Talking about study and work:
It is easy to learn but hard to work, but it is hard to learn and easy to work
The three genres of literature, poetry and lyrics have their own differences in the vast history of literature. There are wonderful masterpieces, and it is impossible to distinguish between them. So, can a comparison be made in terms of difficulty? Regarding this question, Wang Guowei gave the answer in "Human Words":
Prose is easy to learn but difficult to work, parallel prose is difficult to learn but easy to work; modern poetry is easy to learn but difficult to work, ancient poetry is difficult to learn but easy to work; Small tunes are easy to learn but difficult to work; long tunes are difficult to learn but easy to work.
Prose is easy to learn but difficult to be refined; parallel prose is difficult to learn but easy to be refined; modern poetry is easy to learn but difficult to be refined; ancient poetry is difficult to learn but easy to be refined; small poems are easy to learn but difficult to be refined; long tunes are difficult to learn but easy to be refined . The reason why Wang Guowei gave such a view was also based on the standard of "realm".
Prose has fewer formal requirements, so it is easy to get started, but what is important is to write with spirit in seemingly random ways. This kind of propriety is actually very difficult to grasp. , so Wang Guowei said that prose is easy to learn but difficult to write; parallel prose has many standards that need to be paid attention to in terms of sentence structure, antithesis, allusion, etc., so most beginners cannot grasp it well. However, these are just formal things. As long as you write more and practice more, , you are naturally familiar with it, so Wang Guowei believes that parallel prose is difficult to learn but easy to master. Modern poetry has very strict requirements on meter and antithesis, so it is difficult to get started, but after understanding it, it is not difficult to make it neat. The formal restrictions of ancient poetry There are very few, so it is easy to learn at first, but it is not easy to write well. As for the difference between small tunes and long tunes, in the final analysis, the main thing that matters is the difference in composition and layout. Wang Guowei repeatedly expressed his overall evaluation of emphasizing the Northern Song Dynasty and underestimating the Southern Song Dynasty in "Human Words". The Northern Song Dynasty poems are mainly in Xiaoling, while the Southern Song Dynasty poems are mostly in long tones. Therefore, the stylistic significance and aesthetic value of Northern Song Dynasty poems also depend on this. highlighted in a simple comparison.
The difference between parallel prose and prose
Parallel prose originated in the Han and Wei dynasties and was formed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Its formal characteristics mainly include two points - pairs and allusions.
The so-called "right" means that the tone and rhythm should be relative to each other; the word choice and use of words should be relative to the meaning. The words must be right and the deeds must be right. It is easy to say the right thing, but it is difficult to do the right thing; it is better to oppose, and it is worse to be right. Directly opposite, it is like Wu Jun's "The spring water stirs up the rocks, making a cool sound; the good birds sing to each other, and their chirps become rhymes. The cicadas turn thousands of times, and the apes chirp endlessly. Those who fly violently to the sky, look at the peaks to rest their hearts. , Those who are economical in world affairs will forget to return when they glimpse the valley." Opposition, such as Yu Xin's "When the general leaves, the big trees fall. The strong men do not return, and the cold wind blows. The Jingbi pillars are deceived by the connected city; the books are written across the steps, and the beads are held on the tray. Zhongyi gentleman, enter He was imprisoned in Nanguan; Ji Sunxingren stayed behind to guard the Xihe Pavilion."
The so-called "classic" means that the creation should be based on the words and topics of ancient texts, so as to achieve the effect of euphemistically conveying the meaning and not leaving the meaning behind. For example, the Six Dynasties advocated the "Three Mysteries" - "Zhouyi", "Laozi" and "Zhuangzi". This is reflected in Yu Xin's "Ai Jiangnan Fu": "Fu Xiezhi was sad about his life and had nowhere to survive; Yuan Anzhi always thought about the royal family , naturally shed tears. ...Pan Yue's literary talent first described the family tradition; Lu Ji's poetry preceded Chen Shide..."Yan Ge" is far away, and the sadness is overwhelming; when the Chu elders meet, how can they be afraid of Nanshan! The rain suddenly fell on the Qin court; on the shore of the East China Sea, I wandered around in the pavilion and traveled on high bridges. Parallel prose may seem too vague when used for narrative purposes, but as an emotional and visual narrative, it has great artistic charm.
Since the Six Dynasties, in order to distinguish between rhyme and parallel prose, all prose articles that do not rhyme or rearrange their couples, including classics, biographies and history books, are generally called "prose".
Prose emphasizes the dispersion of form and the gathering of spirit. "Xingsan" refers to both a wide range of themes and diverse writing methods, as well as freedom of structure. "Shen Gathering" requires both central concentration and clues throughout the text. Whether writing about people or things, prose serves emotions, and emotional experience is the "never-ending spirit".
The differences between ancient style poetry and modern style poetry
Ancient style poetry is also called ancient style. It has three carriers: "song", "line" and "yin". According to the number of words in the poem, it can be divided into four types. Words, five words, seven words, etc. Most of the ancient poems collected in the Book of Songs are four-character poems. In the Han, Wei, and Jin Dynasties, some people still wrote four-character poems, among which Cao Cao's "Guan Cang Sea" and Tao Yuanming's "Standing Clouds" are the most famous. There are many five-character and seven-character ancient poems, which are referred to as Wugu and Qigu. People in the Tang Dynasty also called Qigu a long sentence. Poems of varying lengths are miscellaneous poems. There are many miscellaneous poems in the Book of Songs and Han Dynasty Yuefu. At the peak of the development of this kind of poetry in the Tang Dynasty, many classic works emerged in miscellaneous poems, such as Li Bai's "The Wine Will Come in", Du Fu's "Song of Thatched Cottage Broken by the Autumn Wind", etc.
Modern poetry, also known as modern poetry or metrical poetry, has strict restrictions on the number of sentences, words, rhythm, and rhyme. It is divided into rhymed poetry and quatrains, each with five or seven characters.
Ancient poetry and modern poetry differ in the number of words, sentences, meter, and rhyme, but they both attach the same importance to "imagery."
Imagery is an extremely important concept in poetics. Poems generally do not use abstract language to express abstract emotions throughout the poem, so they must use imagery. The so-called image refers to the objective image that integrates the poet's subjective emotions.
The poet's inner subjective world and the objective world he faces rely on imagery to communicate. Therefore, both ancient and modern poetry attach great importance to the role of imagery.
The Difficulties of Xiaoling and Long Tune in Slow Ci
"Huajian Collection" contains all the tunes and lyrics written by poets, most of which are Xiaoling. On the one hand, because the format of Xiaoling is closer to that of poetry, it is easier for poets to write Xiaoling; on the other hand, slow lyrics and long tunes were popular in the market at that time, and poets usually pretended to be elegant, and they did not bother to write such Folk songs in alleys.
Although the slow ci long tune is not elegant enough, it is not easy to learn. Since it has to match the music score, the requirements for rhythm are stricter, and the words cannot be as casual as poetry. The long tone of slow poetry needs to be laid out. Since the narrative must be laid out, naturally it cannot only focus on the inspiration of one key point. Beginners have many difficulties in this aspect.
Wang Guowei believes that Xiaoling is easier to learn than long tune, but more difficult to work than long tune. Because it is difficult to work, it has more stylistic significance and aesthetic value.
This poem by Wang Guowei comes from Yuan Mei's "Suiyuan Poetry Talk", "Mr. Wu Guanshan said: 'Prose prose is like Go, easy to learn but difficult to work. Parallel prose is like chess, difficult to learn but easy Gong. "I said that ancient poetry is like chess, and modern poetry is like Go." Based on this, Wang Guowei further included the small orders and long tones of the words.
Yuan Mei explained his point of view this way: "To write an ancient style poem, you can have a good composition in no more than two days; to write a modern style poem, you may not be able to complete one in ten days. Why? Because the ancient style has a generous status, you can make it The scroll of talent; but the beauty of the close body must not be expressed in a single word, and if the sound of nature does not come, the human power will not be the same. Shushan said: "It is true, but if human efforts are not enough, then the sound of nature will not come. Even if it is the sound of nature, it must be obtained through human efforts."
However, we It should be noted that any literary genre has its brilliant works, and it is not appropriate to simply classify them as difficult or difficult according to type.