Poetry originated from ancient social life, which is a rhythmic and emotional language form due to labor production, sex and primitive religion. "Shangshu Yu Shu": "Poetry expresses ambition, song expresses Tao, sound is eternal, law and harmony." "Rites and Music": "Poetry expresses ambition; Song, chanting its voice; Dance, move its capacity; The three are based on the heart, and then the instrument follows it. " In the early days, poetry, song, music and dance were integrated. Poetry is the lyrics, which are always sung with music and dance in actual performances. Later, poetry, song, music and dance developed independently and became independent adults. Poems and songs are collectively called poems. Poetry is the oldest and most literary style. Labor songs and folk songs, which originated from ancient people, were originally the floorboard of poems and songs. At first, there was no distinction between poetry and song, but poetry and music and dance were combined into one, collectively called poetry. China's poems have a long history and rich heritage, such as The Book of Songs, Songs of the South, Han Yuefu and the works of countless poets. Poetry in Western Europe was written by Homer and Sappho in ancient Greece and Virgil and Horace in ancient Rome. How did poetry come into being? It turns out that before the formation of literature, our ancestors compiled rhymes in order to pass on the experience in the production struggle to others or the next generation for memory and dissemination. According to Mr Wen Yiduo's textual research, [poem] and [ambition] are originally the same word, and [ambition] belongs to [scholar] and [heart], which shows that what stops in the heart is actually memory. After the writing came into being, with the help of literature, there is no need for rote learning. At this time, all written records are called records. Desire is poetry. Have ambition in your heart and speak like a poem. How did the title of the song come from? Poetry and songs are not the same thing Songs are produced by human labor at the same time, long before the formation of literature and long before poetry. At first, we only used sighs to express our feelings, such as ah, xi, oh, alas, and so on. At that time, these words were all pronounced with the same pronunciation: "ah". Song is a pictophonetic character, pronounced with "ke". In ancient times, "Song" and "Ah" were the same word, and the "Ah" people uttered in their work was called "Song". Therefore, the title of the song has been used. Since poetry and song are not the same thing, why did they later be linked together and called [Poetry]? As long as we understand their relationship. At first, Song only used simple interjections to express emotions. With the appearance of language, people's understanding of objective things has gradually deepened and their emotions have become richer, so it is far from enough to express them with a few exclamations. So content words are added to the song to meet the needs. After the appearance of words, the combination of poetry and songs went further, and lyrics written in words appeared. At this time, a song includes two parts: one is music and the other is lyrics. Music is lyrical, and the lyrics are poetic and memorable. In other words, poetry is a song with music and a poem without music. The original poem can be sung with music. Songs are poems, and poems are songs. The combination of poems and songs has been discussed for a long time in China ancient books. Preface to Mao's poems: "Heart is ambition, words are poetry." Emotions move in the heart and form in words. If words are not enough, lament. If there are not enough words, recite them. If there are not enough songs, I don't know how to dance. "Shangshu": "Poetry expresses ambition, but songs are silent", which vividly points out the internal relationship between poetry and songs. Because of this situation, people later called poetry and song "poetry" side by side. At present, poetry has become synonymous with poetry.
[Edit this paragraph] Development
The development of poetry has gone through the development process of The Book of Songs → Chu Ci → Han Fu → Han Yuefu Poetry → Jian 'an Poetry → Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties Folk Songs → Tang Poetry → Song Poetry → Song Yuan Poetry → Ming and Qing Poetry → Modern Poetry.
[Edit this paragraph] function
Poetry is a highly concentrated literary genre that reflects social life. Full of the author's thoughts and feelings and rich imagination. Its language is concise and vivid, with distinct rhythm, harmonious rhyme and rich musical beauty. The sentences are generally in rows and pay attention to the beauty of structural form. He Qifang, a modern poet and literary critic in China, once said: "Poetry is the literary style that most strongly reflects social life. It is full of rich imagination and feelings, and it is often expressed in a direct lyrical way. Moreover, in the degree of exquisiteness and harmony, especially in the distinct rhythm, its language and prose are different. " This definition summarizes several basic characteristics of poetry: first, it reflects life in a highly concentrated and general way; The second is lyrical expression, full of rich thoughts and feelings; Third, rich imagination, association and fantasy; Fourth, language has musical beauty.
[Edit this paragraph] Expression
There are many ways to express poetry. The traditional way of expression that was first popular in China and is still often used today is "Fu, Bi and Xing". "Preface to Mao Poetry" said: "Therefore, poetry has six meanings: one is wind, the other is fu, the third is comparison, the fourth is pride, the fifth is elegance and the sixth is fu." In the meantime, there is a quatrain called: "Three lights, the sun, the moon and the stars, and four poems are elegant." In the six meanings, "style, elegance and praise" refers to the types of poems in the Book of Songs, and "Fu, Bi and Xing" are the expressions in poems. Fu: It is a way to express things directly. Zhu, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, said in the Notes on Poems: "The giver must tell the truth." For example, Ge Tan and Slug in The Book of Songs used this technique. Bobby: It's a figurative way to describe things and express thoughts and feelings. Liu Xie said in "Wen Xin Diao Long Bi Xing": "And what is Bi Ye? Cover things with attachments and threaten to cut them off. " Zhu said, "If you compare, you can compare this thing with another." For example, books in The Book of Songs, such as Cats and Storytelling, are written in this way. Xing: It's a way to make things interesting, that is, to use the beginning of things to describe things and express thoughts and feelings. In the Tang Dynasty, Confucius said in "Mao Shi Zheng Yi": "Those who get the Tao are happy. Take the metaphor as an example. Those who quote plants, birds and beasts in poetry and prose are happy. " Zhu pointed out more clearly: "If you are interested, you should say something else first to arouse the words you are reciting." For example, Guan Ju in The Book of Songs is the expression of "Xing". These three methods of expression have been handed down all the time, and they are often used comprehensively and complement each other, which has a great influence on poetry creation in past dynasties. There are many forms of expression of poetry, which are constantly developing and creating since ancient times, and their application is also flexible, exaggerated, repetitive, overlapping, jumping and so on. It's hard to describe. However, all methods are inseparable from imagination. Rich imagination is not only a major feature of poetry, but also the most important form of expression of poetry. In poetry, there is also an important technique of expression, which is symbol. Symbol simply means "symbolic meaning", but in modern poetry, symbol is the direct image of the soul and should be paid attention to. From a modern point of view, there are three main ways to shape images in poetry: 1. Contrast. Liu Xie said in the book Wen Xin Diao Long: Metaphor is "either a sound metaphor, a figurative metaphor, a mental metaphor or a metaphor." There are many examples in the poems we listed before. There is also a more commonly used technique, that is, "personification": personification with things or personification with people. The former is like Xu Zhimo's Farewell to Cambridge: I left gently/just as I came gently; /I waved gently,/saying goodbye to the clouds in the western sky. /the golden willow by the river,/the bride in the sunset; /Beautiful shadows in the waves,/rippling in my heart. Treat "clouds" and "golden willows" as people. People imitate things, for example, Love's Because of the Wind: ... My heart/as bright as the candlelight in your window/slightly ambiguous/inevitable/because of the wind/... with the love of my life/light a lamp/I am a fire/may go out at any time/because of the wind. Compare "my heart" to candlelight, and compare me to a lamp. Of course, in the final analysis, the essence is "personification". 2. exaggeration. It is to enlarge the things to be described, just like the "capitalization" and "close-up" shots in the movie, to attract readers' attention and association. Li Bai's Peach Blossom Pond is deeper than thousands of feet, so it is not as good as Wang Lun (for Wang Lun), "Flying down three thousands of feet, suspecting that the Milky Way will fall for nine days" (Looking at Lushan Waterfall), in which "deep thousands of feet" and "three thousands of feet" are mentioned, although it is not true, the image he created vividly shows the characteristics of things and expresses the poet's passion, which is not only acceptable to readers. However, this exaggeration must be artistic and aesthetic, not too absurd, not too real, and not too vulgar. For example, there is a poem describing the harvest of cotton: "A bag of cotton is wrapped/the truck head is tilted/tilted, three feet high/like an anti-aircraft gun." After reading it, people feel unreal and can't feel good. 3. Metonymy. Is to replace that thing with this thing. Similar to analogy, but different. The difference lies in: analogy is generally compared, and comparison is concrete and visible; Metonymy is concrete on the one hand and abstract on the other, which bridges the gap between concrete and abstract, makes the image of poetry more vivid and prominent, and arouses readers' association. This is what Ai Qing said, "Put wings on your thoughts, put clothes on your feelings, color your voice, and let the dead solidify." To shape the image of poetry, we should not only use the materials taken from perspective to describe the picture, but also use the materials obtained from the senses such as hearing and touch to reflect the image in many ways, so as to be vivid and novel. Jia Dao, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, rode on a donkey and sang "Birds by the pool stay in the trees, and monks push the door down on the moon", but he also thought that "monks knock on the door down on the moon" could be used. He couldn't decide whether to "push" or "knock", so he made a consultation with his hand. Unexpectedly, the donkey blocked a big official's way. This man is Han Yu, a great writer. When the guards led Jia Dao to the horse, Jia told the truth. Han hesitated for a long time and said it was better to knock at the door. Because there is a "knock" sound, there are one or two knocks on the door on the moonlit night in the mountains, which makes the scene "live" and makes the environment more silent. "Wuti" and "Zhong" beside Fengqiao Bridge are also the crowning touch of this poem. There is also the music description in Bai Juyi's Pipa, which is "like pouring pearls of all sizes into a plate of jade". It is very vivid and wonderful! Modern, such as Huang Helang's "Morning Song": "There is also a stubborn listening/wind, rain, waves/faint/dawn/morning bell of Lingquan Temple/like a gushing spring/distant response/faint knocking down/a few sparse stars/cock crowing/as if crossing the ocean/cock crowing/like the tide. This poem is also well written. Therefore, if we master the skills of creating images with sound, it will open up a broader field for poetry creation. Whether metaphor, exaggeration or metonymy depends on the poet's keen observation of objective things, his own feelings, bold imagination and even fantasy. It can be said that neither romance nor reality is a poet without imagination (fantasy). For example, Li Bai, who is famous for his boldness, has rich imagination and magnificent poetic style, while Du Fu, who is famous for his realism, also wrote, "When did you suddenly see this house in front of you?" ("The hut was blown by the autumn wind") and "She is fragrant and foggy, and her shoulders are cold. When can we lie on the screen again and look at the bright light and stop crying? . "(Moonlit Night) and so on.