Metric poetry is very strict about temperament. Rhythm includes rhyme and level tone, in which level tone is the most important. As chairman Mao said, "because metrical poems should be flat and flat, they should not be flat and flat, that is, irregular poems." ("A Letter to Comrade Chen Yi")
Metric poems are divided into quatrains and metrical poems, all of which are divided into five words and seven words, and metrical poems are also arranged. The view that quatrains are a branch of metrical poems should be said to be incorrect. The quatrains came into being before the metrical poems, and the metrical poems were not fully finalized when they came into being, so there are still ancient quatrains that are illegal, such as the bright line at the foot of my bed.
The definition of words and sentences in metrical poems needs a general understanding. It is worth mentioning that the two couplets in the middle of metrical poems must be opposite. In terms of rhyme, metrical poems are mainly flat rhyme, and the first sentence may or may not rhyme. Other single sentence endings pay attention to the level tone, which is definitely the antonym of the level tone. Then the most difficult thing should be the layering of words in a sentence.
Here, let's briefly talk about the creative rules of metrical poems. On the creation of metrical poems, Mr. Wang Yongyi composed a ballad for reference:
The meter is not difficult to remember, 246 is clear. The first sentence is flat or flat.
The upper and lower sentences should be right, and adjacent sentences should be glued together. Four words to prevent loneliness, the last three words.
Repeat seven verses, and the seven laws will become. The two ends are flat and even, and the single end is more squeaky.
It takes seven words to get rid of two words, and five words cost nothing. How do you know the type of beginning and end? The first sentence is final.
It is not difficult to remember the meter of modern poetry, and the level of each sentence must be consistent. The word 246 in the first sentence should be flat and occasional, or flat and occasional. The level of the word 246 in the previous sentence should be opposite to that of the word 246 in the next sentence. The adjacent sentence is the last sentence of the first couplet and the first sentence of the second couplet, and the level of the word 246 should be the same. The fourth word of the "seven words" must be prevented from being flat. When it is flat and its neighbors are chaotic, it is called flat. The last three words of each sentence should be prevented from being leveled or confused. Determine the pace of metrical quatrains, and repetition becomes metrical poems. At the end of two sentences, every word in the metrical poem is flat and rhymes, while at the end of a single sentence, most words are ambiguous. The meter of the seven-character poem removes the first two words. Note that the fourth word should be the second word at this time, becoming the meter of the five-character poem. Whether a metrical poem is flat or even, flat or even depends on the second word in the first sentence and the word at the end of the sentence.
Understand?
Flat tone is the most important metrical factor in modern poetry. When we say the meter of modern poetry, we mainly mean ping and even.
The function of leveling in poetry and verse is to form a rhythm. According to the characteristics of Chinese tones, the writer arranges a rhythm of alternating high and low, which is called "temperament". The article Wen Xin Diao Long O Diao talks about this problem. Chinese scholars have long consciously used the interaction of tones, mainly the interaction of flat tones, to seek the beauty of temperament. However, as a rule, the interaction between levels began in modern poetry.
According to legend, Shen Yue invented the Four Tones in the Southern Dynasties, and some people even said that Shen Yue also stipulated the division of flat tones in the Four Tones Spectrum. This statement is wrong. Tone is an objective existence in ancient Chinese, not created by anyone. As for Shen Yue and others who consciously use the interaction of tones to write poems, it is naturally possible. However, we also have to admit that the interaction of tones is the artistic experience accumulated by China poets in their long-term creation, and it is by no means invented by a few literati. As early as the Wei and Jin Dynasties, poets may have explored the interaction of tones as an artistic means, but Shen Yue and others only advocated this interaction more actively and consciously.
After the level and level interaction has become the metrical requirement of poetry, its influence is far-reaching. Not only modern poetry uses parallelism, but also some ancient poems use parallelism, which is the so-called French-style (see below). Poetry not only uses flat tones, but also uses even tones in harmony and melody. Knowing the level of modern poetry, the level of lyrics and songs can be easily solved.
It is not difficult to master leveling. Take Putonghua as an example, both the flat tone and the rising tone are flat tones, and the rising tone and falling tone are Legato tones. In ancient times, it was not a problem to change the tone of entering tone into rising tone and falling tone, because the three tones of rising tone, falling tone and entering tone were boring anyway. Only words that change from entering tone to flat tone and flat tone need to be recorded, and such words are limited. People in dialects such as Wu, Min, Yue, Xiang and Gan. It's easier to distinguish flat tones, because their dialects also contain entering tones. Putonghua areas, such as Hebei Province, Shanxi Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, etc. There are also many places where raw milk is still preserved. Therefore, after a certain study, it is not difficult for people in various places to distinguish levels and levels.
Four tones and even tones
Four tones, here refers to the four tones of ancient Chinese. To know the four tones, the heart must first know how the four tones are formed. So let's start with the tone.
Tone is the characteristic of Chinese (and some other languages). The tone of Chinese is composed of the ups and downs and the length of the voice, and the ups and downs are the main factors. Take Putonghua as an example, * * * has four tones: the flat tone is Gao Pingtiao (it is called flat if it doesn't rise or fall); The upper voice is a rising tone (not high or low); The rising tone is a low rising tone (sometimes a low flat tone); Voiced is a high tone.
Ancient Chinese has four tones, but it is not exactly the same as Mandarin today. The ancient four tones are:
(1) flat voice. This tone is divided into Yin Ping and Yang Ping in later generations.
(2) on the sound. Part of this tone will become unvoiced in future generations.
(3) sounding. This tone is still unvoiced in later generations.
(4) if you are born. This sound is short. Modern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and other places still preserve the milk sheng. There are also many places in the north (such as Shanxi and Inner Mongolia) where raw milk is preserved.
The tone of entering tone in Hunan is not short, but it also retains the tone category of entering tone. In most spoken languages in the north and southwest, the entering tone has disappeared. In the north, some entering tones are flat, some are flat, some are rising and some are falling. As far as Putonghua is concerned, the entering tone words become the most disyllabic, followed by the upper tone, and the upper tone words become the least. In the southwest dialect (from Hunan to Yunnan), the entering tone is changed to Yangping.
What is the shape of the ancient four-tone ups and downs? Now we can't know in detail. Traditionally, the flat tone should be the middle tone, the rising tone should be the rising tone, and the falling tone should be the falling tone.
The entering tone should be short. There is a Song formula in front of Kangxi dictionary, which is called "Four Tones Division". It says "smooth voice, smooth road, Modion",
The voice above shouted fiercely and strongly:
It's a long way to go, Xiu Yuan,
The tone is short and urgent.
This narrative is not scientific enough, but it also gives us a general understanding of the ancient four tones.
The relationship between four tones and rhyme is very close. In rhyme books, words with different tones cannot be regarded as homophones. In poetry, words with different tones generally cannot rhyme.
It is very clear in the rhyme book that what words belong to what tune. It is quite clear that a word belongs to a certain tone in Chinese dialects that still retain the tone of entering tone today. Pay special attention to reading one word and two words. Sometimes, a word has two meanings (often different parts of speech) and two pronunciations. For example, the word "for" is used as "because" and "for". In ancient Chinese, this situation is much more than that in modern Chinese. Now give a few examples:
Ride, flat voice, verb, ride; Disyllabic, noun, cavalry.
Thinking, flat voice, verb, absence; Out of tune, nouns, thoughts and feelings.
Fame, flat voice, verbs, praise; Disyllabic, noun, reputation.
Dirty, flat voices, adjectives, filth; Voiced, verb, dirty.
Number, consonant, verb, calculation; Disyllabic words, nouns, numbers, fate; Such as sound (read like new moon), adjective, frequent.
Teaching, desensitization, noun, enlightenment, education; Life, verb, make, let.
Command, silence, noun, command; Life, verb, make, let.
Forbidden, silent, noun, forbidden, forbidden; Life, verb, can stand.
Kill, Rusheng, transitive verb, kill; De-sounding (sounds like Sun), intransitive verbs, fade.
Some words, originally pronounced in a flat voice, were later changed to disyllabic, but their meanings and parts of speech have not changed. Words such as "Wang", "Han" and "Kan" all belong to this category. "Wang" and "sigh" have been pronounced in Tang poetry, and the word "Wang" always has pronunciation. There are more complicated situations: for example, when the word "Guo" is used as a verb, it is sometimes read twice. As for the use of nouns, when they are interpreted as wrong, they have to be read again.
Distinguishing four tones is the basis of distinguishing flat tones. Next we will discuss the problem of leveling.
Flat tone
Knowing what four tones are, it is easy to understand the flat tone. Flat tone is a term of poetic meter: poets divide four tones into two categories, flat tone is flat tone, and flat tone is three tones. Well, literally, it means uneven. What makes it possible to divide it into two categories? Because the flat sound does not rise or fall, it is long, while the other three sounds do rise or fall (the incoming sound may also slightly rise or fall), and it is short, so it forms two types. If these two tones are interlaced in poetry, they will make the tones diversified instead of monotonous. The so-called "sonorous voice" of the ancients is one of the important factors, although there are many stresses.
How are the flat lines in poetry staggered? We can sum it up in two sentences:
(1) even lines appear alternately in this sentence;
⑵ Flat lines and even lines are opposites in the dialogue. This kind of flat and even rule is particularly obvious in metrical poems.
For example, the fifth and sixth sentences of Chairman Mao's poem "The Long March" say: Jinsha River is warm in the clouds and cliffs, while Dadu Bridge is cold on the crossbar.
These two poems are flat: flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat. As far as this sentence is concerned, every word has a rhythm. Pingping's sentence is followed by Xu Wei, followed by Pingping, and the last one is Xu Wei. When you start a sentence, it is flat, followed by flat, and finally flat. This is alternation. As far as sentences are concerned, "Jinsha" is flat to "Dadu", "Shuipai" is flat to "Qiaodu" and "Yunya" is flat to "Tiesuo". This is opposition.
Regarding the rules of poetry, we will discuss them in detail from the following aspects: the rules of poetry, the rules of poetry. Now, let's talk about how to distinguish the level. If your dialect has an accent (for example, you are from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Hunan and South China), then the problem will be solved easily. In those dialects with entering tones, there are more than four tones, not only yin and yang, but also yin and yang. Like Guangzhou Rusheng, it can be divided into three categories. It's all easy to do: just combine them, for example, combine the level tone and the level tone into a flat tone, and combine the above-yin, above-yang, out-yin, out-yang, in-yin and in-yang into a flat tone. The problem is that you have to find out how many tones there are in your dialect first. It is necessary to find a friend who understands the tone to help. It would be better if you had learned the corresponding rules of dialect tone and Mandarin tone in Chinese class, and made clear the tone of your own dialect.
If you are from Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and northern Guangxi, all the Rusheng words in your dialect belong to Yangping. In this way, we should pay special attention to Yangping characters, some of which belonged to Rusheng characters in ancient times. As for which words belong to entering tone and which words belong to entering tone, you have to look them up in a dictionary or rhyme book.
If you are from the north, then the method of distinguishing flat tones is slightly different from that in Hubei and other places. Because most of the ancient entering tone words in Putonghua have become disyllabic, so disyllabic is also a disyllabic; The other part of the voice changed, and the voice was low. Therefore, the words from entry to change and from entry to change do not prevent us from distinguishing levels; Only when the entrance is leveled (Yin Ping and Yang Ping), it is difficult to distinguish leveled. We came across a place where rhyme was stipulated in the Law of Poetry, and the poet used a word that sounded very flat today, which aroused our suspicion. We can look it up in a dictionary or rhyme book.
Note that any word ending in -n or -ng will not be an entering tone word. As far as Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and northwestern Guangxi are concerned, there are basically no syllables such as ai, ei, ao and ou.
In a word, the problem of entering tone is the only obstacle to distinguish flat tones. This obstacle can only be eliminated by looking up a dictionary or rhyme book; However, the truth of leveling is easy to understand. Moreover, about half of China is reserved for entering tone, so people in those places have no problem in distinguishing flat tones.