Rhyme is one of the basic elements of poetry meter. Poets use rhyme in their poems, which is called rhyme. Poetry from The Book of Songs to later generations has almost no rhyme. There are no folk songs that don't rhyme. In traditional operas in northern China, rhyme is also called quotation. Rhyme is called collocation.
Most people can tell whether a poem rhymes or not. As for what rhyme is, it is not very simple. But ... today we have hanyu pinyin, and the concept of rhyme is well explained.
The so-called rhyme in poetry is roughly equal to the so-called vowel in Chinese Pinyin. As we all know, when a Chinese character is spelled with pinyin letters, there are usually initials and finals. For example, the word "male" is spelled G not ng, where G is the first letter and G is the last letter. The first letter is always in front and the vowel is always in the back. Let's look at the words "Dong", "Tong", "Long", "Zong", "Cong" and so on. Their vowels are all long, so they are homophones.
Any rhyming word can rhyme. The so-called rhyme means putting two or more rhyming words in the same position. Generally, rhyme is always placed at the end of a sentence, so it is also called "rhyme foot". Try the following example:
Book Lake, Yinxian County, Bi Sheng
[Song] Wang Anshi
Mao eaves are often cleaned without moss (tái).
Flowers and trees are all grown by hand.
Protecting fields with water will turn green grass,
Two mountains lined up to send green (lái).
Here "moss", "plant" and "lai" rhyme, because their vowels are all ai. The word "Yao" (Rao) doesn't rhyme, because the word "Yao" is spelled as ao, and the vowel is ao, which is not a rhyme with "Tai", "Zhi" and "Lai". According to the law of poetry, the third sentence of four poems like this doesn't rhyme.
In pinyin, a, e and o may be preceded by I, u, u, such as ia, ua, uai, iao, ian, uan, iang, uang, ie, üe, ONG, ueng, etc. These I, U and U are called rhymes, and words with different rhymes can also be regarded as homophones. For example:
Four seasons pastoral miscellaneous interest
[Song] Fan Chengda
Tilling during the day, getting hemp at night (m×),
The children in the village are in charge (jiā).
Children and grandchildren have not been liberated to engage in farming and textile,
Also learn to plant melons in the shade of mulberry trees (guā).
The vowels of "Ma", "Jia" and "Gua" are homophones, although they are not exactly the same, and they are equally harmonious when rhyming.
The purpose of rhyming is to rhyme harmoniously. The repetition of the same music in the same position constitutes the beauty of sound circulation.
However, when we read ancient poems, why do we often feel that their rhymes are not very harmonious, or even very harmonious? This is because times have changed. With the development of language and the change of pronunciation, we can't read them with modern pronunciation, for example:
Travel in the mountains
Du Mu
Far from Hanshan Mountain, the stone path is inclined (xié).
There are people in the depths of the white clouds (jiā)
I stopped the carriage and was fascinated by Fenglin.
Frost leaves are redder than February flowers (huā).
Xié, jiā and huā are not homonyms, but the pronunciation of the word "Xie" in siá(s) in Tang Dynasty is the same as that in modern Shanghai. So, it was harmonious. Another example is:
Song of the south river
Li yi
Ever since I married a Qutang businessman,
He doesn't keep his promise every day (Q: and).
If I think that the tides are so regular,
I'd rather choose a riverside boy.
In this poem, "period" rhymes with "zi"; If you read in Mandarin today, qι and ér can't rhyme. If we pronounce the word "er" according to the vernacular of Shanghai, and if we pronounce the word "er" like an ní sound (just close to the ancient sound), it will be very harmonious. Today, it is certainly impossible (and unnecessary) for us to read the poems of the ancients according to the ancient sounds; But we have to understand this truth. So as not to doubt that the rhyme of the ancient bet is not harmonious.
The ancients rhymed according to rhyming books. The so-called "official rhyme" of the ancients is the rhyme book promulgated by the court. This rhyme book, by the Tang Dynasty, was basically the same as spoken English. It is also reasonable to rhyme according to the rhyme book. After the Song Dynasty, the pronunciation changed greatly, and the poet still rhymed according to the rhyme book, which became unreasonable. If we write old poems today, we naturally don't have to rhyme according to rhyme books. However, when we read the poems of the ancients. But you should know the rhymes of the ancients. In the second chapter. Let's go back to this question.
Four tones in the second quarter
Four tones, here refers to the four tones of ancient Chinese. If you want to know the four tones, you must first know how the four tones are formed. So let's start with the tone.
Tone is the characteristic of Chinese (and some other languages). The tone of Chinese is composed of the ups and downs and the length of the voice, and the ups and downs are the main factors. Take the tone of Mandarin as an example. There are four tones in * * * month: Yin Ping's tone is Gao Pingtiao (it is flat if it doesn't rise or fall); The upper voice is a rising tone (not high or low); The rising tone is a low rising tone (sometimes a low flat tone); Voiced is a high tone.
Ancient Chinese has four tones, but it is not exactly the same as Mandarin today. The ancient four tones are:
(1) flat voice. This tone is divided into Yin Ping and Yang Ping in later generations.
(2) in sound. Part of this tone will become unvoiced in future generations.
(3) go to the sound. This tone is still unvoiced in later generations.
(4) if you are born. This sound is short. Modern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and other places still preserve the milk sheng. There are also many places in the north (such as Shanxi and Inner Mongolia) where raw milk is preserved. Hunan Rusheng is not short, but it also retains the tone category of Rusheng. In most spoken languages in the north and southwest, the entering tone has disappeared. In the north, some entering tones are flat, some are flat, some are rising and some are falling. As far as Putonghua is concerned, Rusheng has become the most disyllabic word. Followed by Yangping; Become the most silent. The entering tones of southwest dialects (from Hubei to Yunnan) have all become yangping.
What is the shape of the ancient four-tone ups and downs? I can't know in detail now. According to tradition. The flat tone should be the middle tone, the rising tone should be the rising tone, the falling tone should be the falling tone, and the entering tone should be the short tone. There is a Song formula in front of Kangxi dictionary, which is called "Four Tones Division":
Flat voice, flat road, mo di ang,
The voice above shouted fiercely and strongly:
It's a long way to go, Xiu Yuan,
The urgent voice is short and urgent.
This narrative is not scientific enough, but it also gives us a general understanding of the ancient four tones.
The relationship between four tones and rhyme is very close. In the rhyme book. Words with different tones cannot be regarded as homophones. In poetry. Words with different tones generally don't rhyme.
It is very clear in the rhyme book that what words belong to what tune. In today's Chinese dialects, there are still Rusheng tones. It is quite clear that a word belongs to a certain sound. Pay special attention to reading one word and two words. Sometimes, a word has two meanings (often different parts of speech) and two pronunciations. For example, when the word "for" is used as a verb, it is interpreted as "doing", and it reads flat (rising tone); When used as a preposition, it is interpreted as "because" and "for the sake", and the sound is silent. In ancient Chinese. This situation is much more than modern Chinese. Now give a few examples:
Ride, flat voice, verb, ride; Disyllabic, noun, cavalry.
Thinking, flat voice, verb, absence; Remove sounds, nouns, thoughts and feelings.
Fame, flat voice, verbs, praise; Disyllabic, noun, reputation.
Dirty, flat voices, adjectives, filth; Disyllabic, verb, dirty.
Number, consonant, verb, calculation; Disyllabic words, nouns, numbers, fate; Such as sound (read like new moon), adjective, frequent.
Teach mute. Noun, enlightenment, education; Life, verb, make, let.
Command, silence, noun, command; Life, verb, make, let.
Forbidden, silent, noun, forbidden, forbidden; Life, verb, can stand.
Kill, Rusheng, transitive verb, kill; De-sounding (sounds like Sun), intransitive verbs, fade.
Some words, originally pronounced in a flat voice, were later changed to disyllabic, but their meanings and parts of speech have not changed. "Looking", "sighing" and "looking" all belong to this category. "Wang" and "Tan" have been pronounced in Tang poetry, and the word "Kan" is often pronounced in a flat voice (as a publication) until modern orthodox poetry. In modern Chinese, except the word "Watcher", the word "Look" is always pronounced. There are more complicated situations: for example, when the word "Guo" is used as a verb, it should be read twice. As for the use of nouns, when they are interpreted as wrong, they have to be read again.
Distinguishing four tones is the basis of distinguishing flat tones. In the next section, we will discuss the problem of equilibrium.
Section III Leveling
Knowing what four tones are, it is easy to understand the flat tone. Flat tone is a term of poetic meter: poets divide four tones into two categories, flat tone is flat tone, and flat tone is three tones. Well, literally, it means uneven.
On what basis can the leveling be divided into two categories? Because the flat sound does not rise or fall, it is long, while the other three sounds do rise or fall (the incoming sound may also slightly rise or fall), and it is short, so it forms two types. If these two tones are interlaced in poetry, they will make the tones diversified instead of monotonous. The so-called "sonorous voice" of the ancients [1] is an important factor, although there are many stresses.
How are the flat lines in poetry staggered? We can sum it up in two sentences:
(1) Even couples are alternating in this sentence;
(2) Pingzhuan is opposite in the antithesis.
This kind of flat and even rule is particularly obvious in metrical poems.
For example, the fifth and sixth sentences of Chairman Mao's Long March poem:
Jinsha water pats the clouds and cliffs warm,
The beams of Dadu Bridge are cold.
The level of these two poems is:
Ping, ping, ping,
Flat, flat, flat.
As far as this sentence is concerned, every word has a rhythm. Pingping's sentence is followed by Xu Wei, followed by Pingping, and the last one is Xu Wei. When you start a sentence, it is flat, followed by flat, and finally flat. This is alternation. As far as sentences are concerned, "Jinsha" is flat to "Dadu", "Shuipai" is flat to "Qiaodu", flat to flat, and "Yunya" is flat to "Tiesuo" and "Warm". This is opposition.
As for the rules of poetry, we will discuss them in detail below. Now, let's talk about how to distinguish the level.
If you have tones in your dialect (for example, you are from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Hunan and South China), then the problem will be solved easily. In those dialects with entering tones, there are more than four tones, not only yin and yang, but also yin and yang. Like Guangzhou Rusheng, it can be divided into three categories. It's all easy to do: just combine them, for example, combine the level tone and the level tone into a flat tone, and combine the above-yin, above-yang, out-yin, out-yang, in-yin and in-yang into a flat tone. The problem is that you must first find out how many tones there are in your dialect. It is necessary to find a friend who understands the tone to help. It would be better if you had learned the corresponding rules of dialect tone and Mandarin tone in Chinese class, and made clear the tone of your own dialect.
If you are from Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and northern Guangxi, all the Rusheng words in your dialect belong to Yangping. In this way, we should pay special attention to Yangping characters, some of which belonged to Rusheng characters in ancient times. As for which words belong to entering tone and which words belong to entering tone, you have to look them up in a dictionary or rhyme book.
If you are from the north, then the method of distinguishing flat tones is slightly different from that in Hubei and other places. Because most of the ancient entering tone words in Putonghua have become disyllabic, so disyllabic is also a disyllabic; The other part of the voice changed, and the voice was low. Therefore, the words from entry to change and from entry to change do not prevent us from distinguishing levels; Only when the entrance is leveled (Yin Ping and Yang Ping), it is difficult to distinguish leveled. We came across a place where rhyme was stipulated in the Law of Poetry, and the poet used a word that sounded very flat today, which aroused our suspicion. We can look it up in a dictionary or rhyme book.
Note that any word ending in -n or -ng will not be an entering tone word. As far as Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and northern Guangxi are concerned, the rhymes of Ai, Ai, Ao and Ou are basically silent.
In a word, the problem of entering tone is the only obstacle to distinguish flat tones. This person's obstacle can only be removed by looking up a dictionary or rhyme book; However, the truth of leveling is easy to understand. Moreover, about half of China is reserved for entering tone, so people in those places have no problem in distinguishing flat tones.
The fourth quarter opposition
Duality in poetry is called duality. The ancient guard of honor is relative, which is the origin of the word "antithesis".
What is duality? Duality means juxtaposing similar concepts or opposing concepts, such as "resisting US aggression and aiding Korea" and "resisting US aggression and aiding Korea" to form duality. Duality can be a sentence that is self-correct, or it can be two sentences that are opposite. For example, "resisting US aggression and aiding Korea" is self-contradictory, while "resisting US aggression and aiding Korea to protect the country and defend the country" is the opposite. Generally speaking, duality refers to two opposite sentences. The last sentence is called a sentence, and the next sentence is called a sentence.
The general rules of duality are noun to noun, verb to verb, adjective to adjective, adverb to adverb. Let's take "resisting US aggression and aiding Korea and defending the motherland" as an example: "resistance", "aid", "protection" and "defense" are all relative verbs, and "beauty", "Korea", "home" and "country" are all relative nouns. In fact, noun pairs can be subdivided into several categories, and similar nouns are relatively neat dual, referred to as "work pairs". Here, "beauty" and "super" are proper names and abbreviations, so they are industrial pairs; Both "home" and "country" are people's collectives, so they are also workers. "Defending the country and defending the country" is also right for "resisting US aggression and aiding Korea", because the sentences are self-aligned, so it is not required that the two sentences are equally neat.
Duality is a rhetorical device, and its function is to form neat beauty. The characteristics of Chinese are especially suitable for disyllablization, because there are many monosyllabic words, even disyllabic words, among which morphemes are quite independent and easy to cause disyllablization. As duality is a rhetorical device, it is necessary in both prose and poetry. For example, I ching said, "respond with one voice and seek the same spirit." ("Dry a Classical Chinese") The Book of Songs says: "I passed away in the past, Liu Yang Yiyi; When I think about it today, it is raining heavily. " ("Xiaoya Cai Wei") These antitheses meet the needs of rhetoric. However, the antithesis in orthodox poetry has its own rules, which is not as casual as the Book of Songs. This rule is:
(1) The sentence is opposite to the dialogue;
(2) Sentence words and dual words cannot be repeated [2].
Therefore, the Book of Changes and the Book of Songs mentioned above are examples, which do not meet the standard of antithesis of orthodox poetry. The two sentences mentioned above in Chairman Mao's "Long March" poem: "The Jinsha River is warm on the cliff, and the iron fence of Dadu Bridge is cold", which conforms to the standard of antithesis in orthographic poetry.
Couplets (couplets) are evolved from metrical poems, so they should also be suitable for the above two standards. For example, in Transforming Our Learning, Chairman Mao quoted a pair of pairs:
The reeds on the wall are top-heavy and shallow;
Bamboo shoots in the mountains have a broken mouth and an empty stomach.
Here, the words in the upper couplet (sentence) and the words in the lower couplet (antithesis) are not repeated, but the levels are opposite:
It is flat, flat, flat;
Flat and flat, flat and flat [3].
Rhetorically, this pair is also very neat. "Wall" is a noun with orientation, and the corresponding "mountain" is also a noun with orientation. "Root" is a noun with orientation, and the "belly" referred to in [4] is also a noun with orientation. "Head" to "mouth" and "foot" to "skin" are nouns to nouns. "Heavy" versus "sharp" and "light" versus "thick" are adjectives versus adjectives. "Top-heavy" is just right, "sharp mouth" is just right for "thick skin". This sentence corrects itself, and when the two sentences are relative, it is more neat.
The antithesis of poetry will be discussed in detail below, so let's stop here now.
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[1] "clang", the sound of musical instruments. Refers to the coordination of palace businessmen.
[2] cannot be repeated at least in the same location. For example, "I have been there, Yangliuyiyi; When I think about it today, it's raining heavily. The second word in the sentence and the second word in the dialogue are both "I", which is a repetition of the same position.
[3] If there is a circle outside the word, it means it can be flat or flat.
[4] "Root" The original "root" is a coordinate structure. Write "root" or parallel structure. We say that nouns are locative words because the fact that "bottom" can also be locative words is really used to form confrontation here.