On Su Shi's "Ci is like poetry"
Ci is like poetry, but it is "not true". Chen Shidao's "Houshan Poetry Talk": "Zizhan uses poetry as lyrics, just like the dance of Ambassador Lei of Jiaofang. Although it is the best work in the world, it must not be true." It is based on the basic point of view that "poetry and Yuefu come from the same place" and there should be no difference in poetry; Hu Yin also believes that "poems come from "Li Sao" and "Chu Ci"... and the Su family in Meishan, once they wash away the fragrance of Qiluo The state of being, getting rid of the tactful attitude, allows people to climb high and look far away, and sing a high song, with a majestic and majestic spirit, transcending the dust and dirt, so "Huajian" is Zaoli and Liu is Yu. "Taiwan" ("Preface to the Collection of Drinking Bian") In other words, both Wang Zhuo and Hu Yin admitted that Dongpo's poems are "like poetry". According to the logical inference of Hu Yin and Wang Zhuo, the aesthetic connotation of poetry is to put an end to "soft and charming fragrance", abandon the "qiluo fragrance", and disdain the "preparatory and gentle" style; the function of poetry is mainly to "make people climb high and look high" Far away, raise your head and sing loudly", inspiring people's "lofty spirit" and making people "self-motivated". In other words, Hu Yin and Wang Zhuo emphasized the value and significance of Dongpo's poetry based on the "expressing ambition" and "educational" functions of traditional poetry.
When we examine Su Shi's lyrics, we can summarize three characteristics of his "words are like poetry": First, the value orientation of mainstream culture. Traditional Confucianism particularly emphasizes the educational role of poetry, and traditional Chinese poetry is an important part of incorporating poetry into the institutional cultural system. The so-called "observe customs, know gains and losses, respect human ethics, and educate through beauty" is the official declaration of the mainstream cultural value orientation of ancient Chinese poetry. Hu Yin and Wang Zhuo's evaluation of Dongpo's Ci is actually based on this aspect. In terms of content, it requires works to reflect the embrace of family and country and a sense of political responsibility and mission. Works such as "Niannujiao·Chibi Nostalgia" and "Jiangchengzi·Hunting in Mizhou" are all representatives of this type of works. Even "Shui Diao Ge Tou·Mid-Autumn Festival" and "Bu Suanzi·Lone Goose" actually reveal the author of the lyrics. The political embrace of attachment to the country.
The second is to emphasize the masculinity of the work in terms of aesthetic significance. Ancient Chinese poetry reflects the opposition and reconciliation of the two aesthetic systems of masculinity and femininity. Mainstream culture often emphasizes masculinity and heroic style. Su Shi has always been opposed to the feminine and elegant lyrics in his poetry. Although he also has a large number of graceful poetry, his main style shows his preference and persistence for masculine beauty.
Thirdly, in terms of expression, Su's poems mainly express his feelings directly. He rarely uses metaphors and does not use descriptive descriptions like Liu Yong. The euphemistic charm of its meaning. Because Ci, as a new literary style, its cultural attributes mainly lie in its cultural characteristics of common people, that is, the cultural attributes of common people and the emotions of scholar-bureaucrats, which are far from this attribute. In addition, as a "new voice", the words of Su Shi are more about the expression and reproduction of the individual's private life and the delicate emotions of the universe within the individual. In terms of temperament and style, some of Su Shi's words do not have this kind of words that are different from poetry. Characteristics, that is to say, the lines of his words are rough, the realm is broad, and the scholar-bureaucrat complex is very typical and strong, which is closer to poetry in essence.
The "literary-official style" of Su Shi's poems is an important factor that makes his poems resemble poetry. Su Shi's scholar-official personality determined his literary creation attitude and literary value orientation of "words are like poetry". Therefore, when Wang Zhuo criticized Li Qingzhao's view that Su Shi's poems are "poems whose sentences cannot be read," he said that this view was "poisoned by Liu Yongye's fox saliva". This actually proves from another angle that Dongpo's poems are related to Liu Yong's poems have clear boundaries and are typical scholar-official poems, so they have been affirmed by the scholars' orthodox critics.
The most prominent feature of the poetry-like scholar-official poetry is its subjective lyricism. That is to say, like traditional poetry, this type of poetry transmits emotions and expresses will in the author's subjective and lyrical way. Unlike ordinary literati poetry, which is often a creative expression of a scene or a love affair or a character's activities. For example, most of Su Shi's works are like diaries or autobiographies, all of which are the author's own emotional expressions and emotional displays. "Complete Song Ci" contains more than 300 poems by Dongpo, and the word "I" appears 69 times. Moreover, the emotions of "I" in Su Shi's poems are mostly related to feelings or complaints about "encounter" and "not encounter". Others like Liu Yong and Zhou Bangyan have more objective, romantic and realistic descriptions of artistic conceptions and scenes in their works. In their works, the protagonist may not be the author himself, but other men or women. In this way, their works, just like dramas or novels, are artistic characters and artistic realms created by the poets. They are not just the expression of the poet's true feelings alone, but also have a kind of objectivity, and can be used by a wide range of readers or audiences. Discover the "I" in the work. Li Qingzhao believes that words should write about the hidden world of human feelings that traditional poetry has not expressed; if, like Su Shi, words are used to express common themes in poetry, and even the expression techniques and methods are still the same as the rough and lyrical expressions of traditional poetry, then it will be It is a poem written in the form of long and short sentences. Therefore, the subjective lyricism of Dongpo's poetry is the most prominent personality of his poetry and a symbol of his scholar-bureaucrat character. People say that his words are like poetry, which is largely based on this understanding.
The poetry-like tendency of Su Shi's poems is especially confirmed in his original tune "Drunkard Man Cao" and his "Shaobian" which implicitly contains "Return to Come Xi Ci". His "Shaobian" is not only like poetry, but also like prose. It is composed of Tao Yuanming's "Gui Gu Lai Ci", so it has a strong literary style.
According to the strict rhythm of the words and the standards of musical aesthetics, it really doesn't look like the words. It can be seen from the preface that Dongpo's writing of this poem is related to his life and state of mind when he was exiled in Huangzhou. It implicitly implies the meaning of Tao Yuanming's words, and also means to pour someone else's wine cup into his heart. Although it was "in tune" and could be sung, it was far from the popular lyrics of the time. But this kind of improvisation, and the lively scene and atmosphere of singing in real time, do have the flavor of a pop song. It is the spread of such words that makes people feel that Dongpo's words are rough and straightforward, which leads to the conclusion that Dongpo's "words are like poetry". His "Drunkard Man Cao" is a translation of Qin music, which tastes the words and poetry. However, this word does not lie in subjective lyricism but has the charm of objective narrative and discussion. It can be seen from this that this poem is a new tune created by Dongpo based on the sound of Qin music. The problem is that Su Shi also has erotic poems that are purely objective and romantic, such as "The flowers have faded to red, the green apricots are small" and "A cherry is in Fan Su's mouth"; there are also poems such as "The swallow flies flying into the Huawu", "Ice muscle and jade bone", Works such as "Beauty is like the moon" are soft and lingering, exuding a strong scent of powder; there are also works such as "Sleeping in the Swallow Tower, Dreaming Panpan", "Painted with Fragrance, Mo Xilian Walking"... Such works are very fragrant in appearance and spirit. Lyrics. What is the explanation for this phenomenon? In my opinion, this is to prove the diversity and openness of Su Shi's own cultural value thinking; the second is to prove that the requirements for the true nature of Song Ci are still consciously or unconsciously revealed in Su Shi's creative activities. In other words, no matter how high-minded the scholar-bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty who lived in the cultural configuration of the common people were, they still had to more or less express the cultural value choices of the common people. Especially for a typical commoner literati like Su Shi, although his foundation in Confucianism is deep, his worldview and methodology have all the characteristics of a "new Jinshi": for example, he despises etiquette and law, pursues freedom, practices both Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and advocates political innovation... etc. Su Shi likes to write "small words", which is actually not only his love for a new style of writing, but also his recognition of a new cultural value. His so-called "understanding of euphemism in poetry is the origin of poetry" also agrees with the stylistic characteristics of "euphemism in poetry". "Ci is like poetry" demonstrates the scholar-bureaucrat temperament of Su Shi's poems; the fragrance and powder prove Su Shi's secular cultural value orientation.
Su Shi’s cultural choices actually represent the basic cultural attitudes and values ??of the scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty. This is not only related to his birth into a common family, but also the result of long-term influence of Shu culture. It is also inseparable from the cultural accumulation of his childhood specializing in the career of raising children. Su Shi's cultural orientation, which was characterized by studying both Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism and taking Confucianism as the mainstream, was actually the cultural choice of most scribes in the Song Dynasty. What makes Su Shi unique is that he is also a revolutionary figure with great cultural magnanimity.
His situation of wandering between old and new ideas in politics is very similar to his creative appearance, which is wandering between "true character" and "non-true character" in his poetry creation.