Many years ago, Mr. Shi Zhecun of East China Normal University asked a question when recruiting graduate students: "What is Tang poetry?" This is a very meaningful question. Are Tang poems just romance? Is it just a literary heritage? Is it just language arts? Of course it is, but we always feel that it is not enough.
It turns out that Tang poetry is closely connected with the dream deep in the heart of Chinese culture.
Tang poetry is a beautiful word. There are many beautiful words in Chinese. For example, the Yangtze River, the Great Wall, Huangshan Mountain, Yellow River, etc. Tang poetry is also one of the most beautiful words in Chinese. When we mention Tang poetry, we feel a sense of sweetness in our teeth and cheeks. Are Tang poems just romance? Is it just a literary legacy? Is it just language arts? Of course it is, but we always feel that it is not enough. We only look at Tang poetry from the perspective of romance, which may indicate that our lives may be too utilitarian. We only look at Tang poetry from the perspective of language arts and literary heritage, and we may look at Tang poetry too professionally. Can Tang poetry also point to something further and greater?
I know that the Tang Dynasty had an inclusive cultural spirit: the Silk Road, with Chang'an as the center, stretching from Rome in the west to Tokyo in the east, with various religions and peaceful places; there was a world The cultural spirit of doctrine: a strong national power, a vast territory, a developed economy, a culture that boldly takes in and throws away doctrine, full of vitality and magnificent colors; a cultural spirit of inheritance and innovation: the cultural pattern of the Qin and Han empires, the officials of the Southern and Northern Dynasties , government soldiers, criminal laws, etc. are integrated into one. In textbooks, it seems that these are the only cultural spirits of Tang poetry. This is not to say that these are not important, but when it comes to the cultural spirit of Tang poetry, one can only "reminisce about the grandeur of the Han and Tang Dynasties." I think this seems to be a stereotype. Today we don’t start from these big places. Poetry is about the soul after all. Let’s start from the spiritual world of Tang poetry. This is not to say that these are not important, but spirituality is the deep cultural spirit of Tang poetry.
I often talk about poetry, and I often think of the place beside the West Lake in Hangzhou, next to the fish-watching village in Huagang, where there once lived Mr. Ma Yifu, an old gentleman from modern times and a fairy-like poet.
What is poetry? Mr. Ma has four words that he said well: Poetry is actually human life, "like waking up from a confusion, like waking up from a dream, like the rising of a servant, like the awakening of a sick person." Later, Professor Ye Jiaying said that this is the most wonderful definition of poetry. Poetry is the awakening of the human heart. It is the closest thing to our soul itself. It is the awakening from mediocrity, glitz and hardship to see our true self. Why do we always feel that it is not enough to read Tang poetry only from the perspective of romance, language and art, literary heritage, the atmosphere of the Han and Tang Dynasties, etc. That is because we are separated by a layer and have not woken up to meet our true self.
This seems a bit mysterious. Whether or not there is a real body is a matter worthy of further discussion. But let me use it as a metaphor here: there are many illusions and incarnations in life, and poetry is the more powerful self among them, and I love and cherish it more, and it is the beauty of intuition. I also remembered that two Zen masters in ancient times were discussing a problem one day. The first Zen master said a lot about what the heaven, earth and universe are. When it was the second Zen master's turn, he suddenly saw a lotus blooming in the pond, and said: "When people saw this flower, it looked like a dream." When I read Tang poetry, I seemed to understand something but not understand it, and I seemed to be asking questions and answering questions. It was exactly "seeing this flower, it is like a dream". Because reading poetry is to be in contact with fresh perceptual experiences, reading more poetry is to be in contact with and release more fresh perceptual experiences, just like looking at flowers. Also because I read the poem and understood it, I suddenly felt as if the ancients were the people in our dreams, and we were the past and present lives of the ancients.
I’ll just give you a small example. When I left home to work as a worker at the age of fifteen, I just missed home, and I couldn’t help it. One day I read a small Tang poem:
The sun sets and the mountains are far away, the weather is cold and the white house is poor.
Chaimen hears dogs barking, and people return home on a snowy night.
I suddenly felt that the person who was about to return home at night in the strong wind and snow was my own back, and I suddenly felt indescribable warmth and touch in my heart. Why is Tang poetry like this? I think it is because Tang poetry expresses the common humanity between us in ancient and modern times, and it expresses it with eternally fresh perceptual experiences. Therefore, on the one hand, Tang poetry is eternally human, and on the other hand, it is always emotional and fresh. And this human nature that connects ancient and modern times is precisely the dream deep in the heart of Chinese culture. I think the deepest and most beautiful aspect of our Chinese culture’s dream is the human spirit that connects ancient and modern times. Behind the eternal romance is the eternal human world.
Specifically, from what aspects can we talk about the human spirit of Chinese culture expressed in Tang poetry? I will write the conclusion below first, and then I will prove it one by one.
Use all your energy and talents with all your heart and soul
In life, you must use all your energy and talents and never give up
There is an important point in Tang poetry The voice means that people should treat themselves well in this world and live up to this life. Take the poet Li Bai as an example. In his life, he was a scholar, a knight, a god, a Taoist priest, a young man, a naughty boy, a tramp, a drunkard, and a poet. If someone says that others are using their energy and talents to the best of their ability, then Li Bai is Give it twenty or thirty points.
There is an old saying in "Shangshu": Man is the spirit of all things. This shows that human life is the most beautiful thing in heaven and earth. This is an important discovery of ancient Chinese culture.
There is a poem in the "Book of Songs": "I work hard and sleep hard at night, but I am not born in anger." This means that when you wake up in the morning and go to bed at night, you should think about whether your life is worth it. I think that without the ancient ancestors' discovery of the beauty of human life, there would not be such a cherishment of the beauty of life, like a person who loves cleanliness, who keeps the windows bright and clean every day and lives a happy life. Let us simply say that "man is the spirit of all things" has several meanings. 1. Man is a well-intentioned creation of the universe. 2. Life is inherently beautiful, noble, and cannot be devalued. 3. The meaning of human life is to treat the beauty of life well, give full play to one's intelligence and talents, and live up to this life. 4. No matter how difficult and difficult it is, never give up in life.
Why should we stop here when talking about Tang poetry? We say that there is a main voice in Tang poetry, which means that people should treat themselves well in this world and live up to this life. This is my intuition. Let's talk about simple common sense, taking the poet Li Bai as an example. Li Bai, I often think that the word Li Bai is a wonderful highlight in Chinese culture. It's a bit like the Statue of Liberty in American culture and the Marseillaise in French culture. If others say that they use up all their energy and talents, they are using their energy and talents to live their lives, while Li Bai used twenty or thirty points. According to our description, Li Bai was a scholar, a knight, a god, a Taoist priest, a prince, a urchin, a tramp, a drunkard, and a poet in his life. Japanese scholars also said that he was an official spy who devoted his talent and energy to an excessive amount. The expression of doing your best is what modern people call freedom. There are two kinds of freedom. The first is positive freedom, that is, fully realizing the beauty of one's life. The second is negative freedom, that is, not being bound by external forces. Positive freedom in Li Bai seems to have light and heat to burn, and a vitality that cannot control itself. Li Bai's negative freedom is manifested in his contempt for the powerful and his arrogance towards the princes. "The emperor couldn't get on the ship when he called me, so he claimed that he was a wine-drinking immortal." Among them, he is the most self-respecting and unrestricted example. Li Bai has almost become a beautiful ideal of self-love for true literati.
Du Fu is a thick character, firmly rooted in the ground. He finally died on the boat back to the Central Plains. He lay on the boat and wrote a poem, saying: "The blood of the battle still flows, and the sound of the army continues to this day." The two main peaks of the poetry of the Tang Dynasty in China are the spirit of heaven and the spirit of the earth. , Actively use the world, no matter whether they have established any achievements or not, their lives are full of life, light and heat. They devoted all their heart, energy, and talents to their era and society. They did not gain anything from their era, but their era was great because of their existence.
Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin, Du Mu, etc., the second-tier great poets of the Tang Dynasty, were all responsible and accomplished people. The highlight of Han Yu's life was admonishing the Buddha's bones. Su Dongpo said that he was the founder of the Eight Dynasties of Literature and the help of the world. In the great tide of monastic Buddhas in the world, he blocked hundreds of rivers and turned them eastward, turning the tide from collapse. The most prominent thing in Liu Zongyuan's life was his participation in the political reform of Wang Shuwen Group. After being demoted, he did not surrender and made far-reaching political achievements in the second half of his life. The most outstanding thing about Bai Juyi is that he led the New Yuefu Movement in the mid-Tang Dynasty. "Only singing can make people ill, and I hope the emperor will know about it." This allowed poetry and literature to play the role of social conscience and profoundly influenced later generations of Chinese literature. Li Shangyin and Du Mu were both knowledgeable and talented scholars, not just poets. It was the unrealization of their suppressed talents that made their beautiful poetry possible. In a sense, their poetry was proof that they were worthy of this life and worthy of it. So we can say that the first-class poets of the Tang Dynasty all wanted to bring out the beauty of their lives and do something to fully express their talents.
Some keywords related to Tang poetics, such as the atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the character of Xing Ji, the selection of scholars through poems and poems, the spirit of historical poetry, songs and poems composed for events, satirical poems, etc., all point to the vigorous and promising, We should be responsible to society, care for the world and live up to the spirit of the times.
These keywords can concisely and powerfully represent the basic spirit of Tang poetry. I read the comments made by people in the Tang Dynasty on the poetry of the Tang Dynasty, and they also praised the spirit of Qi Qi. For example, Ren Hua, a poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, wrote in "A Letter to Li Bai": "In ancient times, articles were able to express their spirit, towering style, clearing people's minds, and astonishing their souls. I heard that there is a Li Bai today." It can be seen that we are not unfounded. Bai Juyi said: "You must understand the will of God, and good poetry is needed in the world." He highly summarized the spirit of the times and showed that good poetry is where God's will lies and is the affirmation of God's will. This is a whole era of good poetry. Poets understand this truth best. They want to make the world a beautiful poem.
People will ask: You are talking about the spirit of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but what about the late Tang Dynasty? Aren’t they all suffering from some weakened Qi? If compared with the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the late Tang Dynasty was not exhausting enough. But don't forget that the poets of the late Tang Dynasty highlighted their life spirit of using their talents to the fullest. In the late Tang Dynasty, good poetry became a lifelong pursuit, similar to religious belief. Wang Jian said, "Only when good poems are named, teaching young people will be hurtful"; Bai Juyi said, "God's will must be understood, and good poems are needed in the world." Therefore, the life spirit from the exhausted life of the early Tang Dynasty to the fullest life spirit of the middle and late Tang Dynasty is actually still a manifestation of the cultural spirit of treating life well, exalting the beauty of human nature, living up to this life, and living up to this life. Without this bright foundation of human nature in Chinese culture, there would be no such expression of Tang poetry.
Therefore, I think there is a secret behind Tang poetry, and there is a deep spiritual temperament, which is the spirit of using one's best efforts and talents, and the collective consciousness of the times to live up to this life and live up to this life. If anyone dares to say that his life is worthy of this life and worthy of this life, in Chinese cultural terms, we can say that he has captured the true spirit of Tang poetry.
Tang poetry is about morning, not afternoon tea
If you climb a mountain in the morning, you will be full of love for the mountain, and if you look at the sea, your meaning will overflow into the sea. You will feel fresh and energetic. We want our nation to have the spirit of youth despite the wind and frost of thousands of years, and have the opportunity to dream amidst the grind of nine to five. Then, let our next generation read more Tang poetry!
Now let’s read those famous sentences that have been passed down for thousands of years. We see that poets often say "the moon is bright in the Qin Dynasty and the pass is in the Han Dynasty", they often say "people have not returned from the long march of thousands of miles", poets often say "why don't men bring Wu hooks? Take the fifty states of Guanshan", and often say "for words" When the earth ends and the sky ends, go further west when you reach Anxi!" We find that the world of Tang poetry is very big, full of power, and very heroic in spirit.
If people in the early Tang Dynasty were heartbroken and in pain, they would smile and feel better if they said, "Don't worry, you have no friends in the future. Who in the world doesn't know you?" If we have temporarily gone through the suffering and overcome the difficulties again, we will say: "The apes on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can't stop crying, and the boat has passed the Ten Thousand Mountains!" Then we will have hope for the future again. If a poet had been defeated or suffered a major setback, but later made a comeback and saw the fog, he would say: "Where is the peach-growing Taoist priest now? The former Liu Lang has come back again!" His heart is full of pride. When a poet is out of breath, he will write a poem like this: "Look up to the sky and laugh loudly and go out. How can we be the people of Penghao!" People in the Tang Dynasty couldn't bear to see some villains gaining power, and said, "You are as good as your reputation." "Destroying it will not destroy the eternal flow of rivers." This is the most powerful curse in Tang poetry. It is very powerful and uses historical time as a criterion, and its horizons are very broad.
Tang poetry can enhance people’s personality and revitalize their lives. When I read a lot of Tang poems, I really felt like "Suddenly the east wind came all night, thousands of pear blossoms bloomed on the trees," and I felt so elated. This is also one of the reasons why we like Tang poetry. Therefore, Professor Ye Jiaying continued what Mr. Ma Yifu said, poetry is an immortal soul that is endlessly reborn.
Tang poems often mention big rivers and mountains and plains. Because Tang poems are mainly poems from the period when northern China’s culture was at its peak, so if you want to write about mountains and rivers, Song poems are mostly about small bridges and flowing water. Tang poems are about small bridges and flowing water. Mostly mountains and rivers. The best works in Chinese literature are about mountains and rivers, and I dare say that none have surpassed Tang poetry so far. For example, "The green mountains on both sides of the strait come out facing each other, and the solitary sail is coming from the sun", and the heroic sentiments are majestic, such as "The green mountains are together with the clouds and rain, how could the bright moon be the two villages", such as "The white sun surrounds the mountains", "The solitary smoke is straight in the desert", "The water of the Yellow River" Come up from the sky, rush to the sea and never return", such as "The lone sail is far away and the shadow is gone in the blue sky, only the Yangtze River can be seen flowing in the sky", such as "The boundless falling trees are rustling, and the endless Yangtze River is rolling in", they are all very powerful and life-strong very. The Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the mountains, the great rivers, the sun and the moon, Tang poetry just wants to create something earth-shattering, and it wants to connect the life energy of the universe. "Chengque assists the Three Qin Dynasties, and Fengyan looks at Wujin." This Fengyan is extremely grand. "The road to Shu is more difficult than going up to the blue sky", "The sky is connected to the sky and horizontal to the sky", these "going to the blue sky" and "to the sky and horizontal" both connect human life and the life of the universe straight up and down. Zhang, a poet and prime minister in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, said a poem by Wang Wan, a great poet, in the Zhengshi Hall: "The sun is rising in the sea and the night is dying, and the spring in the river is entering the old year." This is exactly the aesthetic consciousness that represents the Tang people: the beauty of heaven and earth, the majesty of nature - dawn, spring, and New Year, come to the world together, making the world a beautiful existence. The characters "生" and "入" are passionate and unrestrained, which is nature transformed into life. As the sky moves forward, life will be strong, positive and promising, and we will welcome freshness and broadness.
Some seemingly ordinary and quiet poems also have the beauty of a vitality that connects heaven and earth and connects the universe. For example: "Walking to the water-poor place, sitting and watching the clouds rise." That "water-poor place" leading to the "clouds rise" are the endless energy channels of the universe. "How is Dai Zongfu? Qilu is still young." Aren't these three words "green yet" the endless spring scenery flowing endlessly across the horizon? There was a poet who suddenly couldn't sleep one night. He couldn't find the reason. He just felt that his body was very warm. It turned out that after a winter, the earth's atmosphere began to warm up, so he wrote a poem: "Tonight I know that the spring air is warm and the insects are singing." New green window screen.” You see, the poet's life rhythm is connected to the life rhythm of the universe. There is a poem by Lao Du: "The moon spits out in the mountains at the end of the night, and the water shines brightly on the tower at night", which is particularly liked by later generations of poets. It was the dark Tang Dynasty society after the Anshi Rebellion. On a moonless night, the poet was so worried that he stayed awake all night. Suddenly, the dark mouth of the mountain outside the window spit out a crystal clear moon. The pool outside the building was in the moonlight. , is also sparkling and brighter, and the poet's mood is also filled with sadness and surprise, and is full of silent touching of God's will. There is a quatrain by Du Fu, "Two orioles sing in the green willows, and a line of egrets ascend to the blue sky." The words here are understandable to children. They are extremely ordinary, but they are very comfortable to read, very transparent, and there is a kind of life and universe that breathes. feeling. Du Fu also has a quatrain, "Huang Si's mother's house is full of flowers, with thousands of flowers hanging low on the branches. The butterflies dance all the time, and the orioles are at ease with their crows." A kind of beauty full of life, a kind of beauty of spring everywhere, read for a long time When I wake up, I feel that life is very bright, fresh, lively and powerful.
There are some poems that appear to be sentimental on the surface, but in fact they still have plenty of life in their bones. For example, Liu Zongyuan's "Fishing Alone on the Cold River": "Thousands of birds have disappeared, and thousands of people have disappeared." So, does the universe die? No, "A man in a boat with a coir raincoat fishing alone in the cold river snow". The more snowy, windy and cold it is, the more thousands of mountains and trails there are, the more vitality it seems that the fisherman has a very strong vitality. Another example is Meng Haoran's "Spring Dawn": "I sleep in spring without waking up, and I hear birds singing everywhere."
"How much do you know about the sound of wind and rain at night and the falling flowers?" "It sounds like the poet is very sentimental, showing pity for the fragrance and cherishing the jade, but you didn't understand it. Think about it. The poet was awakened by the sound of wind and rain in the middle of the night, but in the morning it was good weather and spring was bright again, and he was also a good person. My mood is lying in bed, listening to the chirping birds in front of the window, and the sunshine pouring in through the window panes. I am so unhappy! Those ups and downs will eventually pass, and human society and the universe will pass. Nature, just like this, grows and develops forever in the ups and downs, flowers blooming and falling, and nothing can stop the growth of life. A small Tang poem only lasts twenty years. This word actually talks about such a truth that is beneficial to life and opens up such an infinite world. Can you say that Tang poetry is not an immortal soul? Isn’t this how Tang poetry expresses the youth of Chinese culture? Is it a dream? Tang poetry is about morning, youth, not afternoon tea. The spirit of afternoon tea is introspection, aftertaste, contemplation, and analysis. You need to keep thinking about questions, but in the morning, you don’t ask questions or analyze. Without introspection, climbing in the morning will make you full of emotions, and watching the sea will make you feel fresh and energetic. We want our nation to have the spirit of youth in the face of thousands of years of wind and frost. In the 9-to-5 grind, there are opportunities to dream, so let our next generation read more Tang poetry!
The enterprising and vigorous spirit of life in Tang poetry not only comes from national strength, The atmosphere of the times such as the opening up, and it comes from the enlightened and advanced political culture: that is, the imperial examination, the promotion of talents, and the acceptance of advice. "The social and psychological crowds are attracted by the imperial examination, the promotion of talents, and the acceptance of advice." This has a lot to do with the imperial examination. The substantial rise in the status of ancient Chinese intellectuals since the Han and Wei dynasties has a lot to do with the whole society's advocating for poetry, humanities, and beauty, and has a lot to do with the national power of the Tang Dynasty. This is Chinese culture A sign of revival. Only in such an era can the spirit of exhaustion be outstanding, and only when there is an atmosphere of exhaustion in society can there be expression of exhaustion of talent in literature.
We seem to be particularly lacking in heroism and the real power to improve life today. This is related to our view of human nature. Since modern times, scientism has taken human nature lightly, thinking that it is just a synthesis of DNA that can be made. It is what it is. Now there are even medical achievements such as Prozac. Due to the arrogance of science and the wave of materialization of consumerism, human nature has either become fragmented and has no rational structure or backbone. A collage without a sense of personality; it is either hollow and becomes nihilism without real content and real needs; Sexuality advocates that people are economic animals, subconsciously driven and sublimated, and passers-by in the universe. These problems are huge. It is impossible for me to discuss the pros and cons of modern thoughts today, but our reflections and doubts about modern thoughts have also become part of our reading of Tang poetry. A background that enables us to cherish and extend it.