Set the scene with language
-The language ontology of China's classical poetics.
Ding Yunliang
China's classical poetics has a fine tradition in the study of poetic language, and many poetic theorists have expounded it according to the actual situation of creation and put forward profound opinions. In particular, the evaluation of specific poems is not only convincing, but also has many insights, which often makes readers feel suddenly enlightened and thus gain aesthetic enjoyment. This paper attempts to make an exhaustive study of poetic theory from the perspective of ontology, and sort out and explain the unique contribution of classical poetics to how to use language to create artistic conception.
First, "Spring is a pearl, and the wall is a painting."
It is the ancient people's general understanding of the inherent logical relationship between words, meaning and images. "Meaning is exhausted by images, and images are expressed by words" (a simple example of Zhouyi). Poetry, as a reflection of human complex psychological state, especially emotion, requires its language not only to accurately convey emotion, but also to have the objective effectiveness of infecting others. It also requires that the structural world composed of words, rhythm, rhythm and other formal factors has self-sufficient aesthetic value functions, that is, "using things to excuse words" and "using things to turn". With image symbols, through hints and symbols, a craftsman who takes a solo photo, peeks at the image and carries gold (Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Si). The whole creation process of poetry is also the materialization process of artistic symbols. From beginning to end, it is accompanied by the movement and transformation of objects, and even "the image is natural and strange" (Si Kongtu's Poem Caution). Subjective feelings and objective images are tacit. It can be said that image is the basic element of poetry, and poetic language is the symbolic form of these image group. The poet's heart is integrated with nature, and his words contain everything. "Peach and apricot are still married to Dongfeng" and "One branch and one leaf are always concerned about love". Mountains and rivers, vegetation and clouds between heaven and earth have all become symbols of subjective feelings, all of which are used and served by me, forming a perceptual manifestation of the aesthetic significance of poetry. Some figurative words, such as "Flowing Water", "Falling Flowers" and "Mei Zhu Lan Ju", have accumulated the national feelings of China literati because of their long-term use in ancient poetry, and have become widely used art forms and stable symbol systems.
Yin Kun, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, praised Wang Wei's poems as "beautiful and elegant, with new meanings, pearls in spring and paintings on the wall". Every word is different. "This means that the language of Wang's poetry, like the pearl of spring water, is dazzling and dazzling, and it is like a painting on the wall. The expression is complete, the words are not empty, the beauty is elegant, the artistic conception is beautiful, and the feeling is extraordinary, which makes people feel moved. This is indeed a pertinent theory, which reveals the essential characteristics of painting in his poems. Similar to Su Wan's view that "there is a picture in poetry and a poem in painting". The evaluation of picturesque scenery in poetry emphasizes the concreteness and distinctiveness of poetic language, and at the same time expands poetic language from image management to image expression, and analyzes it from the perspective of overall artistic conception. Later poetics often said that "painting comes from work", "painting comes from nature" and "painting is full of meaning", all for the same reason, demanding good poems, lines and narrative scenes, turning subjective feelings into vivid visual structures, and being able to "describe the scenery that is difficult to write now", and constructing a deep realm through limited images that can be felt concretely, so that the viewer seems to be in Shan Ye. Comparing the advantages and disadvantages of quatrains in different historical periods in the Tang Dynasty, Amin poet Hu Yinglin said: "The quatrains in the prosperous Tang Dynasty are exquisite in image and profound in meaning, with no work to see and no trace to find. In the mid-Tang Dynasty, the fengshen was reduced, and the bones and muscles were exposed in the mid-Tang Dynasty. Can you compare? " There are many beautiful scenes in the poems of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and the method of sentence cutting is mostly the meaning of things, not the words of things, which is fascinating and fascinating. This analogy not only makes the language natural and colorful, but more importantly, it provides a visually clear and sensible image, and the appearance of things seems within reach, thus conveying the meaning beyond the image.
Wu Qiao's "Poetry Around the Furnace" takes "rice" as a metaphor and points out: "Books are political affairs, so words are appropriate; Poetry has temperament, so the words should be elegant. Metaphor rice, rice, wine into one. ..... The wording of the poem does not need to be attached to the meaning. It's still rice wine, and you get drunk after drinking it. " If the daily language is compared to "rice", then the poetic language is "wine", a deformed daily language, or an extraordinary language. The language of ancient poetry, especially modern poetry, is nothing more than a combination of several words in each sentence. In fact, every word is often a concrete symbol, corresponding to an emotional image, which is clustered into a poetic realm. Give a more common and characteristic example: "The cock crows in Maodian, and there is no frost mark on Banqiao" is two poems in the article "Walking in the Morning", both of which are composed of nouns and narrative methods. Li Dongyang's Poems at the Foothills commented: "People only know how to express their worries about the wilderness with words and meanings. I don't know that in the two sentences, I don't need one or two idle words, but I only put forward the word' looking close', but the sound is sonorous and the image is full and rare. " "Don't use one or two gossips, just put forward the words' close to finding a job'. None of the six nouns in the second sentence are nominal, and they are all related to finding a job; Listening and watching, the poet skillfully omits verbs such as "smell", "hope" and "see" and pronouns such as the subject "I" and speaks directly with images. Each word represents an independent and self-sufficient image, which is combined into a seemingly unrelated but interrelated picture. Such a picture is multiple visual axes, with jumping in time and blurring in space. It is associated with the flow of feelings and emotions, extending the literal image space-time, and readers can grasp the deep meaning of the work through the overall perceptual feelings. After reading two poems, although we can't clearly know the specific concept of time and spatial position in the poems, the similarity of words and expressions makes the loneliness and loneliness of wandering in a foreign land seem obvious. It is the concrete application of classical Chinese in poetry that it transcends the established grammatical norms and freezes the fixed structural system without adding conjunctions and directly links with noun phrases loaded with pictures. This may be the abnormal (also called defamiliarization) technique advocated by Russian formalists, that is, through abnormal artistic treatment (mainly aimed at artistic language), familiar objects become unfamiliar. It is a process of subverting habituation and "creatively destroying" habituation standard things. In terms of language structure, the first two poems do not conform to the habits of daily language, and also deviate from the rules of written language. When any conjunctions are omitted between noun phrases, the whole sentence loses the distinction between subject and predicate, the causal relationship is broken, and the intellectual inertia of people is temporarily frustrated. The real appreciator, on the other hand, directly explores the meaning (travel and worry) based on the emotional logic inherent in the image. It is by using abnormal techniques that poets can send language to the maximum extent, distort daily language and use life language to the maximum extent. Once the expression is successful, he will "wake up" the reader again and let him see a brand-new and vibrant poetic realm.
Second, "without saying a word, it's fun."
In order to perfectly convey the poet's feelings and thoughts and create a dynamic realm, poetry must rely on concrete artistic images to express the true essence of artistic life; In order to make vivid reality, language needs to adopt special skills (such as abnormal techniques) to make the structural form have the greatest connotation and inspiration. China's classical poetics has rich experience in this respect. In addition to the variation of individual poetic language, it pays more attention to the expansion of the overall poetic context, which can be summarized as "Fu, Bi and Xing". In my opinion, Fu Bixing is not only an artistic method to express hidden feelings and explore subtlety, but also an effective means to establish an overseas image. Poetry expresses complex personal and human emotional information. If you use declarative reasoning language, you can't achieve your goal. Only by using image information transmission and constructing a special poetic context can we break through the limitations of practical reference function. The so-called "Bi Xing's sustenance" is a profound statement outside the language. In Yi Zhen Zhai Shi Shuo, Li Zhonghua pointed out the differences in the use of Fu, Bi and Xing, and especially mentioned the role of Xing, thinking that "Xing means righteousness, which is the most effective for poets. Say a bird, an animal, a plant for no reason, but it doesn't mean time, time is suddenly in it; The land is not obvious, but it is in it; And don't tell the truth about personnel, but personnel have been hidden. So there is the spirit of poetry and poetry. " As objective things in nature, birds, animals and plants are unreasonable. However, after the objectification of the poet's essential power, these natural things are personified, corresponding to people's subjective feelings, forming an artistic realm of cold and warm human feelings and cold world, which is full of fun and thought-provoking. In addition to metaphor, the "fu" of "writing directly and writing in fables" sometimes gets the same effect. Among the poems of My Servant, there is a poem of Shu Huai: "It has been October since I sent the book. I am afraid of this news, I have no heart. " Comment: "The chaotic scene is picturesque, which is really extremely painful." I sent someone to collect books in order to know more about my family. Now I'm afraid the news is coming, and the picture of people's life in the war-torn years is beyond words. This is what Si Kongtu said: "If a word is inconsistent, it will be romantic." The poet said nothing, but the pent-up complex in his heart was full of resentment.
Poetry is a way of existence of language, language is the dominant form of poetry, and the value of poetry is contained in the structural system of language. "If you don't write a word, there will be a romantic life" doesn't mean that you don't want the expression of words; On the contrary, the poet borrows image group from the words, and creates a three-dimensional and enlightening realm by depicting concrete objects and landscapes and integrating his unique feelings about the life of the universe and natural interests. Wang Fuzhi put it well: "If you can't make scenery language, how can you make love language?" The ancients sang many scenes. "What do you mean" can make "? In other words, the poet should "express his feelings with the psychology of writing scenery, so that his body and mind will be indifferent and he will come out lightly." ("Jiang Zhai Shi Hua" Volume II) Writing a scene is a romance in itself. Because the scene showed hidden feelings, it seemed to be "silent". Once the scene is no longer separated, there is a scene in the artistic conception and love in the scene, it will be "romantic". According to the analysis of Japanese scholar Kawano Yu, literary works, as a symbolic form of artistic information, have duality, namely semantic information and aesthetic information. Semantic information is a kind of information with clear meaning, which belongs to surface meaning. It explains and explains things, is the basis of understanding aesthetic information, and is also a ladder to enter the art world. Aesthetic information is a kind of image information, which belongs to deep meaning. It melts the emotion and experience of the writer's subject, carries the emotional meaning and is vague. For a poem, the particularity and openness of language structure make the constructed images multifaceted. These images themselves have "potential meaning system" or "information capacity", which often exceed the signifier and signified threshold of general language. The uniqueness of the artistic image of poetry with language as the medium is different from the art of painting, sculpture and music with color, stone and sound as the medium. It shows that the concrete and mushy images that readers have participated in aggregate the world. As if the sky is warm and misty, it is out of reach, "like the sound in the air, the color in the phase, the moon in the water, the image in the mirror." The latter scene image is generated by the transformation of perceptual imagination under the premise of personal experience with the opportunity of the former scene image. Different readers, the former image is almost the same, and the latter image often has different tastes because of adding elements of self-expression. Obviously, the meaning marked by the former image is semantic information, which is manifested as surface meaning; The meaning of the latter image covers aesthetic information, which goes beyond the "capacity" of language itself and refers to an uncertain range. It is this illusory beauty that can't be explained in words and traced back if it is detached. It seems that language is close to feelings, and language is shallow and deep. If we only look at the surface of the language, we can't understand the deep meaning contained in the poetic context but existing outside the text.
Poetry, in order to achieve artistic perfection beyond language and syllable, not only describes the truth and exquisiteness, but also needs to go through the artistic abstraction process of understanding the soul. Compared with Xing, this method can turn objects into poetic images full of emotion, but it is not superficial, but profound and lively. It grasps the infinite noumenon that transcends the finite, grasps the essential characteristics of external things, makes the poetic environment vivid as verve, and presents an endless and energetic aesthetic mood like the life of the universe. Poetry has a temperament and charm; Without pride, it is like painting the sun and the moon without luster and being eclipsed. At the same time, the relationship between form and spirit is dialectical unity. Form is the material shell of the spiritual outlook of things and the refuge of the creator. Form resides in God, and God transcends form. Therefore, classical poetics advocates writing the spirit in form, with both form and spirit, vivid and enjoyable. In order to express the meaning of words, we don't directly present the "signified", but simply pronounce words, with powerful empty words and no traces of real words. The situation expressed is like "a pen and ink beat, four tables are infinite, and everything is said." (ditto) Poetry breaks through the restriction and closure of single words, and releases the unexpressed meaning of words through the "pressure" or "tension" of the overall structure of poetry. In a word, the images provided by poetic language are vivid and full of spirituality, which can transcend the internal norms of language, "spread from the outside, created in the air", show multiple hints, leave readers a broad space for free association, meet their expectations, and achieve endless aesthetic effects.
Third, "singing and singing, the cycle is bumpy."
From the origin of literary development, poetry, music and dance are trinity. "Yao Dian of Shangshu" has the saying that "poetry expresses ambition, songs always say, sounds always follow, law and harmony" ... hitting stones and patting stones, all animals dance at the same rate ". This is the main form of poetry. With the gradual change of the times and the sudden change of social life, poetry, as a literary art, has gradually separated from music and dance and embarked on an independent road. However, the relationship between poetry and music has not been cut off, but has been publicized with the advancement of poetry history. "Rhyme and words are harmonious, words and sounds are harmonious", and language and words are harmonious and complement each other, which has become an organic part of the language structure of poetry. This emphasis on the musicality of poetry is not only the need of language artistry, but also determined by the characteristics of Chinese itself. Chinese is dominated by monosyllabic words, with flexible grammatical structure and easy to form a unified binary structure. Pronunciation is mainly unvoiced (vowel), with four tones, which is particularly rich in musical harmony and pleasing to the ear. Classical poetics attaches great importance to this point. Many poetry theorists, through practical research, point out the gains and losses from the aspects of tone, rhyme and rhythm, analyze the advantages and disadvantages, and guide their creation.
It was Shen Yue who first applied the theory of temperament to literature. In Xie Lingyun's Biography, he said: "The husband's five colors are in harmony, and the eight tones are in harmony. It depends on metaphysics and rhythm, which is suitable for everything. If you want to change the phase of Gong Yu, keep it low. If there is a floating sound in front, you must cut it at the back. In a short period of time, the phonology is different; In the two sentences, the weight is different, and it is wonderful to achieve this goal. It can be said that ... I have not seen this secret since the poet. " Shen Yue is proud of his research on temperament, which is his first research. Not to mention whether this statement is true or not. But he believes that it is really rare to raise temperament to the position of literature. Because he paid too much attention to temperament, put temperament above artistic thinking and overcorrected it, he was often criticized by later generations. Later, Liu Xie summed up the previous listening and aesthetic experience in the melody of Wen Xin Diao Long, and pointed out that the pronunciation of Chinese characters is introverted, upturned, disyllabic and rhyming. These objective factors determine that poets should not violate their self-discipline when writing, otherwise the rhythm coordination will be slightly disordered, which will hinder communication. The work focuses on the "harmony" of sentences and the "rhyme" at the end of sentences. Rhyme is rhyme, "you can't see kung fu when you move." There is rhyme in the poem, such as the pillar of the building. If it is not firm here, it will collapse, making the vowels in the ending rhyme repeat and producing sound beauty. "Harmony" is the proper collocation of different tones, and the degree of harmony of sentences will vary from high to low, including four tones, two tones and overlapping rhyme. Four tones in ancient Chinese often express different emotional attitudes with different tones, such as soothing and soft tones, low-key tones, high-profile tones and high-profile tones. "Only collocation can recite the tone", and the proper use of the tone has caused the ups and downs of the tone of poetry, which not only meets the requirements of the rhythm of poetry, but also properly reflects it. In disyllabic words and rhyming words, these two words generally have the same meaning. A Qing Li Chonghua said: "Rhyme is like two Yuhuan rings interlocking, take its sonorous;" The two voices are connected like pearls and turn around. " Yi Zhen Zhai Shi Hua has the beauty of overlapping words. In a word, it is its essence to seek similarities and differences and harmony in complexity.
During the Six Dynasties, we began to realize the indispensability of temperament in poetry texts, which made an indelible contribution to the development of China's poetic style, but it is undeniable that it obviously has "imperfect defects". In the mid-Tang poetry, Gao SengJiaoran once severely criticized Shen Yue's "cold cutting eight diseases and breaking four tones", and regarded temperament as a standard form, believing that only "low emphasis on high rhyme is reasonable" (Poetic Style) would not damage the overall situation of poetry. The birth of modern poetry indicates that China's poetry art has reached a fully mature stage. In a sense, the maturity of modern poetry is a conscious sign of China's temperament in the field of poetry. This can be seen from the difference between poetry and prose. Li Dongyang pointed out in "Preface to the Draft of Spring Rain Hall": "Poets speak for themselves, and poetry becomes sound. Chapter for use, narrative, play and decoration are more expensive; Manipulate the opening and closing, but do whatever you want, and be sure to have certain accuracy. If the song is recited and the flow is turbulent, it will be sound, and the high and low festivals will not be chaotic. " Poetry's "lyrical expression" function is always expressed through rhyme, rhythm and harmonious melody. If there is no "singing and chanting, the circulation is surging", the language is high and ironic, the long and easy to sing, the beautiful voice is full of music, and there are no melodious syllables, there will be no poetry. If poetry and music are judged as two, it has rhythm but no rhythm, and it is just an essay to arrange couples. Then, why should poetry and rhythm be integrated into ancient education? Poetry is necessary because it is "not a religion" but "the joy of six arts". With its unique value function, it is an irreplaceable entrance for other styles. Li Jiang's combination of music and poetry is a major turning point in the concept of poetic language. It shows that a good poetic language has the aesthetic feeling of music, but the musical sense of poetry is not independent, but only exists as an internal factor of artistic thinking and is generated to express temperament. Its musical beauty lies in better embodying the poet's feelings and thoughts of joy or sadness, or sadness or joy, and creating the realm of sound and emotion.
There is a complementary relationship between musical factors and artistic conception in poetic language, which can be more specifically explained by two poems, Moonlight in the Pine Woods and Crystal Stone in the Stream, in Wang Wei's Autumn Night in the Mountain. This couplet is a famous sentence through the ages, which has been widely praised by later generations. From the syllable point of view, the first two words are nouns, the middle two words are locative words, and the last word is a verb word, which belongs to 22 1 beat and fluctuates scattered. The vowels of the five words in the previous sentence are: even-toothed shout, mouth-pinching shout, mouth-opening shout, even-toothed shout and mouth-opening shout, which are generally from convergence to release and tangent to the moonlight scene from gathering to dispersion; The initial consonant of the next sentence is the same as the tip of the tongue, and the word "on the stone" is the same as the tip of the tongue, which is similar to two tones, and the sound quality is loud and sonorous, while the word "Liu" is round and round, which roughly corresponds to the brittle and slippery situation on the spring stone. The All-China Federation is full of auditory and visual images, syllables and poems, and it has created a complete, comfortable, quiet and picturesque scene. It is precisely because poetry, on the one hand, pays attention to the beauty of music, and the sense of music is the inherent characteristic of poetry language, on the other hand, it is determined by poetry to provide the best apartment for expressing affection, which makes its language as its own way of existence have distinct characteristics.
In essence, China's classical poetry language presents a very personalized way of existence in the ontological sense because of its uniqueness and limitations. Its word structure has great flexibility, and the depicted image covers multiple meanings, which is spatially extensible in the ever-changing time stream. The rhythm of poetry represents the induction and convergence of the life rhythm of external nature and internal mind. The words are true, the words are natural, the feelings flow in them, and the artistic conception is far-reaching and far-reaching, which embodies the life concept and aesthetic realm of China people and the world.