Jianjia is one of the best chapters in The Book of Songs. Its main features are embodied in three closely related aspects: the fuzziness of facts, the emptiness of images and the symbolism of the whole.
First of all, the fact is vague.
Generally speaking, the creation of lyric poetry stems from the feeling of specific things, so there are always some real personnel scenes in its artistic conception. However, the author seems to have deliberately blurred all the main events. Who is the seeker? What is he after? We don't know; What is the identity of the hunted "Iraqi"? Why is he so hard to catch? We don't know; Even if it is male or female, it is impossible to confirm. In particular, "Iraqis" have no voice, no appearance and no physical appearance. After a while, he was in the upper reaches of the river, the lower reaches of the river, the middle of the water, and the grass by the water. He is erratic and unpredictable, which makes people wonder if he really exists. Undoubtedly, because the pursuer, especially the pursued, is vague, the whole pursuit of characters, events and contents becomes illusory. But it is precisely because of this fact that the artistic conception of poetry is so ethereal and symbolic.
Second, the ethereal image
In fact, the scene described in the poem is not a real person, but a psychological image. This psychological image is not the memory of a real thing I have experienced, but a typical psychological situation which is synthesized, condensed and blurred by many similar events and feelings. The biggest feature of this psychological situation is that it is not sticky or greasy, and it is ethereal and rich. On the Water is the artistic expression of this ethereal psychological situation. Here, the "water center" where Yiren is located has also become a virtual symbolic image because of the ambiguity between the pursuer and the pursued, the seemingly real scenic river road and the pursuit route of the upstream and downstream. We can't delve into when, where and what rivers and mountains they are, otherwise Iraqis are contradictory in the upper and lower reaches of the river, and why even two people don't cross the river becomes a problem. The success of Jia Xu lies in the poet's accurate grasp of people's psychological images, which creates a psychological situation that looks like flowers, making the artistic conception of the poem present as a symbol of integrity.
Third, the overall symbol of artistic conception
The symbol of poetry is not the use of symbolic figures of speech or skills in a word or sentence, but the overall symbol of artistic conception. "Being on the water side" is a common situation in life. The dilemma of "going back and forth in the middle, but the road is blocked and long" and the illusion of "going back and forth in the middle of the water" are also common situations in life. People may often be excited by pursuit. The baptism of a complete emotional flow, from blocked troubles to lost melancholy, is more likely to be often affected by how painful it is to go upstream or how happy it is to go downstream; Readers can think of the situation of love and the experience of arousing love from here, and also think of their ideals, careers, future situations and arouse many life experiences from here. The overall symbol of artistic conception makes it truly have an inexhaustible philosophical significance of life. Wang Guowei once compared this poem with Yan Shu's "Butterfly Lovers", "Last night, the west wind adjusted the trees, climbed the stairs alone, and looked at the horizon", which was considered as "the most popular", obviously focusing on the symbolic significance of life in its artistic conception.
The vagueness of facts, the emptiness of images and the overall symbol of artistic conception are three aspects of a problem. From the fact to the virtual image, and then to the overall symbol, this is roughly the process of constructing the artistic conception of symbolic poetry.