Take Chinese poetry as an example. I think the most important quality of Chinese poetry is the power to inspire and move people. "Mao's Poems: Preface" says: "Emotions move in the heart and form in words." First, you must have a feeling in your heart, and then express it in language. This is the beginning of poetry and the first step of good poetry. One quality.
Du Fu wrote in "Qujiang": "A flying flower reduces the spring, and the wind blows with thousands of points, which makes people sad." Du Fu wrote well and had a keen mind as a poet. He has such real emotions for spring and such a pursuit of perfection. When he saw a field of flowers flying, he felt that the spring was incomplete and broken. When the strong wind blew away all the red flowers, he felt even more sad. This was the emotion he felt when he saw the flowers flying and falling.
Du Fu also wrote a poem: "You can see the butterfly deeply through the flowers, and the dragonflies flying on the water." Du Fu observed carefully and deeply, and he saw the butterflies hidden deep in the flowers. When he arrived, he also saw the gesture of a dragonfly touching the water. It was the natural scenery that moved him and made him write such a poem.
However, the scenery of nature is something that everyone can see. If you just write it down, it may not be a good poem. Only when the emotions that are moved in the heart are conveyed at the same time can it be a good poem.
Let’s also do a test. Let’s first look at this poem: “The fish leap into the river and throw jade rulers, and the orioles wear silk and willows to weave golden shuttles.” Then look at another sentence: “The chickens are crowing.” Which one is a good poem and which one is a bad one? Poetry?
Perhaps many people will think that the previous sentence is a good poem. You see, "The fish leaps across the river and throws a jade ruler, and the oriole passes through the silk and willow weaving golden shuttle." It is said that a fish jumped out and crossed the water like white silk, just like a jade ruler thrown on the white silk; the oriole passed through The wicker, which is like silk thread, is like a golden shuttle weaving in the silk thread. How vividly and beautifully written, and how neatly contrasted. And "the chickens are croaking", everyone must say that it is not good.
However, the criterion for evaluating the quality of poetry is not based on whether it is beautiful in appearance. What poetry wants to convey is an exciting and moving effect. A good poem must have an exciting and moving life.
The former is a poem by a poet in the late Tang Dynasty. It is beautiful in appearance, but it only has words and techniques, and lacks the life that poetry should have. These two sentences only describe the image seen by the eyes, without any inner feelings. "The chickens are crowing" is a sentence written by Du Fu. He experienced the "Anshi Rebellion" and experienced long-term isolation and separation without knowing the life and death of his family, and he wrote it after returning to his home. Although it is not beautiful, it is a simple and true narrative with deep, cordial and warm feelings.
The difference between good poetry and bad poetry is not only the criterion of whether there is inspired life, but also another criterion, which is whether you have conveyed this inspired life so that readers can also feel you. moved.
I taught a poetry class, and the students had to practice writing poems. I quoted the "Rhetoric establishes sincerity" in "Yi Zhuan", saying that sincerity is the most basic requirement for composition and life, so a student handed over such a poem, and he wrote "Red leaves are fragrant on the pillow". I said I couldn't accept it: first, the red leaves didn't smell fragrant; second, the red leaves grew outside, how could they be on the pillow?
But he said it was true and sincere. It turned out that the red leaves were sent to him by his girlfriend, and there might be a fragrance of perfume on them. He put the red leaves and the letter beside his pillow, so "the red leaves smell good on the pillow."
What he said makes perfect sense. But to write poetry, the first thing is to be sincerely moved, and the second thing is to successfully convey this feeling so that others can feel it.
Just this sentence from Du Fu's "The chickens are croaking" doesn't seem to be a good poem. But looking at all three poems in his "Qiang Village", the poems express the scene of reunion with family members after war and chaos. "The chickens are crowing" has this effect on the whole, so it is a good poem.
It can be seen that a poem is a complete life, and every word and sentence must have a certain role in this life.
It is not just choosing a few beautiful words that will make a good poem, but it depends on whether the chosen words are appropriate to convey the emotion. It’s not about finding beautiful words, but about finding suitable words.
Du Fu used a lot of ugly words in his poems. He said, "When you see the emperor in hemp shoes, your sleeves show two elbows," and he also said, "A close relative hurts an old man." However, this is a good poem, because what he experienced was exactly that kind of life of hardship and suffering, and only these simple and ugly words can properly express that kind of life.
So, the quality of a poem depends first on whether it has an inspired life, and secondly on whether it can be conveyed appropriately. At the same time, people often have emotional life, but it has various differences in depth, thickness, size, good and evil, etc. Every emotion is different.
Yan Jidao's words: "The falling flower is independent, and the swift swallows fly together." This scene is not unsatisfactory, but if you compare Yan Jidao's words with Du Fu's poems, you will find that Yan Jidao's words are indeed very beautiful. It is very beautiful, but the life he inspired lacks the deep and broad power of Du Fu.
(Xiao Fengqing is excerpted from the book "Ye Jiaying's Poetry Lectures" by Zhonghua Book Company, the original title is "Chinese and Western Theories on the Relationship between Image and Emotion", illustrated by Wang Qing)