First, "elegance"-"vulgarity"
The language of Du Fu's poems has experienced many tests and tribulations. In Du Fu's own words, it is "for human nature, words are not surprisingly endless." Du Fu likes good sentences and attaches great importance to the tempering of poetry. It is this conscious pursuit that makes him achieve great success in the art of poetic language. This is also the main reason why the language of Du Fu's poems is precise and concise.
"As the saying goes, many people are angry, and many kind words are bookish. A good poet can always navigate between elegance and vulgarity, and the key reason lies in one word: flexibility. The "flexibility" mentioned here is the opportunity of word transformation. If we can grasp this opportunity well and make full use of it, we can write poems or realize the vulgar flexibility of writing. We can explore the deepest part of spiritual culture from the smoke of human beings, and elegance and flexibility can find the realm of human temperament from the spiritual and cultural experience like Chun Xue. " [1] In real life and study, when reading poems, most people have a psychology of expecting quaint and meaningful works full of rich literary connotations. However, if you occasionally insert some proverbs that you don't usually pay attention to, you will suddenly "attack" the reader's psychological expectations and give people a sense of freshness, that is, both refined and popular, but fresh. Du Fu made good use of many systems of classical poetry, and his poems were influenced by Han Yuefu to some extent. He often used proverbs and old sayings in his poems. Moreover, Du Fu's poems are open in artistic style, so it is inevitable to be open and accept folk sayings in the use of words. In the middle Tang Dynasty, Yuan Zhen had poems as evidence. "Du Fu's talent is quite unique. Every time he looks for poetry, he seems to have deep affection. It is not the source of the ancients to pity the canal until the time. " What he called "contemporary language" is a folk and oral language, while "being close to the ancients" is the spiritual exploration of Du Fu's poetry from vulgarity to elegance.
Second, the true meaning of "vulgarity"
A major feature of Du Fu's poetic language is "vulgarity". The vulgarity of Du Fu's poems mainly comes from his life experience. Du Fu spent most of his life wandering in poverty, so he had close contacts with the lower classes, and Du Fu knew their thoughts and manners very well. Therefore, Du Fu's poems describing the life of the lower class can be said to be handy and more vivid. Moreover, Du Fu was also influenced by Han Yuefu. He not only studied the ideological content of Han Yuefu, but also imitated the discourse mode of Han Yuefu. All these provide the possibility for the vulgarization of Du Fu's poems.
The vulgarity of Du Fu's poems is not what we usually call vulgarity, but the "vulgarity" that appeals to both refined and popular tastes. Zhang Jie said in the volume of Poems in the Old Cold Hall: "Disciples see that my son's beautiful poems are numerous and vulgar, and I don't know that proverbs are the most difficult, non-vulgar and extremely ancient in poetry." The immortal life of Du Fu's poems also proves to the world that the vulgarity of Du Fu's poems also has certain aesthetic value. It is not vulgarity in the general sense, but the connection between elegance and vulgarity.
Third, the concrete manifestation of "vulgarity"
The vulgarity of Du Fu's poems is mainly reflected in the use of common sayings and old proverbs.
(1) Say
Sun Yi, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said: "Zimeishan has become a dialect slang poem, and poets can't talk about it." For example, "Autumn refuses to know when a guest sleeps" ("Guest Night"); "The river is full of flowers, and there is nowhere to tell madness" (the first of the seven quatrains on the river); "Father, mother, son and wife will see you go until the dust buries the Chang 'an Outer Bridge" (Military Vehicle Shop); "As soon as a woman is born, chickens and dogs will get married" ("Newly Married") ... There are many such poems, too numerous to mention.