? ■ Yamada Gengfu
China's poems have a long history and become a special phenomenon of China culture. They can be called "elders" in the history of China literature. Along the way, those "The Book of Songs, Songs of the South, Han Fu, Tang Poetry, Song Poetry and Yuan Qu" constitute the traditional treasures of the Chinese nation. They appeared in various historical development periods of China, representing the highest achievement of China literature in that period.
This is the pride of our Chinese nation and its great contribution to world literature, which not only expands the "brilliant" side of China literature, but also shows the vertical and horizontal influence of its systematic development. This constitutes the "dual development model" of China literature, which brings us the development of China's poetry chain and deduces the special development history of poetry. As a result, two camps of poetry and literature were formed, and the dual development of China literature appeared, which basically constituted the basic strategy of China literature.
In the long history of China's poetry development, Three Hundred Poems edited by Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period can be regarded as the treasure of China's poetry. There are two different forms of poetry in The Book of Songs, one is rhyming poetry, and the other is blank poetry or blank poetry. This obviously gave rise to two camps of China's poetry.
Once, in the long river of history, this "dual" development was merged into one by rhyming poems, or replaced and disappeared, while in literature outside poetry, it was in a state of extinction. This is a strange cultural phenomenon.
In the early days of China literature, poetry was the source of China literature. At that time, people paid special attention to poetic sentiment and style of writing, especially the flat rhyme of Chinese characters, which laid the foundation of poetic rhyme. This should be regarded as an early study of poetic rhyme. On this basis, a unique theory of China's poetry was formed.
The unique "Han Fu" extended the rhyme of poetry to China's earliest special prose, and later to narrative parallel prose. In fact, this is not accidental, it is deeply influenced by Chu Ci and narrative poems based on Chu Ci. Since then, China's poems have been classified and concentrated. Someone put this clue into The Book of Songs, Songs of Chu, Tang Poems and Yuan Qu of Song Poetry. It can be seen that the parallel prose of Han Fu should be hung up, because it is not a poem but an essay, which is the first prose in the history of China literature in the form of rhyming poems. This is unique. Although there are numerous small fragments of modern poems, lyrics and parallel prose in China's Zhang Hui novels, they can't change the essence of Zhang Hui's novels on the whole. This is the uniqueness of China literature in world literature. Later, the appearance of Guo Moruo's poetic drama pushed this phenomenon to a climax, forming the wonders of China's poetic world.
Some people have made insightful research on this, and put forward valuable conclusions, such as what is Han Fu's prose with rhyme, what is poetry, what is the combination of sound and rhyme, and what lingers on both sides of "poetics" and "literature", which leads to the concrete fact that rhyme has influenced China literature from different levels. In addition, there is a fact that some people call Sima Qian's Historical Records "a poem without rhyme", which shows the literary fact of two-way influence in China literature. This is the first of its kind in world literature, and it is also the contribution of the Chinese nation to world literature.
Following the history of China's poetry development, we can see China's "poetry revolution" during the old democratic revolution in the late Qing Dynasty. Influenced by foreign poems, new poems appeared in China. Some people call it free poetry, and the freedom of poetry appears. This is the freedom of China's ancient poetry. The first is the freedom of phonology. Although the study of new poetry with the same rhythm as new poetry appeared, it did not form the climate of new metrical poetry. Why? That is, the poetic rules that have ruled for hundreds of years and thousands of years have had a disastrous impact on the poet's creation, which still makes the poet have a lingering fear. Therefore, it is logical to release the freedom of poetry creation with the mentality of getting rid of the shackles of rules and regulations. After the New Culture Movement, the new poetic style was gradually formed under the influence of foreign countries. With the concrete participation of Hu Shizhi and others, new poetry was really born.
Together with the old vernacular Chinese, it initiated a new era of China literature. At this time, the new poetry basically kept the rhyming old adage, but it was not as rigorous as the ancient poetry, and there were no rigid rules and regulations in terms of content and form. After nearly a hundred years of development, a new poetic style with its own internal characteristics has been formed, and modern poetry has officially appeared in people's field of vision. Blank poetry (referring to modern poetry, of course) also came quietly, and its appearance was strongly opposed by many people (including poets), who wanted to drive it out of the territory of poetry. And the result? Didn't drive out I think the process of a new style is also a process of relentless struggle, which is actually the case.
However, especially after blank verse is completely positioned, people (including poetry scholars and experts) have a new understanding of poetry, and their understanding of modern poetry has added many new things. One thing is certain, that is, the theory of poetic flavor has had a great influence on the establishment of blank poetry. So what is poetry? There is no unified scientific conclusion so far. I think it will take several generations to really reveal the law.
Judging from the writing style of modern poetry, it reveals a set of valuable rules for modern poetry in terms of "constructing artistic conception, choosing words and making sentences, elegant vernacular and soothing charm". This defines the style of this kind of poetry in practice. Especially in the modern vernacular language family, we notice that "the accuracy of words and the creation of artistic conception" basically inherits many viewpoints with special value in China's traditional poetics, and focuses on retaining the "sense of rhyme" in the traditional poetic meter, so that poetry has a kind of free beauty without rhyme.
The establishment of "three noes" in modern poetry, especially blank poetry, has found a theoretical basis for it. The principle of "three noes" is the first principle and cannot be combined into prose; The second principle is not to use auxiliary words to assist emotions; The third principle is not to punctuate sentences. " I think modern free verse should be like this: "the structure is free, the number of paragraphs, lines and words is not rigid, and the language naturally does not need rhyme, so it is expressed freely", as Mr. Whitman, an American western poet, has long done. The poem of others is "how casual and free." I have read Leaves of Grass by Mr. Whitman, and his poems are free and unrestrained. I read the new dawn of free poetry from here.
Now the lyrics are well written, just like a standard modern free poem. Those lyrics are often interpreted as a release of passion in the music world, and scenes are moving people to the point of madness. This has found a new bright spot for the development of my modern poetry.
And those blank poems can take a substantial step in this respect, and write completely free poems like Whitman to release the poet's feelings. Songs or hymns come and go freely like the wind, and there will be too many beautiful arcs. Isn't that what poets and readers want? Perhaps this is the position of modern poetry, especially blank free poetry.
Ok, I will talk about these problems for the time being, and I sincerely hope to give you some suggestions!
20 18.5.20. In Wenling, Zhejiang.