Image is the basic unit of poetry, which can usually be divided into natural image and social image. In poetry, images achieve the picture effect of mental image through language expression, which has the function of symbolizing and forming artistic conception.
Keywords: image; Poetry; Symbol; Artistic conception of artistic works
Image was originally a philosophical concept in ancient times, and later it was gradually used in criticism and aesthetic research of literary and artistic styles such as poetry. The image in aesthetics and literature research refers to a part of the artistic image that the author externalizes and fixes his aesthetic image through language media. It is a special expressive artistic image, an object that can express abstract ideas or aesthetic ideals, and an aesthetic object with a high sense of image and artistic appeal. To put it simply, image is an image with meaning, and it is an objective image used to entrust subjective feelings. Image and meaning are two important components of image. Image is the carrier of information meaning, the objective fact that forms image, and the implication is the extended meaning of image in a certain language and cultural environment.
Image and its related concepts
The theory of image originated in China a long time ago, and Zhouyi-Cohesion has already said that "observing things and taking images" and "setting images to the best of their meaning". The image in Zhouyi is a divinatory image, a symbol, and a combination of 64 symbols of yin and yang to summarize everything in the world, which belongs to the philosophical category. Poetics borrowed and extended the principle of "setting an image to the best of its meaning", but the "image" in poetry is not a divinatory image, not an abstract symbol, but a concrete and sensible object image.
Mr. Tong Qingbing, a literary theorist, defined the image in his book A Course of Literary Theory as: the image is an ideographic image that aims at expressing philosophical thoughts, takes symbolism or absurdity as its basic characteristics, and achieves the ideal state of human beings, that is, an artistic model. According to this definition, we can know that images are typical images that express meaning. It is a subjective image, perceptible and concrete. For example, in China's ancient poems, the phoenix tree is a symbol of desolation and sadness. Wang Changling's Poem of Long Letters in Autumn says: "The phoenix tree in Jinjing is yellow with autumn leaves. Beaded curtains don't roll frost at night. The smoked jade pillow has no color, and you can listen to the Nangong for a long time. " It is about a girl who is deprived of her youth, freedom and happiness, and is lonely in a deep palace. The first sentence of the poem is a phoenix tree with yellow leaves by the well. It sets off a cold atmosphere. Ren Yuan Xu Zaisi's book "Double Narcissus, Night Rain" also has such a description: "A leaf sounds like autumn, a little banana is a little sad, and I dream for three nights."
He wrote down all his worries with buttonwood leaves falling and rain hitting banana. Others, such as "a leaf makes a sound, and the empty steps drip into light" (the article "More Leakage"), "The phoenix tree is raining and dripping at dusk" (Li Qingzhao's "Slow Voice"). Therefore, people who know China culture will get the message as long as they mention the typical image of the Indus River. I know that the author wants to express his sadness and desolation through the phoenix tree. So it is easy for readers and authors to communicate ideologically.
Some people often confuse image with artistic conception. In fact, artistic conception is the realm and emotional appeal of literary and artistic works through image description, and it is the image of scene blending and virtual reality in lyric works and the aesthetic imagination space induced and developed by it. And the image is the expressive image, which is also the model of art. It is a typical object image that expresses meaning, an objective image, perceptible and concrete; Artistic conception is a kind of realm and artistic conception. It is expressed or induced by images, and it is subjective and abstract. Images or the combination of images constitute artistic conception, and images are the means or ways to constitute artistic conception.
There is such a poem in Xin Qiji's Xijiang Moon: "The bright moon surprises the magpie, and the breeze crows at midnight." Wind, moon, cicada and magpie are all very common things, which can be perceived, concrete and intuitive, and can express a comfortable and quiet summer night landscape image. But the author skillfully combines these night scenes and sees wonders in peacetime. Because of the bright moonlight, the magpie was awakened, which naturally caused other branches to shake. In addition, "singing cicadas in the middle of the night" is also different from the screams in the hot sun, when the "breeze" blows slowly. I often feel very quiet. "Surprised Magpie" and "Singing Cicada" have the beauty of silence. They are bathed in the brilliance of "midnight" and "bright moon". As the French novelist Mo Bosang said, they are "soaked by the soft taste of this bright night". The author skillfully combines ordinary things such as wind, moon, cicada and magpie to create a picturesque, quiet and natural artistic conception, which is induced by images such as wind, moon, cicada and magpie and is understood by readers.
Images can usually be divided into natural images and social images. Natural images take natural scenery as images, including mountains and rivers, flowers and trees, birds, animals, fish and insects, sunny and rainy days, etc. Social images take social phenomena as images, including all kinds of things, characters and scenes of human life in human society, as well as scenes of ghosts and gods as twists and turns of human social life. Social image also includes cultural image. As a special form of image, cultural image refers to a cultural symbol or artistic image with relatively fixed significance and unique cultural significance, which is produced in a certain cultural environment. Many cultural images have rich meanings and profound associations. It is a language symbol to record culture, a historical precipitation and cultural crystallization of all ethnic groups, and a spiritual fruit for all ethnic groups in the world to observe and analyze the external world. It embodies human experience and wisdom, and also highly embodies the cultural spirit and collective consciousness of all ethnic groups. Most cultural images are unique to a certain culture, and their characteristics are more prominent. For example, Du Fu, also known as Du Yu and Zigui. According to legend, Du Yu, the monarch of the ancient Shu kingdom, retired and lived in seclusion in the mountains. He thought of returning to the DPRK but could not. In the end, he got depressed, turned Du Fu into a soul and cried sadly. At the same time, the corners of cuckoo's mouth are bright red, and there is a saying of weeping blood-a common sadness in China's classical poems. Homecoming is related. "In the middle of the night, the heart just shines on the pear flower snow: the pear flower snow grieves the cuckoo and cries blood." In the poem, the moonlight shines on the snow-white pear flowers in the courtyard. Cuckoo is crying, which makes people miss their loved ones more and feel sad. Through the image of cuckoo, the poet entrusted with deep homesickness. "Saint Zhuangzi daydreaming, bewitched by butterflies, fascinated by emperor Chun Qing, cuckoo crows", Li Shangyin expressed his ardent yearning through cuckoo in his poems. "Huayang Zigui crow, Wen Dao Long Biao Wu Xi. I am worried about the bright moon, and I will go to Yelangxi with the wind. " Li Bai pointed out the season in the first sentence of "I heard that Wang Changling moved to the left, and Long Biaoyao had this saying". In the bleak natural scenery, he expressed his feelings of parting and sadness through the cuckoo (Zigui). Therefore, in Chinese culture, cuckoo is a symbol of homesickness and sadness. Anyone with a cultural background in China will easily produce the same or similar * * * sound when he sees this word. But in English, the cuckoo is an ordinary bird, and there is no such implication. From this point of view, images in some consistent understandings, documents and literary works may become unique cultural images in a certain culture.