China's earliest poetry is probably a "poetry meeting" with the Queen Mother of the West in Yaochi, which is recorded in Mu Zhuan, but this is only a legend. The poems that are truly based on history should be the poems written by the governors and doctors in the pre-Qin period when they were in contact with neighboring countries, and the poems they recited were not written by themselves. Now, the earliest recorded poem about giving answers appears in the poem Gao Song in The Book of Songs, Daya. In this poem, there is a poem "Ji Fu recites, and his poems are inspiring, and his writing is good, and he is given to Shen Bo", which clearly points out that "Ji Fu recites" is for Shen Bo. Later, in Cai Yong's Answering the Divine Poems in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Binbin recognizes people and makes me write. I don't want to insult this resignation. The poem "Dare not give a reward, recite it in return" points out that there is not only a "gift" in the poem, but also a "reward" for those who receive it.
Highlight the communication function of poetry
The earliest extant poems were written by Qin Jia and Xu Shu during the reign of Emperor Huan in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Qin Jia's five-character poems for his wife. "Yutai New Poetry" contains a small preface to "Poetry for Women", saying, "Qin Jia is a scholar and also a native of Longxi. For the county, his wife, Xu Shu, returned home from illness and presented a poem. " This preface explains Qin Jia's native place, official position and the background of writing these three poems. There is a cloud in "Poetry for Women": "Life is like morning dew, and there are many times in the world. Sorrow often comes early, and joy often comes late. When you think about serving time, you will stay away. Send a car to pick up the child and return in vain. It's sad to save books, but you can't eat them. Sitting alone in an empty room, who will encourage you? I can't sleep at night, tossing and turning alone. Trouble comes like reincarnation, and you can't roll it. " His wife, Xu Shu, wrote a poem "Answering Qin Jia's Poems", which said: "I am physically ill and my baby is ill. It takes a long time to go home. Dereliction of duty and serving the hajj is a violation of respect and respect. You received an order today, and you are very suitable for going to the capital. You left for no reason. Enthusiastic expectation, standing and wandering. Miss you, the dream is radiant. You are a good man, but you are a good man. Hate wingless, fly high and chase each other. I will always sigh, and tears will touch my clothes. " Amin poet Hu Yinglin praised Qin Jia and his wife for their twists and turns. The truth is true, the future is like this. "This is an evaluation from the perspective of the true and touching feelings he expressed. In addition, in the history of China's poetry, these poems by Qin Jia and Xu Shu also have special significance. They marked the development and change of China's poetry creation. Poetry began to describe personal private life and experience, and poetry creation began to have a specific reader. However, specific readers make poetry lyrical with a clear object, write more specific things and express more concentrated feelings.
There are some poems in Selected Works, and the number of poems collected is the largest among all kinds of poems. * * * contains 72 poems by 24 people. The remarkable feature of these poems is that they are marked with "give" or "answer" in the title, and the poet clearly indicates in the title that these poems are written for a single individual.
The Preface to Mao's Poems says that poetry is "how to use the people of the country and how to use the country", The Book of Rites and "the master was ordered to observe the folk customs", and it is said that "there were officials who collected poems in ancient times, respected the folk customs, knew the gains and losses, and taught themselves to be correct", all of which emphasized the public characteristics of poetry creation. However, the poems for answering questions are different. For example, RoyceWong, who pioneered the wind of "giving and answering", said at the end of his poem "Give a gift to Cai": "Why give a gift? Give a poem. Mourning in the middle hole, tears streaming down her face. Dear sir, how can you not think? " RoyceWong and Cai took refuge in Jingzhou together. When they were leaving, he wrote this poem and gave it to a friend to express his farewell. The emotion expressed in this poem is personal, but it does not hinder its description of political life. For example, there are poems lamenting the hardships of the world, such as "The road is long and Xiu Yuan is full of obstacles".
With the rise of the poem, the poem has a definite audience before its creation, and generally there will be feedback when it is given. Therefore, the poet is not talking to himself, nor is he just talking, but is eager to communicate. It can be said that giving answers highlights the communication function of poetry.
In addition, because of its specific audience, question-and-answer poems are convenient for poets to express their demands or attitudes that are inconvenient to express on other occasions. For example, Sima Biao's "To Dan Tao" and Guo Taiji's "Answer to Fu Xian" all express personal requests for the other party to recommend their own poems. And Zhang Hua said in "Answer What" that "self-sacrifice and knowing and doing, ambition is not in fame. It is also a personal feeling to say that a person's ambition and talent are not in "fame" but in "literature".
Activate the narrative ability of poetry
"Preface to Mao's Poems" says that "the poet has ambition. Have ambition in your heart and speak like a poem. Love is in the middle, and the shape is in words. " Since poetry is written for a specific reader, it is also necessary to specify why it is lyrical. Therefore, the poem that gives the answer activates the narrative function of the poem. As far as question-and-answer poems in the Middle Ages are concerned, their narratives mainly fall into the following categories.
First, describe farewell. The ancients had the tradition of "giving deeds with words" when they left. According to legend, Confucius bid farewell to Lao Tzu, and Lao Tzu "gave someone a word." Wang Shen's three poems, recorded in the Poems for Answering in Selected Works, were all written when he bid farewell to his friends, and his "To Wen Liang Shu" was directly called "Poems for Answering". Cao Zhi's White Horse Wang Biao is also a work presented by the author and the white horse king Cao Biao respectively.
Second, describe the poet's experience. There are also poems describing the poet's sightseeing, or describing the scenery he encountered in sightseeing. The poet wrote these things and scenes to each other in the form of poems, and also told each other his feelings at that time. For example, Xie Huilian's "Pleasure in the Wind in Xiling" and Xie Tiao's "Sending a new forest at night to the capital temporarily and giving it to colleagues in Xifu" are all representatives of this kind of poetry.
Third, the poet describes his own situation and thoughts. In this kind of poetry, the poet tells his own story and confides his feelings to someone. For example, Fu Xian called it "Fu Shenhuai" in the preface of Congratulatory Collection, indicating that he was eager to pursue the aspirations of two sages, He Shao and Wang Ji, but he was ashamed of himself and wanted to retire. In fact, he is euphemistically expressing his career dilemma.
Fourth, tell each other's stories and encourage appreciation. If the other party has shortcomings, he will give poems to encourage him, and if the other party has advantages, he will appreciate them. Whether it is encouragement or appreciation, the focus is on the other side. For example, Serina Liu's "Three Poems for Brothers" takes flat dates, pines and cypresses and phoenixes as metaphors to praise the character of brothers, which naturally means encouragement. Another example is that Cao Zhi wrote a poem "To Xu Gan", and Liu Liang noted: "Zi Jian and Xu Gan are useless and have resentment, so I wrote this poem." In fact, the poem praises Xu Gan for being poor but brilliant, and implicitly expresses that he should be recommended.
Fifth, express the yearning to be separated from friends and not meet each other. For example, Lu Ji wrote two poems "To Shang Shulang Gu Yanxian". In the poem, it says, "There is a small wall between the son and the son, which is deep. I was like peas and carrots, and my voice supported me. How can I comfort my heart when the sound is wide day and night? " Li explained that Lu Ji and Gu Yanxian "are on the same page, and they don't meet in the rain, so they gave this poem."
Six, describe something to achieve a practical purpose. For example, at the end of the Jin Dynasty, Lu Chen served as a bus driver in Duan Yu. Lu Chen felt that he had saved money and lost something, but he had to obey, so he wrote a poem "To Liu Kun" to show his mind. Liu Kun wrote a poem "Answer", which inspired Lu Chen to set a lofty ambition to help the Kim family with "the treasure of the world should match the treasure of the world", and described his grief and indignation with unfulfilled ambition. Later, Liu Kun was imprisoned because of Duan Yu's suspicion. He wrote a poem "Rewarding Lu Chen" to encourage Lu Chen to complete the great cause of saving the country and save himself from danger.
Seventh, the poet described his sincere feelings for his friends in his poems. For example, in Serina Liu's four poems "To a corps commander with five senses", it is said that "it is difficult to understand lovesickness and write new poems", which shows that sending poems to friends is because of admiration for friends.
Medieval gift poems express the poet's feelings through narration, thus activating the narrative function of poetry, and at the same time making the feelings expressed by poetry fall into practice. The combination of narration and lyricism also increases the artistic appeal of poetry.
Establish the standard of poetry creation
When emphasizing the publicity of poetry, the standard of poetry creation is that "lyricism stops at propriety and righteousness" as stated in Preface to Mao Shi, on the grounds that "lyricism stops at propriety and righteousness, and it is the grace of the king first". When poetry emphasizes privacy, what is its creative standard? A close reading of the medieval gift poems reveals that there are a lot of descriptions of "sincerity" in them, which can be regarded as the creative level of gift poems at that time to some extent.
Many poems in the Jin Dynasty wrote "sincerity". For example, Zhang Hua wrote in the second part of "Answering He Shaoshi": "It is sincere. Although the article is warm and beautiful, it is not against its feelings. " He linked the "fate" and "sincerity in writing" of the literati's gift poems, and proposed that the feelings written in the literati's gift poems should be based on "sincerity". Zhang Hua's view that poetry should be "sincere from the heart" was reflected in many poems at that time, such as Fu Xian's "People are kind to me, give me a poem", "Sincerity comes from the heart", Lu Yun's "There is fragrance and sincerity" for General Gu Chu, and Zheng Feng's "There is fragrance and sincerity". It can be seen that emphasizing "sincerity" has become an important trend in the creation of gift-giving poems at that time.
Wang Fu criticized "Fu Jia" in Han Dynasty as "a person who has been insincere for a long time" in "On Nothing". Different from this, in the process of development, the medieval poems of giving answers gradually formed the creative standard of "from the heart and expressing sincerity". This standard inherits Confucius' claim that rhetoric is sincere. "Etiquette and righteousness" is an external social norm, while "honesty" emphasizes self-requirement. When emphasizing the publicity of poetry, it is natural to pursue "lyricism stops at propriety", while when paying attention to the function of talking and communicating in the private sphere, it is necessary to create poetry according to the requirements of "heartfelt and sincere". This not only establishes two standards of "inside" and "outside" for poetry creation, but also provides a broader space for poetry development.
(Author: College of Literature, Guangxi Normal University)
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