "Refreshing Yu Kaifu". This poem points out that the style of Yu Xin's later articles (also referring to poems and poems) is more mature: "Yu Xin's articles are more mature as time goes by, and Lingyun Jian's pen is full of vertical and horizontal meanings." The strong pen moves forward and opens and closes vertically and horizontally, which is not only known for its "freshness". The "modern people" in the Tang Dynasty pointed fingers, laughed at and criticized Yu Xin, which fully demonstrated their ignorance. Therefore, "the former are afraid of the younger" is just a sarcastic irony.
The second and third poems discuss the four heroes of the early Tang Dynasty. The poetry of the early Tang Dynasty has not yet completely shaken off the legacy of the Six Dynasties period of advocating for flashy and showy rhetoric. In the second poem, "frivolous writing" is what people at that time said when they ridiculed the "Four Elites". Shi Bing's "Du Shi Suo Zheng" explains this poem: "It was the fashion of the time to talk about the style of Si Zi, and those who ridicule it for being frivolous have not stopped to this day. I never knew that both your name and reputation were destroyed, but the writing of Si Zi was not abolished. "Like rivers flowing forever." In the third poem, "Even though" is Du Fu's tone, "King Lu's calligraphy skills are inferior to those of the Han and Wei dynasties" was what people at the time said mocking the four heroes ("King Lu" is used in the poem). Refers to the Four Heroes). Du Fu quoted their words and refuted them, so the last two sentences have such a twist. It means that even so, the four heroes can use their vertical and horizontal talents to control the magnificent words like "a dragon's text and a tiger's spine", and their works can stand the test of time.
The purpose of these three poems is very obvious: the first one says that one must look at people comprehensively, and cannot only see one aspect and ignore the other. The second poem says that evaluating writers cannot be separated from the conditions of their times. The third poem points out that although writers' achievements vary in size, they each have their own characteristics and do not hide each other. They should be evaluated appropriately and be good at learning from their predecessors from different perspectives. These views of Du Fu are correct. But the meaning of these three poems goes far beyond that.
The fourth poem continues the meaning of the third poem, criticizing those who irresponsibly trash the predecessors, accusing these people that their own works are just some emeralds and orchids, without restraint. A great work like The Whale in the Blue Sea.
The "modern people" in "Modern people love the ancients no less" refers to writers such as Yu Xin and the Four Great Masters. The reason why Du Fu "loves the past" but does not "disdain the present" is because "pure poems and beautiful sentences must be neighbors". "Being a neighbor" means being in the same tone. In Du Fu's view, poetry is the art of language, and "clear words and beautiful sentences" cannot be neglected. What's more, Yu Xin and the Four Great Masters, in addition to "pure words and beautiful sentences", also have "Long Yun Jian pen" and "dragon's writing and tiger's backbone". Therefore, he advocated an eclectic approach: advocating ancient tunes while adopting new sounds, and ancient styles. , modern style poetry goes hand in hand and will not be abandoned. "People of today love the ancients no matter how much they love them, and their clear words and beautiful sentences must be their neighbors." This should be understood in this sense.
However, just studying the Six Dynasties and blindly pursuing "clear words and beautiful sentences" such as "Jade plays with orchids, and the appearance is more vivid" may be pleasing to the eye, but the style is soft and shallow after all; if you want to To surpass the predecessors, one must have a magnificent bearing and give full play to one's talents, in order to show the ingenuity of flying charm in a strict physique; not to be trapped by length, not to be limited by rhythm, and to remain calm within the rules. , remaining divine outside the rules. In order to achieve this artistic realm, Du Fu believed that the only way to achieve this level was to "stealing from the Song Dynasty".
Because of the brilliance of "The Songs of Chu", it has become a model respected by poets throughout the ages. It can be traced back to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Six Dynasties. It can, as Liu Xie said: "Appreciate the strange without losing its truth, play with the splendor without losing the truth." If you don’t fall into the truth, looking forward can drive away the power of speech, and coughing up saliva can impair your literary skills." ("Wen Xin Diao Long·Bian Sao"), and we will not fall into the footsteps of the frivolous sideshows of the Qi and Liang Dynasties. . Du Fu's thoughts on both inheriting and criticizing the literature of the Six Dynasties are concentrated in the "different styles and pseudo styles" and "turning to multiple divisions".
Forefathers have different opinions on the last poem of "Six Quatrains". The "predecessors" here generally refer to the accomplished writers of the previous generation (including Yu Xin and the Four Great Masters). "Dixiang Zushu" means following the tradition. "The ancestral narratives passed down from generation to generation" are the root cause of "failure to catch up to the predecessors". The crux of the reason why "pseudo-body" is fake is that it replaces creation with simulation. If the true and false are mixed, the false can be confused with the true, so it must be "differentiated". Creation and tradition are Du Fu's dividing lines between true and false. Only when poets give full play to their creativity can they express their feelings, express their own temperament, and write true literary works. This is where Yu Xin's "vigorous pen reaches the clouds" and the "eternal rivers" of the Four Great Masters. On the contrary, if you pick up the wisdom of others and follow other people's doorsteps, you will inevitably have no vitality. Stacking up rhetoric and following in the footsteps of the Qi and Liang dynasties is certainly pseudo-style; blindly imitating the works of the ancients in the Han and Wei dynasties is also pseudo-style. In Du Fu's mind, there is only the difference between true and false, and there is no prejudice between ancient and modern.
"Biecai pseudo-style" and "Zhuanyi Duoshi" are two sides of the same problem. "Bie Cai Pseudo Style" emphasizes creation; "Zhuan Yi Duo Shi" emphasizes inheritance. The relationship between the two is dialectical. "Master Zhuanyi is your master" means learning everything and there is no fixed learning object. This statement has several meanings: only by "learning from everything" can we take advantage of everyone's strengths; there is no fixed learning object, and it is not limited to one family. Although there is inheritance and reference, it does not hinder the poet's own creativity. This is the second One layer of meaning. Only under the premise of "differentiating fake styles" and distinguishing authenticity from falsehoods can we determine who and what the "teacher" is, and we can truly "turn to multiple teachers". This is the second level of meaning. To be a "teacher of everything" without a fixed learning object, one must be good at learning other people's achievements from different angles. While absorbing, there is also something to promote and discard. This is the third level of meaning. On the basis of both criticism and inheritance, creation is carried out, integrating the past and the present, and creating the poet's own beautiful verses. This is the spirit of Du Fu's "turning to more masters" and "different styles".
Although "Six Quatrains" mainly talks about artistic issues, it is inseparable from Du Fu's creative spirit. In the poem, "stealing from Song Dynasty" and "being close to Fengya" are the guiding ideology of his creation and the purpose of poetry. These six short poems are essentially a summary of Du Fu's practical experience in poetry creation and the general outline of his poetic theory; they involve a series of major theoretical issues related to the development of Tang poetry. It is unprecedented for such a big discussion to be made in this kind of small poem. The poet summarizes a series of key points through various examples, embodies the serious meaning of writing in a relaxed and humorous style, and mixes solemnity and humor with his eloquent words. This is why Li Chonghua said that Du Fu's Qijue "takes a different approach". Understanding this, it is not difficult for readers to understand why this group of poems is labeled "Six Quatrains of Drama".