This poem is a representative work of the "Crescent School" poet Bian Zhilin. This is a section of a long poem extracted by the author. The work is subtle and sophisticated, but the language is extremely simple and plain, and contains profound philosophy of life.
The poem "Broken Chapter" was written in October 1935. It is an exquisite philosophical poem. According to the author Bian Zhilin Ziyun, these four lines were originally in a long poem, but he was satisfied with these four lines in the whole poem, so he extracted them into an independent chapter, hence the title.
The first stanza of the poem captures a picture of tourists observing the scenery during the day. Although it is written about "looking at the scenery", the pen and ink are not used to describe the scenery. It only inadvertently reveals the bridge, the building, the viewer, as well as the flowing water and the cruise ship that can be inferred from this. , That bank of willows... It is like a light ink painting, leaving the looming blurred background to the reader's imagination, while leaving the focus of the picture on the people on the bridge and upstairs who are watching the scenery, more precisely. In other words, it comes down to the extremely interesting and dramatic relationship between the two people watching the scenery. The first stanza of the poem uses a realistic writing style to convey the hidden deep love for the scenery of the people on the bridge, as well as the infinite kindness of the people upstairs to the people on the bridge, forming a scene of "the falling flowers are intentional, the flowing water is ruthless". Dramatic scene. But passion is always annoyed by ruthlessness. Can the ruthless scenery and the people on the bridge who are forgetful of the scenery repay the passionate people who love themselves with the same deep affection and friendship? Faced with this common scene in life, which often ends with helpless regret and endless melancholy memories, the poet in the next section of the poem uses a unique romantic pen to create a wonderful story full of fantasy and rippling warm emotions. answer. Time moved to a moonlit night. Both the people on the bridge and the people upstairs returned to their resting places with their own satisfactions and shortcomings. But who would have thought that in this silence, the emotional investment made by people during the day would be rewarded unknowingly. "The bright moon decorates your window." Isn't this the natural scenery's enthusiastic return to the people on the bridge who are obsessed with the scenery during the day? From "your" window that is "decorated by the bright moon", you can imagine that what is displayed in front of people's eyes on the bridge at this moment is a beautiful and charming moonlit night scenery! The bridge, the water, the building, the boat, the willow... everything outside the window is dissolved in this elegant, soft, misty and misty moonlight, and is in harmony with everything under the bright sun during the day. Bi, it seems so mysterious, so wonderful, so sweet, so comfortable. The natural scenery repays the affection of the people on the bridge in its own way, and how does the person on the bridge repay the kindness of the people upstairs? The poem gives an affectionate answer to this with the extravagantly imaginative touch of "you decorate other people's dreams", thereby satisfying the unrequited love of the person upstairs who was originally hopeless in real life. Catharsis. Although there is no direct confession of love in the poem, this rose-colored dream shows how passionate and open the unexpressed love is. And from this dream, we can reflect on the "looking" in the daytime, not more. Do you think that simple and unpretentious "look" is wrapped in so much style, and how exciting it is to make people think endlessly? The whole poem "Broken Chapter" has only four sentences and 34 words, but it contains quite rich philosophy of life, providing many possibilities for people's appreciation. The poet himself once said that "Fragmented Chapter" "writes the artistic conception of a moment. At that time, I loved to think about the close relationship, interdependence and interaction of people and things in the world. People ('you') can look at the scenery, and they may also embellish it consciously or unconsciously. Scenery; people ('you') can see the bright moon decorating their own windows, or they may consciously or unconsciously become the decoration of other people's dreams. "The two sentences in the first stanza describe two pictures. The first picture is "you" standing on the bridge admiring the scenery. "Landscape" here is an empty frame structure that people can fill in according to their own conscious tendencies; "you" is also a general reference and can refer to anyone with different cultural and psychological structures. Therefore, "You stand on the bridge and look at the scenery" is a very random and changing picture. It is this feature that makes it loved by different appreciators. The second painting: "Viewer" is looking at "you" upstairs. "You" become the object of appreciation by "viewers". When "you" appreciates the scenery, "you" yourself is unknowingly being watched by others. These two paintings form a three-dimensional space due to "looking at the scenery". The second section writes that when the "bright moon" decorates your windows and "you" are pleasing to the eye, "you" may become an actor in other people's dreams and bring joy to others. Although there are only four sentences, it describes the interdependence and interaction between people and things in the world. The distinctions and divisions of all things are relative and temporary, while the connections are intrinsic and eternal. And the soul of this connection is human beings. People often think that they are different due to differences in age, status, class and region, and that they live in an isolated world. In fact, people are always connected by something the same. Among you, There is me, and there is you in me, but sometimes people don't realize this connection. When you talk about others, whether it is praise or disparagement, you yourself are also praised or disparaged by others. Others may make your life beautiful, and you can also bring good news to others. This poem is just the poet's "artistic conception" and thoughts in a moment, but its connotation is infinitely rich, implying the complex relationship between people and events. The era in which "Fragmented Chapter" was written made it inevitably influenced by foreign poetry, but Bian Zhilin intentionally or unintentionally implanted elements of classical poetry into the poem. That's its intertextuality.
"Broken Chapter" depicts an interconnected world through "seeing" and "decoration". In the first stanza of the poem, "You stand on the bridge and look at the scenery/The people watching the scenery are watching you upstairs." Bian Zhilin does not limit herself to her predecessors, but pushes the scenery away and examines each other with an omniscient and omnipotent third pair of eyes. Watching the world. At the same time, the poet is also using the technique of "A Chinese Girl's Leaving Soul" to look at herself. In this sense, "Broken Chapter" and Wang Guowei's poems are in the same vein. The first stanza and the second stanza of the poem: "The bright moon decorates your windows/you decorate other people's dreams," complement each other and are integrated into one. In the long history of Chinese literature, there has long been the story of Zhuangzi dreaming of butterflies. Zhuangzi and butterflies decorate each other, which is a confusing yet integrated dream that reflects a beautiful wish of human beings.
"Broken Chapter" also creates a beautiful dream for people through "seeing" and "decoration". After all, humans are social animals. While pursuing a free life, they will inevitably fall into other people's eyes and dreams. "Fragmented Chapter" constructs a rich poetic environment, poetic interest, and poetic thoughts through several groups of images, and through the true rotation of the images, it builds a flying bridge between the images that "changes the natural chasm into a thoroughfare." In its logical structure Under the continuous connection, the thin skeleton of the image immediately becomes full and rich in people's vision, and the links continue to expand, eventually forming an infinitely rich, complete and full art world. There are one to four sentences in the whole poem, each of which can be used as an independent image of the situation: "You look at the scenery", "People looking at the scenery look at you", "The bright moon decorates your window", "You decorate other people's dreams" ". In the first stanza, the first sentence "you" is the subject of the situation, and "landscape" is the object of the situation; but in the second sentence, the "landscape" that was once the object suddenly changes and becomes part of the subject. The "you" of "you" moves from the beginning of the first sentence to the end of the second sentence and becomes the object. The second verse is similar. This kind of image structure of "rings within rings, sets within sets" is not only similar to the true ballad in the Chinese folk tale "The Mouse Marries a Girl", "The sky is afraid of clouds, the clouds are afraid of wind, the wind is afraid of walls, the walls are afraid of mice, and mice are afraid of cats." ..." is the same, full of relaxed wisdom, full of interest and fun. Moreover, due to the connection of the image chain, the four static scenes have a sense of visual flow, making it like a movie scene, with scenes pouring into the eyes, making it... The static and abstract Chinese characters are transformed into fluid and concrete visual images, making people sincerely marvel at the poet's uncanny craftsmanship. The main image of "Broken Chapter" is that of events, showing a smooth flow between them. Moreover, each state of affairs image is divided into several physical state images, and the physical state images in each state of affairs image (such as "landscape" in the first stanza, "you" in the second stanza) are repeated in the upper and lower sentences. It gives the whole poem a through line, so it is completely different from the jumping and jumping sense of the former, making the whole poem full of energy, accessible and comfortable.