After the rhythmic poetry was finalized, Chinese classical poets after the Tang Dynasty paid more attention to the beauty of the rhythm. Du Fu said that he "grows with age and the rhythm becomes finer", and also said that he "reforms new poems and chants himself". The so-called " "Long Yin" to see if it is catchy should be its main aspect. Wang Changling emphasized the importance of antithesis in "Poetry" and divided the antithesis in poetry into five categories: "The first is potential pairing. The second is sparse pairing. The third is meaning pairing. The fourth is sentence pairing. The fifth is partial pairing." The Jiangxi School of the Song Dynasty, the Seven Masters of the Ming Dynasty, and the Rhythmist School of Shen Deqian of the Qing Dynasty put forward more and more specific requirements for the rhythm and sound of poetry from theory to creative practice.
As for the specific requirements for poetry rhythm, there are numerous books on poetry practices. Here we summarize the main points and talk about two aspects:
1. Three elements that constitute poetry rhythm
Chinese classical poetry is distinguished by meter and can be divided into two categories: ancient poetry and modern poetry. Ancient style poetry is also called ancient style or ancient poetry. Each poem does not have a certain number of sentences, does not use antithesis, and does not adhere to regularity. Although rhyme is required, it is not strict. Modern poetry, also known as rhymed poetry, is a new poetry style that was finalized after the early Tang Dynasty. It has strict requirements on the number of sentences, number of words, level, rhyme, and antithesis of each poem.
Based on the number of sentences and words, rhythmic poetry can be roughly divided into three types: rhythmic poetry, arranged verses and quatrains. There are eight lines of rhythmic poetry. For example, each line of five characters is called a five-character rhythmic poetry, and each line of seven characters is called a seven-character rhythmic poetry. Pai rhyme is also called long rhyme, with at least ten sentences or more, and sometimes up to one or two hundred sentences. The rules are usually five-character, rarely seven-character. A quatrain is also called a cut sentence, which is to cut half of the verse into four sentences. The five characters in each sentence are called the Five Absolutes, and the seven characters in each sentence are called the Seven Absolutes. Whether it is rhymed poetry, arrangement of verses or quatrains, attention must be paid to balance, counterpoint and rhyme, among which balance is the most important.
1. Leveling and obliqueness
This is the most important in the composition of rhythmic poetry. Ping and Qi are determined based on the tones of ancient Chinese. Ancient Chinese has four tones, namely flat tone, ascending tone, falling tone and entering tone. Among them, the flat tone belongs to "ping", and the rising tone, coming tone and entering tone all belong to "廄". The plain tone is flat, and the oblique tone is short and changes in pitch. As the saying goes, "Don't raise your voice low and raise your voice evenly. The upper voice is louder and more powerful. When you leave, your voice is low and you return to mourn for a long way. When you enter, your voice is short and urgent." In this way, by interweaving levels and obliques, the sound can change in various ways, making it sound undulating and sonorous.
Chinese characters have one sound per character, and there are several characters with several syllables. However, in rhythmic poetry, two characters generally form a rhythm or sound group, so it is also called disyllabic. Since the number of words in each line of a verse, whether it is five-character or seven-character, is always an odd number, there is always a single syllable. In this way: each sentence of the five-character poem has three rhythms, two disyllabic and one monosyllable; the seven-character poem has four rhythms, three two-syllable and one monosyllable. "Ping" and "仄" are used alternately in a sentence according to the division of syllables. In addition, every two lines of rhythmic poetry match each other in structure, which is called a couplet. The first and second sentences are called the first couplet, the third and fourth sentences are called the chin couplet, the fifth and sixth sentences are called the neck couplet, and the seventh and eighth sentences are called the tail couplet. The previous sentence of each couplet is called a sentence, and the next sentence is called a couplet.
The rhyme of rhythmic poetry generally only rhymes with flat tones, so the last word of a couplet must be a flat tones character, while the last word of a sentence can be flat or oblique. The sentences and couplets in a couplet that are the opposite of each other are called "right", and those that are the same are called "sticky". Rhymed poetry has strict requirements on "sticky" and "right". It should be "right", not "right", and it should be "sticky". If it is not "sticky", it is called "missing the right" or "losing the stickiness", which is a taboo in writing rhythmic poetry (such as deliberately "losing the rightness" or "losing the stickiness" is called "bending the style", which is another way of doing rhythmic poetry. The following monograph on "The Beauty of Rescue").
The rules for the use of ping and zhi in rhythmic poetry are: they are used alternately within a sentence, they are opposite each other in the first sentence and couplet of a couplet, and they are adhered to each other between the upper and lower couplets, such as Du Fu's "Spring Night" "Happy Rain":
Good rain knows the season, and spring will happen. Sneaked into the night wind, moisten things silently.
(廄廄平廄, 平廄廄平. 平平廄廄, 廄廄廄平平.)
The clouds on the wild paths are all white, and the water on the river boats is only bright. Look at the red and wet place at dawn, the flowers are heavy on the official city.
(廄仄平廄, 平仄廄平. 平平平任仄, 任仄廄平平.)
The upper sentence "Good rain knows the season" and the second sentence "When spring is the season" "happen"; the previous sentence "sneaks into the night with the wind" and the second sentence "moistens things silently"; the previous sentence "the wild paths are dark with clouds" and the next sentence "the river boats are only bright with fire"; the previous sentence "looks at the red and wet place at dawn" It is "right" between the next sentence "flowers are heavy and Jin Guancheng". "When spring happens" and "Sneak into the night with the wind"; "Moisturizing things silently" and "The wild paths are dark with clouds"; "The fire on the river boat is only bright" and "Looking at the red and wet place at dawn" are "sticky".
The flat and oblique formats of rhythmic poetry are fixed, and are divided by the two characters at the end of the first sentence. There are basically four formats: flat foot, flat foot, flat foot, and flat foot.