Image is an artistic image created by the objective object through the unique emotional activities of the creative subject.
Simply put, image is the object endowed by the author's subjective emotion. And image is the element of artistic conception.
Artistic conception is the combination of the overall environment and feelings composed of concrete things, with feelings pinned in the scene, feelings in the scene and scenes blending.
The following is a detailed answer. I removed some appreciation of ancient poems and Fu Bixing's explanation. I don't know if the rest is useful to you, so I can't bear to delete it. See Resources for the full text. It may be a bit boring, but I hope it can help you.
"Image" is an important concept in China's ancient literary theory. The ancients believed that meaning was an internal abstract mind, just like an external concrete object; Meaning originates from the heart and is expressed through images, which are actually the sustenance of meaning. In fact, China's traditional poetics refers to the artistic techniques of expressing feelings in scenery, borrowing scenery to express feelings and blending scenes. The process of poetry creation is a process of observation, feeling, brewing and expression, and a process of reappearing life. The author has a sense of the outside world, so he entrusts it to a specific object, so that it can be integrated into the author's own emotional color and create a specific artistic world, so that readers can make a second creation in their hearts according to this artistic world when reading poems, and infiltrate their emotional color on the basis of restoring what the poet sees and feels.
The use of images naturally varies from person to person, from thing to thing, from time to time and from emotion. Generally speaking, the methods of constructing intention can be divided into three categories: Fu, Bi and Xing.
Poetry mainly relies on images to form the meaning of poetry, and there are various combinations of images in poetry. ?
The juxtaposition lists several groups of concrete images. For example, Du Mu's "Spring in the South of the Yangtze River" and "Nine Strange Winds in the Water Village" are the juxtaposition of several groups of water, mountains, wine, flags and winds, so that we can appreciate the unique style of spring in the south of the Yangtze River. ?
Contrast combination Select two or more groups of objects, which are opposite to each other and set off each other. For example, in Gao Shi's Ge Yanxing, "The Warriors still danced and sang for the beautiful girls in the camp for the first half of their lives", which was bloody on the one hand and indulgent on the other, and played a role in deepening the theme. ?
Synaesthesia image is the communication and mutual transformation of hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch. For example, in Shu Ting's "Lu Yu", "Bicycle bell hangs in space" and "Bell throws residual flowers in the throbbing long street", the former sentence of auditory bell is transformed into visual suspension, and the latter sentence of auditory sense of smell and psychological feelings are intertwined, forming a very wonderful realm. The bells can float and throw flowers, which makes readers marvel at the poet's rich imagination. ?
Absurd combination is the combination of two or more illogical and logical images, that is, the impossible in reality can be realized in psychological feelings. For example, in Qiu Lai by Li He, "Autumn Grave Ghosts Sing Bao Poems" and "Ghost Singing" are staggering, as if people heard Autumn Grave Ghosts sing Bao Zhao's "Song of Eternal Sorrow" to express the author's grief and sadness. The poetic style is novel and mysterious, which coincides with the genius of Shi Li's poetry in absurdity and illusion.
Here is an explanation of the usage of modern poetry, a bit like poetry appreciation, but clear.
Image is an indispensable element in poetry, and images of various plants (such as flowers, leaves and trees) are used more frequently. Presenting dynamic thoughts and feelings in a static life form can better hide the intense or delicate heart under the implicit coat and achieve the effect of enriching the poetry level. This feature is still outstanding in Xi Murong's poems which mainly focus on emotional understanding.
Tree article
"For this/I prayed in front of the Buddha for 500 years/prayed for the Buddha to let us have a dusty relationship/the Buddha turned me into a tree/grew on the roadside where you must pass" ("A Flowering Tree"); "I'm just a lonely tree/resisting the coming of autumn" (portrait of the tree). In these poems, the images of trees have something in common. Whether it is the firm waiting in the flower tree or the solemn and stirring uncompromising in the portrait of the tree, these are in line with a feeling of "toughness"-just like the trunk always gives people a visual feeling-tall and straight, tough, and even a little tough. These are also characteristics that flowers do not have. Imagine that in the two poems mentioned above, if all the images of trees are replaced by flowers, we can easily find out the mistakes.
In addition to being "hard", the image of a tree can give readers a completely different feeling-"I seem to have promised you/walked with you/on that beautiful mountain road/you said/that the slope is full of new tea/there are thin locust trees" (mountain road). The "full of new tea" and "thin acacia" here give people a fresh feeling. So why does the same tree bring different associations to people? This should be related to the shape of the tree.
Generally speaking, the "tree" is too abstract and too broad. People always think of the simplest and most direct image of a tree-tall and straight trunk and dense green leaves. In Mountain Road, the specific category of "tea tree" is defined, and it is also emphasized that it is "new tea" and "full of new tea". People will soon think of rows of tea trees with bright green leaves, neatly arranged on both sides of the "mountain road"; There is also "acacia". Maybe people don't need to know what acacia looks like at all. Just its name can give people a feeling of affection, and people will outline their acacia trees in their hearts.
Therefore, the different images of trees depend on the different shapes of different trees, and the inherent impression or mood feeling of a specific person on a specific tree. That's the charm of poetry-it's different for everyone.
Flower supplies
"Sunshine/carefully blooming flowers/blossoming is the hope of my previous life" ("A Flowering Tree"); "I believe that/all the flowers on the tree/only come from a seed in the ice and snow" (faith); "When the breeze blows, it turns into a garden full of fragrance" (Qilixiang); "I put tears/in the pages/like those jasmine flowers when we were young/maybe/will fall at dusk after many years/from the occasionally opened title page/without fragrance/silence" (Zen (1)); "If I can meet you on the hillside full of gardenias/if I can/love you once, then leave" (hope); "On a young night/I heard a song/I felt pity/lingering/like a mountain wind blowing through lilies" (twilight).
From the excerpts of the above poems, the role of "flowers" in Xi Murong's poems can be roughly divided into three categories: first, the protagonist-style flowers (usually many flowers together, such as "a flowering tree" and "faith") refer to beautiful things; Second, demonstrative incense (such as Li Qixiang and Zen (1)) gives poetry more sensory enjoyment-sense of smell; Third, background flowers (such as "hope" and "twilight") increase the color sense and gorgeous visual experience of poetry.
The stem of a single flower is slender and soft, and the petals are colorful, and most of them are small, so it always gives people the impression of petite and tender. There is another kind of flower sea, which has thousands of gorgeous and irresistible attractions, as if it were a beautiful memory out of control.
At this point, we can find that the images of flowers and trees are fundamentally different. Flowers represent fragrance and color, giving people associations with specific feelings; The appearance of the image of the tree directly gives people a sense of perseverance, which is more abstract. As for "women are like flowers" and "writing is like a person", it is not difficult to understand that the image of flowers in Xi Murong's poems is much more than that of trees.
blade
Trees and flowers seem to be two opposing images, one firm, one soft, one plain and one gorgeous. Leaves are in between, because trees have leaves, flowers also have leaves, which are exquisite and plain. Often used to express simple and delicate feelings.
"When you approach/please listen carefully/that trembling leaf/is the passion I am waiting for" (a flowering tree); "Sweep away/those memories that are falling/like autumn leaves" (wild wind).
"Trembling leaves" are "waiting enthusiasm", which shows the irresistible enthusiasm wrapped in simple meaning; Memory Like Autumn Leaves highlights the vicissitudes of time. There is a precedent for using autumn leaves to express the passage of time, but time has faded the glory of memory and become more vicissitudes.
Leaves are not as extensive as flowers or trees, and usually attach to flowers or trees, so they don't often attract people's attention. However, the uniqueness of the leaf image is beyond doubt. As mentioned above, it is neither a flower nor a tree, but it has some characteristics of both, which is very suitable for expressing delicate and complicated emotions and highlighting the layering of poetry connotation.
To sum up, the plant images in Xi Murong's poems have three functions: first, to increase the sensory enjoyment (such as vision and smell). ) that is, what poetry brings to readers; Second, the performance of the passage of time, emotional changes (such as autumn leaves falling, jasmine lost its fragrance and so on. ); Third, enrich the spiritual connotation of poetry (flowers symbolize the hope of flowering, trees represent unyielding, etc.). As for the meaning, I think it is hard for us to imagine what Xi Murong's poems are like without plant images at all. Plants are the bridge between Xi Murong and readers' inner world. Because of the rich images, everyone can get different feelings and their own understanding from the same poem. This is the mystery and surprise that "infinite possibilities" can bring to people.