The origin of poetry
In our country of poetry, poetry has been the mainstream of literary history for thousands of years.
How did poetry come about? It turns out that before literature was formed, our ancestors compiled their experiences in the production struggle into jingle-style rhymes in order to pass them on to others or the next generation for memorization and dissemination. According to Mr. Wen Yiduo’s research, [Poetry] and [Zhi] are originally the same word. [Zhi] comes from [Scholar] at the top and [心] at the bottom, which means stopping in the heart, which is actually memory. After the emergence of writing, with the help of literature, there was no need to memorize things by rote. At this time, all written records were called "Zhi". Ambition is poetry. What is in the heart is ambition, and what is spoken is poetry.
How did the title of the song come about? Poetry and song are not the same thing. Song is produced simultaneously by human labor. It was produced long before the formation of literature and much earlier than poetry. When examining the origin of songs, we found that at first we only used exclamations to express emotions, such as ah, xi, oh, alas, etc. At that time, these words all had the same sound: "ah". Song is a pictophonetic character, which derives its sound from "ke". In ancient times, [song] and [ah] were the same word, and the [ah] that people produced during labor was called song. So the name of the song stuck.
Since poetry and song are not the same thing, why were they later connected together and called "poetry"? This will be understood as long as we understand their relationship. Songs initially only used simple exclamatory words to express emotions. After the birth of language, human beings' understanding of objective things gradually deepened and emotions became richer. Expressing with a few exclamatory words was far from enough. So content words were added to the song to meet the needs. After the creation of words, the combination of poetry and song went a step further, and lyrics written in words appeared. At this time, a song consists of two parts: one is the music, and the other is the lyrics. The music is lyrical, and the lyrics are poetry and record events. That is to say, if poetry is paired with music, it is a song, and if it is not paired with music, it is poetry. The first poems can be sung with music. Songs are poems and poems are songs. Regarding the combination of poetry and song, there have been discussions in ancient Chinese books for a long time.
"Preface to Mao's Poems": "Being in the heart is ambition, speaking is poetry. Emotions move in the heart and are reflected in words. When words are not enough, we sigh. When we sigh, we sing about it. When singing is not enough, I don’t know how the hands dance or the feet dance. "The Book of History" says: "Poetry expresses ambition, and song always expresses it." This vividly points out the inner connection between poetry and song. Because of this situation, people later put poetry and song together and called it [poetry]. At present, poetry has become synonymous with poetry.
When was the poem called the first poem?
In ancient times, poems were first called "pieces" or "chapters" instead of "first poems". For example, the earliest "Book of Songs" in my country is called "Three Hundred Chapters", Qu Yuan's poems are called "Nine Chapters", and the poems are called "Shou". They first appeared in the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. At that time, a poet named Sun Chuo wrote in "Preface to Sad Poems": "I can't help but wail and write a poem." A man named Zhi Tong wrote in "Preface to Chan Taoist Poems": "A poem about chatting with chopsticks." From then on, people generally called the poem the first.
The origin of the poet
The word poet has been around since the Warring States Period. What is the proof? "Chu Ci. Nine Bian" notes: "I secretly admire the legacy of the poet, and wish to Tuo Zhihu Su Dian. ""Zhengzi Tong" notes: "Qu Yuan wrote Li Sao, which means he suffered from sorrow, and now the poet is called Sao Ren." This is the earliest mention of the word "poet". From then on, the poet became a native of the Han Dynasty. Commonly used nouns. After the rise of Ci Fu, the word Ci Ren came into being. Yang Ziyun's "Fa Yan. Wu Zi Pian" said: "The poet's poems are based on principles, and the poet's poems are based on obscenity." The use of "ze" and "obscenity" to distinguish poets and poets shows that the modern Han Dynasty regarded poets as He is very noble and regards Ci people as relatively humble.
After the Six Dynasties, the society attached great importance to Ci and Fu, and believed that poetry was not similar to poetry at the highest level, and was not similar to Fu at the lowest level. This led to the creation of the term "Sao Ren". From the Warring States Period to the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the titles of poets and poets were respected.
The beginning of the second to eleventh sentence of ancient poetry
China is the kingdom of poetry. There are tens of millions of poems from ancient times to modern times. Except for those that have been lost due to various reasons, they must be preserved. What came down can still be said to be vast. Poetry, like anything else, has a process of emergence, generation, development and change. "Dan Ge" "Broken Bamboo, Renewing Bamboo, Flying Soldiers, Chasing Flesh" is said to be a ballad from the Yellow Emperor's era. It is recognized as a poem in primitive society and the beginning of two-character poetry. "The Book of Songs·You Parallel" "Zhen Zhen Zhen Heron, Heron Flying, Drunk and Swallowing, Returning Drunkenly" is the beginning of the three-character poem. "The Book of Changes" "its death, its death, is tied to the mulberry tree" is the beginning of the four-character poem. The inscription "It rains from the west, it rains from the east, it rains from the north, it rains from the south" is the beginning of the five-character poem. "The Book of Songs·Juan'er" "I drink the gold (the three characters for "Tian" are above the three characters, add the character "甧" below), and I drink the wine for the concave wine." This is the beginning of the six-character poem. "The Book of Songs: Deer Ming" "I have a purpose to drink wine, with the heart of Yan's happy guests" is the beginning of the seven-character poem, and "The Book of Songs: The Turn of October" is the beginning of the eight-character poem "I dare not imitate my friend and take it easy". "The Book of Songs: Haotian has a destiny to succeed" "The second queen will become a king and dare not be healthy" This is the beginning of the nine-character poem. Du Fu's poem "When a man is born and becomes famous, he grows old" is also a nine-character poem. The beginning of Li Bai's ten-character poem "The Yellow Emperor made a cauldron to refine cinnabar in Jingshan Mountain, and the cinnabar became a dragon and flew to Taiqing's house." The beginning of Su Dongpo's eleven-character poem "An old friend in the mountains should invite me to come back."
An examination of poems on paintings
The emergence of poems on paintings in my country has always been considered to have begun in the Tang Dynasty, with the founder being Du Fu.
First of all, we should explain what is a painting poem? If we say that poems on paintings specifically refer to poems on pictures, based on the existing data, it is something that only existed in the Tang Dynasty. If it does not specifically refer to the poems inscribed on the picture, but considers the poems about paintings, inscriptions on paintings, discussion on paintings, inscriptions on fan paintings, inscriptions on murals, and inscriptions on screen paintings that are not directly inscribed on the pictures as poems on paintings, then , judging from the existing data, there were already poems on paintings in the Six Dynasties.
For example, "Poems of the Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms, Two Jins, Southern and Northern Dynasties" contains three "Answers to the King's Tuan Fan Song" written by Tao Ye of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. One of them is: "The Qibao painted round fan shines brightly in the moonlight. With Lang Que "In the noisy summer, remember each other and never forget each other." Although it is relatively simple, it is indeed a hymn to the painting fan.
In particular, Yu Xin, an outstanding poet from the Liang Dynasty to the Northern Zhou Dynasty, wrote twenty-five poems "Ode to the Painting Screen" during the Liang Dynasty, which vividly described the beautiful scenes on the screen. It occupies an important position in the development of creation. It can be seen that my country's painting poems had already appeared in the Six Dynasties.