First, the breakthrough of sentence patterns.
The sentence patterns of Qu Yuan's previous poems are basically four-character cases. This sentence pattern is undoubtedly a great progress compared with the legendary three-sentence pattern in the Yao and Shun era that we can see today. As far as its artistic expression is concerned, the Book of Songs, especially national folk songs, can be said to be the pinnacle.
But this four-word style, after all, is short in rhythm, monotonous and dull, and has limited capacity. When expressing complex social life and thoughts and feelings, its binding and limitations are highlighted. However, those essays with national styles, such as Cut Tan and Expose, and folk songs such as Ren Xu, Ren Yue and Canglang, which spread in Chu and wuyue, have shown their strengths in expressing their thoughts and feelings because of their irregular words and free rhythm.
Qu Yuan still used this four-character font when he wrote Ode to Orange in his early days. But when he was exiled, his chest was full of sorrow and pain, and he wanted to turn it into a poem. He could no longer bear the bondage of this four-character style. He boldly learned from the folk experience of "vulgar songs and slang sentences" and "not limited to four characters", consciously adopted the new sentence patterns of five, six and seven characters that often appear in folk songs, kept the modal particle "Xi" in his singing, and created a long sentence pattern with six characters as the main character and five and seven characters mixed. "Xi Yong" is Qu Yuan's first "Sao Poetry" that broke through the four-character poetic style.
At first glance, the sentence pattern of "Sao Style" is only two or three words more than the four-sentence pattern, but its function cannot be underestimated. The addition of these two or three words greatly expanded the capacity of the whole sentence. Moreover, as the predecessors said when analyzing that seven words are longer than five words, because "each sentence is more than two words", it is more suitable for "lyric rhyme". Therefore, the creation of Qu Yuan's "Sao Style" long sentence pattern is really a big breakthrough in four fonts.
Second, the innovation of composition.
Qu yuan's previous poems, such as the national style in the book of songs, generally adopt the form of overlapping singing and repeated chanting in chapters; In many poems, only a few words are changed in each chapter to show the passage of the scene or the progress of feelings (such as Zhong Yi and General Zhong Zi). This form is related to the combination of poems and is a reflection of the form of movement. It has the function of remembering and strengthening emotions, but it also brings a disadvantage, that is, it reduces the capacity of the whole poem accordingly.
Although Qu Yuan's Poems in Sao Style are harmonious but different, their composition is quite different. He indulged his thoughts and galloped freely in poetry; Or state, or lament, or shout, or reprimand; Wherever love goes, the pen goes, regardless of the composition of ancient poetry. Because of this, some people who pay attention to Chu Ci in later generations tried to divide Qu Yuan's poems into chapters according to the method of "poetry", but they all ran into a wall. Qian Guozhi, a poet in Song Dynasty, saw Qu Yuan's innovation and clearly pointed out: "Ancient poems have sections and chapters", but Qu Yuan's poems have sections and chapters.
Qu Yuan's "Sao Style" is not limited to the composition of ancient poetry, but has its own composition. His poems have a beginning, a development, a circular care, and even end in the form of "nonsense", summarizing and summarizing the content or theme of the whole poem, and its pulse is extremely clear. This shows that Qu Yuan's poems not only have the creative spirit of "speaking from the heart, not obeying the rules", but also have the characteristics of "spiritual change" such as "moving the law to the meaning" and "stopping doing something".
Third, various forms of interaction are useful.
The basic forms and characteristics of "Sao poetry" have been mentioned above. What needs to be further pointed out is that this new poetic style is not fixed and monotonous in Qu Yuan's hands, but extremely flexible. Qu Yuan has constantly made new changes and creations in sentence patterns and styles to meet the needs of different contents.
In terms of sentence structure, Lisao adopts the basic sentence pattern of "Sao-style poetry", that is, a long sentence with six words, but it is mixed with five words, seven words or even eight words, which makes it more varied and rhythmic, suitable for expressing the poet's gloomy, frustrated and lingering feelings, and shows a thrilling emotional charm. While "Nine Songs" directly adopts the sentence pattern of "Xi" which is common in folk songs (for example, "There are trees on the mountain and branches on the trees, I wonder whether I like you or not" in "Song of the Moon"), and the rhythm is brisk and jumping, which is suitable for expressing the joy and euphemistic artistic conception of entertaining the gods. In Huai Sha, Random Thoughts and Shejiang, Qu Yuan also adopted the short sentence structure (××××× year× month× day× month× day× month× day× month× day× month× day× month× month× month× day× month× day× month× day× month× day× month× day× month × day× month × day× month × month × month × month × day× month × month × month × month × month × month × month × month × month × month × month × month
In terms of style, Qu Yuan not only has "long-tune lyric style" and "Li Sao", but also shows his life experience and romantic fugue in a way with long time span and invincible space. And in the plot structure, the forms of questions and answers (female suggestions, psychic divination, etc.) are created. ), making it "ups and downs" and "long but not diffuse" in the narrative, just like "the Yellow River is a hundred miles long". Moreover, it has also created a style of "asking questions to the end" like that, an extravagant "Fu" style, a "Yin" style composed of several short chapters in series, and an "ode to things" style like orange ode. Such changeable styles and interactions make Qu Yuan's poems present a colorful and strange scene of "impermanence and stagnation, unique style, where the text goes", which is really dull, dull and monotonous and has no effect of the Han Dynasty.
It is precisely because of Qu Yuan's innovation and courage to create that the history of China literature is different from its predecessor, The Book of Songs, and later generations.
Fourth, institutional expansion.
Qu Yuan's previous poems were generally lyric poems to express his feelings. They often look at the prospect, talk about things around them, and express some feelings and moods at a certain time and place. Reflected in the poetry system, most of them are just short chapters with dozens of lines. There are also some epics in The Book of Songs (such as the elegant, encouraging and graceful Guo Gong). ), or lyric poetry (such as the elegant Sang Rou, Suppression, Xiaoya's June, the first month, etc. ) reflects the contemporary major political and military events, and shows that court officials are worried about state affairs. But generally speaking, the basic system of Three Hundred Poems is short chapters. Even the most magnificent Tang Palace has only nine chapters 12 1 sentence of 484 words.
Qu Yuan's "Sao Poems", especially Li Sao, are still lyric poems, but they do not express the feelings and artistic conception of a certain time and place. On an extremely broad scale, he will show the course of pursuing ideal American politics for most of his life and the joy, anxiety, pain and disappointment he experienced in this struggle. Such a complex life content and rich thoughts and feelings can not be accommodated in just dozens of chapters. Therefore, on the one hand, Qu Yuan learned from the successful experience of poems that broke through the lyric short chapter system in The Book of Songs, on the other hand, he used the lobbying words of strategists since the Warring States Period, and was arrogant and unrestrained, unwilling to say what he thought and applied them to the creation of lyric poems, thus greatly expanding the old poetry system and creating magnificent old poems. Although Tian Wen, Qu Yuan's main poem, still adopts four-character sentence structure, it has made a great breakthrough in ancient poetry, reaching more than 380 sentences, 1500 words. After that, there were 372 sentences and 2469 words in Li Sao, which laid a long system of China's ancient poems.
Fifth, the poetic style of seven-character poems appeared.
Its appearance has brought a great liberation to the poetic style since the Spring and Autumn Period. Amin scholar Wu Shuo: "This kind of writing suddenly appeared between heaven and earth after Confucian classics and before Fu." "Looking at the gentleness and inhumanity of the knife, it should be renamed as one and called' Sao'." ? Li Weizhen also praised Qu Yuan for "single-handedly creating an eternal career"? For Qu Yuan, such a high evaluation is well deserved!
To annotate ...
① Compared with The Book of Songs, Cao Cao's four-character poems in later generations are quite innovative.
(2) (5) Lu Xun's Outline of China Literature History.
(3) See Shi Buhua's My Servant Poems.
(4) As Zhu said, "Songs of the South", that is, each chapter. Li Sao, a Collection of Notes on Chu Ci, begins with four sentences: "This chapter is also endowed with ..." This is an example.
6. Shen Deqian's "On Poetry".
⑦ The author thinks that Tian Wen is earlier than Li Sao. My book is Speculation on Tian Wen's Writing Time, which contains 82 or 4 issues of Contention. Investigation on Qing Xiang's Li Sao's Works in Eight or Nine Years, Journal of Fudan University,No. 1, p. 82.
Today, Shen Deqian's On Poetry.
Pet-name ruby Liu Xizai's Art Poetry.
Attending Chen Di's Qu Song Yi.
Wu's poems of past dynasties.
A Collection of Notes on Chu Ci: Preface of Li Weizhen.