My criteria for choosing American writing are very harsh: first, I must have "taste", second, I must have "artistic conception" and third, I must have literary talent. There are three requirements, both of which are indispensable.
"Taste" is invisible and intangible, but it is real. This "taste" is an emotion that infects you and an aura that affects you. This "taste" is beyond your words. It contains many elements of 5000 years of culture. This "taste" cannot be decomposed. You can't use any scientific means to test what elements it has. Just like a pot of old soup, its unique taste, after thousands of times of boiling and cooking, can not be copied at all. You can't tell which ladle was a hundred years ago and which was yesterday's new bucket of water.
"Artistic conception" is concrete and vivid.
Poetry is easy to write, but charm is hard to find. We often criticize some works, saying that the image is good, but unfortunately it is not poetic. This is the phenomenon.
Good prose is good poetry. The core of poetry is image. The core of prose is artistic conception. There is no poetry without images, only words arranged in rows, no prose without artistic conception, only words piled up at will. Yu Dafu is definitely a poet. He has a poetic heart and makes better use of the brushwork of poetry. After reading Autumn in the Old Capital, the most profound feeling is its vivid artistic conception. Many people feel the same way when talking about this article. I saw it once when I was a child, and I still can't forget it. I can even name a few classic artistic concepts: "Rent a shabby house, stand in the yard and listen to the sound of tame pigeons flying by." "After the rain, the bridge stood in shadow, dragging a long voice to talk: a layer of autumn rain is getting colder-"The word "Le" dragged on for a long time, and it was just the right time. "Also," there are some thin grass growing on the fence. "Also," there will be autumn rain. As soon as the wind passes, it will rain. "These incomplete memories, incomplete is the language, leaving the artistic conception. It can be seen that a good essay must first have a good artistic conception.
"Literary talent" is a word that is easily misunderstood. Some people interpret literary talent as flowery rhetoric, but it's all wet. What is literary talent? Literary talent is a kind of language ability, which is not only reflected in the richness of vocabulary, but also in thinking, rhetoric, sentence patterns, especially in the way of language presentation. Well, let me say it's hard. Why not read Autumn in the old capital and savor it slowly? It's really literary
Now just a few examples.
It is as wonderful as a pearl.
For example, "However, the autumn in the north is particularly clear, quiet and sad."
A few short sentences are clean and refreshing, and the word "de" constitutes the complement compound sentence, which naturally leads you to open "quiet and sad" when reading aloud, not only with soft and continuous tone, but also with clear emphasis. The sentences are not gorgeous but poetic, and the vocabulary is old but unconventional. The result is everyone's demeanor. There are many similar sentences in this paper, which are listed as follows: (Note that this is not a simple parallelism)
1 Jiangnan, of course, there is autumn; But the grass is carved slowly, the air is moist and the sky is pale. ...
The autumn rain in the north seems more strange, delicious and decent than that in the south.
The taste, color, artistic conception and posture of autumn are never enough to see, taste and enjoy.
The silk thread of the broom falling on the dust looks exquisite, leisurely, subconscious and a little lonely. ...
There are other types of sentence patterns, which only list sentences without analysis.
Autumn 1 is neither a famous flower nor a good wine.
When you step on it, there is no sound or smell. ...
I can only feel a little soft touch.
4 is always the part related to autumn. It is the best and the most interesting.
This beautiful and feminine sentence pattern is also common in My Castle in the Air by Taiwan Province writer Li Lewei, but Li Yuyu is counting his successors against the clock.
Erxianru strawberry
Or take "autumn in the north, but it is particularly clear, quiet and sad" as an example. What are those "clear", "quiet" and "sad"? I'm afraid it's difficult to explain it clearly with definitions or synonyms. Even using descriptive methods, it is difficult to fully express the meaning. Why? Because these three seemingly ordinary words contain profound cultural connotations. If it is unfolded, I am afraid that the ideological connotation, inheritance context and character stories are not what my short article can carry. Here I only use the simplest association as a footnote.
What is "Qing"? "Qing" is an ethereal, fresh and lonely atmosphere of "empty mountains after rain and standing in late autumn".
What is "quiet"? "Quiet" is the tranquility of "moonlight in the pine forest and crystal stone in the stream", which is a state of mind.
What about "sad"? "Sorrow" is the fate of "white dew is frost, so-called Iraqis are on the water side". Imagine, the reed flowers are flying, the ground is frosty, the whole world is quiet inside and outside. At the moment, a thin woman in white is standing by the water. How do you feel at this time? The world is too big, but people are so small. The white skirt melted into the world and was quickly submerged by white light and shadow. Who is this woman? Why is she alone? Why is she alone in a different place? What fate will the Iraqis show?
A word is a poem, and a poem is a realm. Duff's works are like bitten strawberries. For example, can you feel its taste?
Triatomic sugar
"I chased Peiping because I wanted to have a taste of this autumn." Not to mention the poetic rhyme of the whole sentence, it is rarely comparable to say that the word "man" is concise and rich. Those who "taste", "a gentleman knows a little about its taste", and those who are full, do their best. The connotation of autumn includes the cultural connotation, life, destiny, emotion, country, history and humanity of China for 5,000 years. Can a scholar fully understand it? So, "taste". This is said from the objective effect, but from the subjective attitude, how can you feel it without putting all your energy and emotions into it? So, "full". Two common words, however, are endowed with rich and profound connotations, bearing deep and sincere feelings. The old saying, "The branches of red apricots are noisy in spring" is probably just that. Jin Shengtan said that the word "tight" came out completely in "Water Margin". I think, isn't the word Duff full of passion?
Words are the externalization of the mind, and the spirituality of words comes from the temperament of the master. Duff is always a melancholy poet. His "A Night Intoxicated by Spring Breeze" and Chi Guihua both use prose to tell the emotional stories of small intellectuals and weak women. In that story, we can all feel the emotions revealed in the autumn of our old capital.
Tired, let's call it a day. Ting Yun's old opinion, with the original text for friends to enjoy.
Autumn in the ancient capital
yu dafu
Autumn, no matter where, is always good; However, the autumn in the north is particularly clear, quiet and sad. The reason why I have traveled thousands of miles from Hangzhou to Qingdao, and even from Qingdao to Peiping, is to enjoy this "autumn", the autumn flavor of this old capital.
Jiangnan, of course, there is autumn; But the grass is carved slowly, the air is moist, the sky is pale, and it often rains and windy; A person sandwiched between Suzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, or Xiamen, Hong Kong and Guangzhou can only feel a little coolness, and the taste, color, artistic conception and posture of autumn can never be fully satisfied, tasted and enjoyed. Autumn is not a famous flower, nor is it wine. Half-drunk is not suitable for enjoying autumn.
It has been nearly ten years since autumn in the north. Every autumn in the south, I always think of the reed flowers in Taoranting, the willow shadows in Diaoyutai, the insects in Xishan, the jathyapple in Yuquan and the bells in Tanzhe Temple. Even if you don't go out in Beiping, you can rent a shabby house and live in the sea of people in the imperial city. Get up in the morning, make a bowl of strong tea and sit in the yard, you can see the high blue sky and hear the pigeons flying in the blue sky. From the bottom of Sophora japonica leaves, counting a ray of sunshine leaking to the east, or in the broken waist, facing the blue morning glory like morning glory, you can naturally feel the autumn breath. When it comes to morning glory, I think blue or white is the best, followed by purple and black, and pink is the lowest. It is best to have a few sparse and slender autumn grasses as a foil at the bottom of the morning glory.
The locust tree in the northland is also an ornament that can remind people of Qiu Lai. Like flowers, but not flowers, they will spread all over the floor in the morning. When you step on it, there is no sound, no smell, only a little tiny and soft touch. After sweeping the street in the shade, the silk pattern of the broom falling on the dust looks exquisite, leisurely and subconsciously lonely. The ancient dream that the world knows autumn is in these depths.
Qiu Chan's faint lingering sound is a specialty of the north; Because there are trees everywhere in Beiping and the houses are low, you can hear them singing everywhere. In the south, you have to go to the suburbs or the mountains to hear Qiu Chan's cry, which is like a cricket and a mouse in Beiping and a housefly that every household keeps at home.
There is also autumn rain. The autumn rain in the north seems to be stranger, more delicious and more decent than that in the south.
Under the gloomy sky, a cool breeze suddenly came and it began to rain. Under a layer of rain, the clouds gradually rolled to the west, the sky turned blue again, and the sun appeared again; Wearing thick green shirts or jackets, idle people in the city bite their pipes and walk up and stand under the bridge in the shadow of the oblique bridge after the rain. When they meet acquaintances, they will use a slow tone and say with a sigh:
"Oh, it's cold-""This word is pronounced very high and dragged on for a long time. )
"Isn't it? A layer of autumn rain is cold! "
Northerners always read array characters like layers of words, which are flat and even. This mispronounced rhyme is just right.
Fruit trees in the north are also a miracle for Qiu Lai. The first is jujube; It will grow up in the corner, on the wall, beside the toilet and at the door of the kitchen. This is the heyday of autumn. Like olives and pigeon eggs, jujube trees show light green and yellow in small oval leaves. Jujube leaves fall, jujube is red, and there will be a northwest wind. Convenience in the north is a dusty world. Only these dates, persimmons and grapes ripen at the turn of July and August, which is a good day for clear autumn in the north and the best golden day of the year.
Some critics say that China's bachelor of arts, especially poets, are full of decadent colors, so there are many words praising autumn in China's poems. But what about foreign poets? Although I don't read many foreign poems and essays, and I don't want to write bills for autumn poems and essays, if you look through the collected works of poets in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and other countries, or the philosophy of peace in poetry and essays in various countries, you can always see a lot of praises and lamentations about autumn. There is always a part about autumn in the long pastoral poems or four seasons poems of famous great poets. It is the best and the most interesting. It serves to show that sentient animals and interesting human beings can always cause deep, distant, severe and bleak feelings for autumn. Not only a poet, but also a prisoner in prison. In autumn, I think I will feel a kind of affection that I can't have; Autumn belongs to people, so there is no country, let alone the difference between race and class. In China, there is an idiom "autumn scholar" in the text, and there are very common readers such as Ouyang Zi's Autumn Sound and Su Dongpo's Red Cliff Fu, so we feel that the relationship between China literati and autumn is particularly deep. However, the strong smell of autumn, especially in China, can only be felt in the north.
Autumn in the south, of course, also has its unique places, such as the bright moon on the Twenty-four Bridges, the autumn tide in Qiantang River, the cool fog in Putuo Mountain, the residual lotus in Lizhi Bay and so on. , but the color is not strong and the aftertaste is not lasting. Compared with Qiu Lai in the north, it is like yellow rice wine and dry rice, porridge and steamed bread, bass and crabs, yellow dogs and camels.
Autumn, autumn in the north, if I can stay, I would like to fold two-thirds of my life for a third of it.