Ye Jiaying: I'm lucky to think of that. I am a Chinese department, and I was raised at home. I was later forced to go abroad, which is another story. I have to stay overseas to teach and learn to speak China literature in English. I look up new words until two o'clock in the morning every day, because I have no choice but to survive.
The trouble with people is to be a good teacher. In fact, my greater "goodness" is to be a good disciple. I like studying, so besides teaching, although I am very busy, I still go to the poetry or poetry theory class of the Foreign Languages Department, and I also study very hard. It's not enough just to listen, but also to find other people's books to read. While reading it, I suddenly saw, Oh, this can explain our poems by China! There is no scientific logical thinking theory in China's ancient poems and even literary theories. Although Wang Guowei is a relatively recent figure and has received some enlightenment from the West, his literary criticism "Words on Earth" is still very abstract, such as emptiness, elegance and quietness ... These are all vague things for students, and nothing can be grasped.
On the evening of February 7th, Wu Yishu, a senior one girl from Shanghai Fudan High School, won the second season finals of CCTV's Chinese Poetry Conference.
If I tell western students that this poem is well written and vivid, they certainly don't know what charm is; If I say this word is full of realm, they don't understand what realm is. These things can't be explained without their logic and rational speculation, so my explanation should be combined with western theories, which is the need of reality. Although I use western theories, I am not bound by any western theories. Western countries can't fully integrate with China, so they can only take advantage of it, as Mr. Lu Xun said. Of course, you must have a literary background in China to be right. Therefore, we must first have the foundation of classical literature, and then we can learn western things. If you learn a set of western theories first and then apply them mechanically, it will be superficial, far-fetched, stiff and superficial, which I don't agree with.
Sanlian Life Weekly: In the study of traditional poetry, we should not only advocate reading more books, but also recite them. Why emphasize chanting Buddha?
Ye Jiaying: It can be said that our study of ancient China was accompanied by chanting from the Zhou Dynasty. "Li Zhou Da Le Si" said that when Guo Zi entered the school, he would learn satire and chant. We often laugh at the private school in those days and sing like this. However, our predecessors, the great poets in history, learned their roots by reciting and singing from childhood in this way. At present, many of us can't write old poems, or they don't write well enough because of the lack of basic training at this level. Singing helps to remember, and memory helps to write and appreciate.
1943, Ye Jiaying took a group photo with Gu Sui (front seat) and his classmates in Gu Jia. The second from the right in the back row is Ye Jiaying.
I don't object to chanting in dialects. Different regions can chant in different dialects. Some people may think that only dialects have intonation and hyphenation, as if Mandarin has no intonation and hyphenation, but it is not. This is just a matter of leveling. Although we can't speak the nine tones of Cantonese, we should be able to distinguish the hyphens. The difficult thing is that many ancient tones are now pronounced as flat tones by us. So the way I teach students is to distinguish all the ancient tones. When reading ancient Rusheng characters, you must read them continuously.
Sanlian Life Weekly: Now many schools are also carrying out poetry reading activities. Is this consistent with the recitation you advocate?
Ye Jiaying: There is a big difference between reading aloud and reciting. Reading aloud has the nature of performance. However, the cultivation of the ancients in China was not publicity. You see, ancient music in China, such as guqin and harpsichord, is not suitable for playing in public concert halls. We in China are all introverted, your own, sincere cultivation and inward pursuit. Therefore, chanting should also be done in the dead of night, when the wind is clear and the moon is bright. You should take an ancient poem by yourself and integrate your heart, feelings and thoughts with that poem, which is not only rational, intellectual, but also emotional.
Ye Jiaying recited the Song of Eternal Sorrow.
When I was a child, I listened to my elders chanting scriptures. Everyone actually recited scriptures differently. Although everyone is different and I have formed my own singing style, we all have a basic knowledge, that is, its level tone and cadence syllables. When the ancients wrote poems, Li Bai and Du Fu also wrote them in a chanting voice. We don't look up a rhyme book and then deduce it word by word. We were accompanied by chanting. The so-called words come from sounds, and words come from rhymes. The word you use comes from its pronunciation and rhyme.
So why use this word instead of that word when writing poetry? Sometimes it's because of meaning, sometimes it's because of sound. When you make this consideration, it is not purely rational, but it is recognized by combining the voice when reciting. This is a subtle function, so reciting is very important.
Sanlian Life Weekly: What role does classical poetry play in shaping modern people's minds?
Ye Jiaying: The true spiritual and cultural value can't be measured by the gain and loss of immediate material desires. In recent centuries, western capitalism has paid too much attention to material things, which has also aroused the worries of westerners. In my opinion, the usefulness of studying China's classical poems lies in that it can arouse people's immortal mind, which is good at feeling, full of association and foresight.
From 65438 to 0987, Ye Jiaying gave lectures at Liaoning Normal University.
There are also academic views in the west that readers' reading is actually a process of re-creation, and this process is often the evolution and transformation of readers themselves. If we look at China's classical poetry in the context of world literature, we will find that the characteristics of China's classical poetry are really inspiring, so the Analects of Confucius says that "poetry can flourish", which is a valuable tradition of China's poetry.
Sanlian Life Weekly: There is a craze for reading poems now, and many people have written many books for reading poems. What's your comment on this?
Ye Jiaying: In recent years, China has published many books, such as poetry appreciation dictionaries, with uneven contents. Moreover, many people put a very short poem, whether it is seven or five words or four or eight sentences, there are many beautified sentences and exaggerated lyrical descriptions ... these are superficial and superficial, and do not touch the life of poetry. So I think this appreciation article is of little value and superficial. The person who wrote these words did not enter poetry himself, but only spread a short poem into an emotional prose, that's all. It's make-up, affectation, decoration, not life.
Sanlian Life Weekly: From your personal life experience, what did poetry bring you?
Ye Jiaying: I love and study classical poetry, not for the purpose of pursuing knowledge, but because a sense of life in classical poetry touched and summoned me. In this sense, all the souls, wisdom, character, mind and cultivation of ancient great poets are accumulated. Therefore, China has always had the tradition of "poetry teaching". In fact, my life has experienced many hardships and misfortunes, but in the eyes of outsiders, I have always maintained an optimistic and calm attitude, which has a lot to do with my love for classical poetry.
Ye Jiaying is giving a lecture.
Now, some young people are blinded by short-term utilitarianism and material desire, and can no longer understand the role of poetry in improving people's mind and quality. This is naturally a very regrettable thing. How to make up for this regret is my great wish over the years, and it is also one of the main reasons why I keep coming back to teach over the years. When teaching poetry, I pay special attention to the role of emotion in poetry. Although I also know that my knowledge and ability are insufficient, I am also afraid that I will eventually find more with less work, but that's just a feeling I can't help.
I still think that the inner spirit and touching life of China's classical poems should not be interrupted. Studying classical poetry seriously can give new vitality to tradition. I am just an ordinary classical poetry teacher, but my initial intention and willingness to return to China have not changed for more than 30 years. Today, I still look forward to the endless stream of classical poetry and China culture.