Speaker: Ai (a famous poet, who won the "Big Dipper Award" in Beijing. )
Love in traditional poetry aesthetics
A. what is "beauty is not self-beauty, but shining for people"
When I was reading China's Tang poems, I saw a sentence by Liu Zongyuan, which was put forward in one of his articles "Liu Zhongcheng retired". He said: "the beauty of a husband is not self-beauty, but the light from the person." Lanting also, if he doesn't suffer from the right army, he will pack up bamboo branches and be destroyed in the empty mountain. "
"Right Army" is Wang Xizhi, and "Lanting" is Preface to Lanting. What Liu Zongyuan means by this sentence is that the beauty of the scenery in Preface to the Lanting Pavilion will not be revealed by itself. If it weren't for what happened to Wang Xizhi, then these Qingxi bamboo-pruning activities are just ridiculous and will eventually be lost in the empty mountains. In other words, the natural scenery we usually see has nothing to do with beauty. If we want to be beautiful, we must discover it through an aesthetic activity, wake it up with someone's consciousness, light it up, and turn it from a real thing into an image and a perceptual world-a world that blends the poet's personality, thoughts and emotions. This image world can also be said to be the realm of poetry.
B. Interpretation of "Image Beauty" in Because of the Wind
In order to explain this theory more clearly, I will use my own poems to illustrate it. Please see Because of the Wind.
"I walked along the river bank yesterday.
Stroll to
A place where reeds bend over to drink water.
Please give me a chimney.
Write a long letter for me in the sky
A little hasty
My heart
It is as bright as the candlelight in front of your window.
A little ambiguous
Inevitable.
Because of the wind.
It doesn't matter whether you can read this letter or not.
The important thing is.
You must make sure that before all the daisies wither.
Get angry quickly, or laugh
Find my thin shirt from the box quickly.
Hurry up and comb your black and soft charm in the mirror.
And then with a lifetime of love
Light a lamp
I am the flame.
It may go out at any time.
Because of the wind. "
Everyone will know at a glance that this is a love poem, which I wrote to my wife at 198 1 This poem has two interpretations. The first one mainly reads it as a love poem, expressing the ambiguous feelings between men and women who want to say goodbye.
Now let's look at the first section, "By the way, please ask the chimney to write me a long letter in the sky". What is the content of the letter? I didn't make it clear, but said, "My heart is as bright as the candlelight in front of your window." What's the intention? Maybe only you know, but when the wind blows like this, that heart becomes more ambiguous. Therefore, I think love poems should be written implicitly, vaguely and seemingly meaningless, just like Li Shangyin's poem "And a moment that should last forever has come and gone unconsciously".
The second explanation is slightly different. We must read this feeling as a poem about feeling and experiencing life, which is not limited to the emotional communication between two people. After reading this poem, it may make you a little depressed, make you think deeply and think-provoking. For example, the second section seems to be discussing the philosophy of life, saying that time is ruthless and people's life is short, so we should cherish it. "Daisy" symbolizes the autumn of life. You should laugh before it's too late and lose your temper before it's too late. Our years and lives are like sand in our hands. We almost missed them before counting them clearly. Before life dies, let's savor the beautiful youth we once had, which is the meaning of these two poems: "Find my thin shirt from the box quickly and comb your black and soft charm in the mirror quickly".
Therefore, we should cherish the present and enjoy the beautiful present. The fire of life and love may go out at any time because of the wind! Don't underestimate the word "wind", which is very general. "Wind" can be interpreted as an accidental opportunity or a symbol of strength. Wind is the flow of true qi between heaven and earth, which makes nature full of vitality. Sometimes it is a wing, carrying our dreams to fly, and sometimes it is a flag, guiding us to March forward bravely. But "wind" is as unpredictable and difficult to control as our life. Because of the wind, spring wakes up, because of the wind, everything grows into love, because of the wind, heaven and earth are affectionate and long-lasting
I have mentioned the most basic concept of poetry: poetry is the presentation of an imaginary world, a poem, which is not to explain and describe the real world we live in. The world created a complete and meaningful spiritual world through the poet's imagination, which is an image world. The poem "Because of the Wind" is first presented to readers in the form of image language, such as "Reed bends down to drink water" and "Please write me a long letter from the chimney in the sky".
Reed and smoking chimney are common scenes in our daily life, and they are not beautiful in themselves. However, through the imagination of a poet, that is, an aesthetic activity, the herb reed can have life and personality, and it can "bend down to drink water"; After the poet's discovery, awakening and lighting, the dead thing of chimney came to life, and the smoke it emitted curled away with the wind, just like writing a long letter in the sky, so these two images came to life and had a sense of beauty. In a word, it doesn't matter whether reeds or chimneys are beautiful or not, but their beauty only appears after I turn them into images. This is what Liu Zongyuan said: "Beauty is not self-beauty, but showing itself to others".
Love of "Unreasonable Wonder" in Traditional Aesthetics
A. the "irrational" exploration of China's modern poetry
Another concept of traditional aesthetics is called "unreasonable and wonderful". In the 1980s, there was a saying among avant-garde poets in Chinese mainland: "Poetry stops at language." This is a theory of language experiment. The French poet Malamei once said: "Poetry is not written with thoughts, but with words." I only accept the first half of this sentence, but I don't completely agree with the second half. In my opinion, poetry is still a kind of meaningful beauty, but this kind of meaning is not equal to thought, but a kind of implication and realm, which is a kind of substantive connotation closely related to life, and may be close to Mencius' saying that "enrichment is beauty." In a word, I think poetry is not only language, but also the wonderful and far-reaching significance behind language.
The difference between poetry and prose is that the language form of prose is usually a carrier, expressing a kind of thought and emotion. This carrier can be divorced from its connotation, but poetry is different. The language and connotation of poetry are an inseparable whole. For example, prose is like walking, and poetry is like dancing. After the goal of walking is achieved, walking is not important, while dancing is just the opposite. It is a beautiful melody formed by a beautiful movement. Dancers and dancing are inseparable. When the dancers stopped, the dance disappeared. Poetry is like this.
Based on the above point of view, I have an idea for decades, that is, based on China's traditional aesthetics and referring to western modernism, especially surrealism, to construct a modern China poem that conforms to our China characteristics. This is a new form of poetry that I have been experimenting, demonstrating and creating for decades-China's modern poetry. The first thing I want to do is to look for reference coefficients from China's classical poems and explore surreal elements from ancient poems. As a result, I found a factor similar to western surrealism in the works of ancient poets such as Li Bai, Li Shangyin, Meng Haoran and even Du Fu, that is "irrationality".
B. Surrealism in China's ancient poems
In the poems of the ancients, I also found something remarkable and mysterious, which bypassed logical thinking and directly touched the essence of life and art. Later, some people called it "unreasonable and wonderful". "Unreasonable" means unreasonable, which is the internal factor that China's classical poetry coincides with western surrealism. But if it's just "unreasonable", I think it's very difficult for artistic poetry to acquire an organic and complete nature. The genius of China's poetry lies in the word "Miao", in other words, poetry is by no means "unreasonable", it must finally achieve a wonderful artistic realm and effect. We have to admit that Li Bai's poems have reached a wonderful state. For example, his poem Xiajiangling is wonderful. "Farewell to the white emperor, a thousand miles away in Jiangling in one day. The apes on both sides of the strait can't stop crying, and the canoe has passed Chung Shan Man. " Everyone thinks this poem is wonderful and good, and we think the beauty of this poem lies in its irrationality.
Let's get to know the background of this poem first. Li Bai was exiled to Yelang by the emperor because he was involved in a political case. When I passed through Sichuan and went to Baidi City, I suddenly received an imperial decree to pardon him. He felt indescribable surprise and went home by boat from Jiangling. This poem shows his joy and carefree mood when he went home. Usually when people are excited and happy, inspiration will follow. This poem can really be said to be a stroke of genius. Let's briefly analyze this poem and see what is "unreasonable wonderful".
The first sentence, I bid farewell to the morning Betty City. Bai Di City is located on a high mountain surrounded by colorful clouds. This is a very real scene, but the technology used is a bit exaggerated. The second sentence is terrible. "A Thousand Miles in Jiangling, Return in a Day" uses surreal imagination and shows an "unreasonable" interest. The third sentence "The apes on both sides of the strait can't stop crying" is an exaggerated description of reality, and the fourth sentence "The canoe has crossed Chung Shan Man" is also surreal and imaginative, showing an "unreasonable" interest.
When I was a child, I thought this poem was novel and interesting. Li Bai described the urgency of the Three Gorges and the speed of the ship, just like a fast-focused plane, which almost made people seasick. I clearly know that the scene in the poem goes against the common sense of things. "A thousand miles in Jiangling will be returned in one day" and "The canoe has crossed Chung Shan Man" all show a departure from practical experience, but I just like this irrational, illogical and interesting image, which makes the impossible in reality possible in the poem.
I also wrote this kind of unreasonable and surreal poem in my early years, such as "When the pine tree struggles to hold up the sky, you can hear the sound of annual rings spinning". It's mysterious that a pine tree can hold the sky. The tree rings can still rotate, and the sound of rotation can be heard, which is even more incredible. In fact, this is a metaphor, suggesting that life is growing.
classroom
Shaoxing
(This issue of Xinzhi Lecture Hall is co-organized by "Fengzejiang Lecture Hall")
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(The above content comes from Luo Fu's keynote speech at Tiecheng Science and Education Center of Shaoxing University on June 5438+065438+1October 3, 2009, which only represents the experts' personal views and is abridged. )