On "Three Beauty" Poetry
Poetic meter is the most important one in Mr. Wen Yiduo's series of poetic theories. In this paper, he systematically put forward that "the power of poetry includes not only the beauty of music (syllables), the beauty of painting (words), but also the beauty of architecture (symmetry of knots and uniformity of sentences)." This proposition about the "three beauties" of new poetry has become the theoretical program of the new metrical poetry school.
Mr. Wen Yiduo thinks that the musical beauty of poetry is the most important. He advocated meter, claiming that "poetry can completely use its rhythm to stimulate emotion;" Rhythm is a beat ... The more enterprising a writer is, the more he has to dance in chains in order to dance happily and well. Only those who can't dance can blame the fetters, and only those who can't write poetry can feel the fetters of rhythm. For those who can't write poetry, meter is an obstacle to performance; For a writer, meter has become a sharp weapon of expression ... because there are only prose with simple rhythm in the world, but there must be no poetry without rhythm. Poetry has never deviated from meter or rhythm. The ",that" meter can be said to belong to the visual aspect of meter from two aspects, with the symmetry of nodes and the unity of sentences. There are formats, scales, levels and rhymes that belong to hearing. " He also believes that "neat words are the inevitable phenomenon of syllable harmony, while absolutely harmonious syllables must be neat", and puts forward his own views on the problem that the number of words is neat but the syllables are not necessarily harmonious: "That's because only the number of words is neat, without considering the tone ruler". In other words, the combination of musical factors such as scales and rhymes constitutes the rhythm and rhythm of poetry, and the harmony of syllables and rhymes constitutes the musical beauty of poetry and becomes the basic driving force of poetry. The theory of "sound level" is Wen Yiduo's most proud discovery, so that at the end of the paper, he thinks that "new poetry is about to enter a new construction period"
The theory of painting beauty of new poetry is the inheritance of China traditional culture, which mainly refers to the words used in poetry, that is, the language of poetry requires beauty and color, and pays attention to the visual image and intuition of poetry. The homology of poetry and painting is a major feature of China culture. Among the sages, poems and paintings often complement each other and set each other off. Su Dongpo commented after reading Wang Wei's poems and paintings: "There are paintings in the poems, which are fascinating; Look at the picture, there are poems in the picture. " Banqiao's exquisite bamboo sticks stand out from the crowd in poetry and painting. In Mr. Wang's poems, there are often red, yellow, blue, purple, gold, black and white words and colorful objects. In addition, he also pays attention to the contrast of colors, so that poetry and painting are interlinked.
The theory of architectural beauty of new poetry was put forward by Mr. Wang according to the characteristics of Chinese. "Our writing is pictographic. When we appreciate literature and art in China, at least half of our impressions are conveyed through our eyes. It turns out that literature is an art that takes up both time and space. Since it takes up space, it can't make a concrete impression visually-this is a pity of European characters. Our writing has the possibility of creating this impression. If we don't use it, it will be a pity ... If someone asks what the characteristics of new poetry are, we should answer him: adding the possibility of architectural beauty is one of the characteristics of new poetry. " Compared with the architectural beauty of regular poetry, it is concluded that "(regular poetry) can be much worse". Because "there is always only one format of metrical poems, and the format of new poems is endless ... The metrical form of metrical poems has nothing to do with the content, but the format of new poems is formulated according to the spirit of the content ... The format of metrical poems is determined by others, and the format of new poems can be constructed by our own artists at any time". Mainly refers to the overall appearance of poetry, the bars should be symmetrical and the lines should be uniform. Although there is no need to rigidly limit the number of words in each line to be equal, in order to have a sense of uniformity, the differences between lines should not be too big.
The creative practice of "three beauties"
Mr. Wen Yiduo's poems have a unique artistic style. Due to the pursuit of artistic rigor, most of his poems have the characteristics of romantic fantasy, rigorous and strange conception, volcanic passion, three-ring rhetoric, metaphor, exaggeration, symbol, repetition and other rhetorical devices. The poems such as Discovery, Word and Dead Water in the collection of poems Dead Water are either sad or heroic, expressing the poet's anxiety and concern about the fate of the motherland and strong patriotic enthusiasm.
Dead Water is Wen Yiduo's masterpiece. The poet compared the dark and corrupt reality of old China to "a pool of stagnant water", expressing his hatred of ugly forces and his love for the motherland. The last verse of the poem shows that, on the one hand, he has no illusions about darkness and firmly believes that ugliness cannot produce beauty; On the other hand, it doesn't look like a resurgence. "It is better to abandon ugliness and cultivate one's morality" is an angry word. Zhu Ziqing wrote in Wen Yiduo's complete works? The preface said: "It is simply to make ugliness full of evil early, and there is hope in despair." Hope in despair and patriotic enthusiasm in cold are the ideological characteristics of this poem.
"Dead Water" is also Mr. Wen Yiduo's "first most satisfactory syllable experiment", which is a typical example of Mr. Wen's experiment on his "three beauties" new metrical style. The whole poem consists of five sections, four lines in each section, and nine words in each line, which are composed of three "two-character" and one "three-character" respectively, forming 2232 or 2322 or 3222 tone lattices, and finally ending with two syllables. Although the arrangement order of the ruler is not exactly the same, the total number is exactly the same and keeps neat in the change. Uneven levels are also used in cadence. The poet is like "dancing in chains", but it is amazing that he dances so easily and harmoniously!
In addition, poetry draws lessons from the irony of modern western poetry and the artistic principle of "taking ugliness as beauty". In the middle three paragraphs of the poem, rich imagination is developed, and the ugly things in the stagnant water are fully painted with beautiful shapes (jade, peach blossom, rocky, Xia Yun, sake and foam), and the dirty, moldy, gloomy and silent stagnant water is satirized with bright colors and loud voices. Beauty and ugliness are intertwined and contrasted, and the artistic effect is refreshing.
Appendix: stagnant water (author/Wen Yiduo)
This is a ditch/despair/stagnant water.
Breeze/I can't afford it/I can't afford it/I can't afford it. (rhymes)
It's better to pay more/scrap copper/scrap iron,
Cool/spill your/leftovers/leftovers. (rhymes)
Maybe/copper/green/jade,
On the tin can/embroidered/a few petals/peach blossoms. (rhymes)
Jean/greasy/weave another layer/Luo Qi,
Shape/give him/steam out some/clouds. (rhymes)
Let stagnant water/fermentation/ditches/green wine,
Full of/pearls/images/foam; (rhymes)
Beads/laughter/becoming/big beads,
I was bitten by a wine thief/flower mosquito/again. (rhymes)
So/a ditch/despair/stagnant water,
Just/across/a little/unique. (rhymes)
If/frog/unbearable/lonely,
Still/stagnant/screaming/singing. (rhymes)
This is a ditch/despair/stagnant water.
Here/definitely not/beautiful/where, (rhymes)
Best/Give/Ugly/Recycle,
Look at him/create a/what/world. (rhymes)
The influence of "three beauties" on later researchers
If Mr. Wen Yiduo is the theoretical founder of the new metrical poetry school, then Mr. Xu Zhimo is the advocate and diligent practitioner of the new metrical poetry. In many of Mr. Xu Zhimo's poems, his requirements for beauty are revealed. In particular, his classic "Farewell to Cambridge" is the comprehensive artistry of his poetry's requirements for "three beauties". The language of this poem is fresh and has the outstanding characteristics of popularity and fluency, but it is also deeply tempered, with no traces of carving and full of musical beauty. The first paragraph and the last paragraph are repetitive, and the words "gently" and "quietly" are also overlapping, which strengthens the sense of rhythm. Every poem changes rhyme with the change of feelings, which is very consistent with the rhyme of Mr. Wen Yiduo's "Dead Water". In addition, one or three songs are in the front, and two or four songs are in the back, which are ethereal and organized, one or three songs are shorter, and two or four songs are longer, all of which show the beauty of architectural symmetry; Words such as "Golden Willow", "Soft Wave", "Magnificent", "Soft Mud" and "Green Grass" are both vivid and feminine, which all give people the enjoyment of painting beauty. As for the metaphors in the poems, they are all fresh, accurate and vivid, just like running water, without the Europeanization tendency of the new poems at that time. In a word, Farewell to Cambridge is a poem with cadence, repeated tones, symmetrical format and female images in the text, which has reached a perfect artistic realm. In addition, the creation of new metrical poems has also been insisted and pursued by other poets, and a small number of new metrical poems have appeared, which has a great influence. Especially since the new century, the platform for the creation, research and communication of metrical new poems, represented by "Oriental Poetry Style Forum" and "China Metric New Poetry Network", has been born. It clearly opposes being divorced from reality, from the public and from tradition, emphasizes being close to reality, fluent in language, paying attention to the beauty of music and giving consideration to the beauty of form, and a number of lovers such as Yun Qi, Liu Nian, Song Yushu and Yu Xiaoqu have emerged.
The study of new metrical poems has never stopped. From Mr. Wan Longsheng's Typical Poem Lines and Semi-teasing Rhyme, to Mr. He Qifang's advocacy of metrical, emphasizing the central position of "dun" in the new metrical poems after liberation, to Mr. Bian's distinction between intonation and rhythm, and to Mr. Wan Longsheng's proposal of "infinite operability" of the new metrical poems after the 1980s, Mr. Sun's Introduction to China's new metrical poems.
The development of the theory and creation of new metrical poetry reflects the critical absorption of western culture and the tenacious return to the national cultural tradition. I believe that with the rediscovery of national self-confidence and the spiral development of new poetry, the creation of new metrical poetry will flourish in the future, and the theory will be further developed, popularized and gradually fixed. A three-legged situation of traditional poetry, modern new poetry and metrical new poetry will eventually form.