Article Source: Boyabook
Most readers are ordinary people, and their understanding of poetry is plain and normal, and there is not much difference in the feelings of joy and sorrow in poetry.
Jin Sheng sighed and said, "When composing a poem, you must say what is true in his heart, and he who is the same in his heart." To say that what is in the heart is true, so that the pen can shed tears; to say that what is in the heart is the same, so that the reader of my poem can shed tears. Between the good poet and the vast readership, there is indeed "the one who is the same in the heart", and the hearts of the people are connected.
The new edition of "The Poetry of Mo Lifeng", which is loved by readers, has recently been released, which is a small book that casts the perception of life and poetic brilliance, and shows the soothing power of classical poetry.
This issue of WeChat will push the preface to "Mo Lifeng's Poetry". What role does poetry play in your life?
In the reply to the comment area to participate in the discussion, two lucky readers will be selected to receive a free book print of "Mo Lifeng's Poetry" 1 volume.
Preface to Mo Lifeng's poems
The first ancient poem I read was written on a banana fan. At that time, China's household air conditioners did not seem to have appeared, and the electric fan had not yet entered the homes of ordinary people, and every sweaty season, the banana fan was the only summer product for people. Although my family is poor, it is also equipped with several banana fans, and when it is cool on summer nights, everyone uses it to fan the wind and use it to fight mosquitoes. To make the fan more durable, the mother used rags to run the fan along one side to prevent it from cracking. So my family's plantain fan is inlaid with various colors of cloth edges, each with its own owner, easy to identify. Father's fan is even more distinctive, with a blue cloth on the side and a few lines of writing in the middle. Those words were the handwriting of his father, who first dipped the brush in thick ink to write on the fan surface, then brought the fan surface close to the flame of the kerosene lamp to blacken it, and finally dipped it in water with a rag, and a mosaic of white characters on a black background appeared on the fan surface, looking very much like the small inscription we copied. The few lines on the fan are:
The moon is falling and the frost is full of frost, and the river maple fishing fire is sad and sleepy.
Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City, midnight bell to the passenger ship.
At that time, I didn't quite understand what those sentences meant, let alone that they were "Tang poems". As my siblings and I grew older, we envied the fan in my father's hand and begged my father to smoke on our fan surface. After that, I worked with my father, he wrote the inscription, I painted. Later, my family's banana fan always had a few poems inscribed on it, and the background was a pavilion or a weeping willow, plus a hook of the moon. So I read poems such as "But the summer is like a retreat, and the old scenery is like a tide", "The sky is as cool as water at night, and I look at the morning glory Vega", but I don't know who their authors are, nor do I know why my father appreciates them.
Although I have known ancient poetry for a long time, I have not developed into a deep friendship for many years. First of all, my family does not have much books at all, and only a few poems in "Dream of the Red Chamber", and the rest of the books have nothing to do with ancient poems. Second, I was obsessed with mathematics and physics in middle school, and I was far from poetry. However, in the year I graduated from high school, a sudden storm completely changed the trajectory of my life, and the dream of TsinghuaYuan that I had treasured for many years was shattered. Two years later, I came to Zhao Bang Village on the bank of the Yangtze River to join the team to work as a farmer. After another year, I sold all the books related to mathematics, physics and chemistry to the scrap collection station, and from then on I was bent on reading only liberal arts books. Ten years in line, life is quite hard, the most distressing thing is not to read. At that time, the library was not open to us at all, and the bookstore could not buy the books I wanted to read, so I tried my best to borrow some books from friends or friends of friends to read, but the lack of water and water could not quench my hunger and thirst. It was at this time that I gradually became fascinated by classical poetry.
The ostensible reason why I love to read poetry is that poetry is very readable, and good poetry is even more difficult to read. A thin volume of "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty" has accompanied me through countless frost mornings and moons. In addition, the poems are easy to recite, although I do not want to be a poet, nor do I believe in the saying that "if I read three hundred Tang poems well, I will not be able to chant poems", but I read and read all the selected poems and words at hand over and over again, and I recited them all. Su Dongpo said: "Temporarily borrow good poems to spend the night, and visit Zen every time there is a good place." "He was on duty at the Jade Hall at night, illuminated by a bright lamp, holding a scroll and reading. I didn't have enough kerosene to light the lamp, and sometimes I even went dark for dinner, and then the benefits of memorizing poems came to light. I can't remember how many stormy and miserable nights, I lay on the bed silently reciting poems, and then carefully recalling, dozens of poems memorized, lonely long nights survived most of the long night.
The deeper reason I love reading poetry is that poetry moves me and comforts me. Through reading poetry, I successively got to know Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi, Lu You, Xin Zhiyi, and others, all of whom were outstanding figures of talent and high moral character. They condescended to walk into my hut, accompanied me day and night, and opened their hearts to me. After a long time together, I was surprised to find that the great people were ordinary people like me, who had the same ups and downs in their lives, and who had the same joys and sorrows in their hearts. Even the emperor of the fallen country, Lord Li Hou, was not an outlier belonging to another world, and I once recited his words silently on the spring night when the rain was pouring: "The rain outside the curtain is babbling, and the spring is beautiful." Luo Yu was impatient with five more cold. In the dream, I did not know that I was a guest, and I was greedy. "Although I knew that his status as a nobleman that day was very different from that of me, I was deeply moved." Scholars before the Cultural Revolution had argued over whether Li Hou's main words had "people's nature", and in my opinion, as long as it could move ordinary readers, it was people's nature. As Jin Shengsi said: "Poetry is not a foreign object, but the tip of everyone's heart and tongue is unattainable, and they must want to say a word." "Any good poem must be a natural outpouring of some kind of sentiment that everyone has in mind, and the poet's skill lies in speaking it in detail and reverberatingly. When I read poetry, I often feel that the poet is my spokesperson, and his works are written for me, and such poetry will of course be touching.
More than a decade later, when I applied for graduate school as a second-year student of the Department of Foreign Languages of Anhui University, the direction of "Tang and Song Poetry" by Professor Cheng Qianfan of the Department of Chinese of Nanjing University became my first choice. After entering NTU, reading poetry became my major, and later became an important part of my job, and I was determined to devote my life's energy to the study of classical poetry to repay the kindness of poets.
Professional poets are actually very hard, he can no longer read only his favorite works at will, nor can he arbitrarily stay in the stage of appreciation and playful reading, he must obey the provisions of the current system and read one paper after another from ancient poems. So I patiently read the "Quan Tang Poems" word by word, and there were many "evil poems" that I never wanted to read a second time, no wonder MengJiao complained that the Tang people "all evil poems are official". So I read a Song poem mixed in from the "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty", and I examined that the "Peach Blossom Creek" named Zhang Xu was actually "Du Nan Jian" written by Cai Xiang of the Northern Song Dynasty. When I was doing these jobs, I always felt a little regret in my heart, and a little bit of regret in my heart. Unfortunately, I was unable to fully express in my thesis the emotions I received when I read the poems, because it did not conform to "academic norms". I'm sorry that the words I write, though shallow, are all ivory tower stuff that has nothing to do with the people outside the walls of the university. I would love to talk to all my friends who love classical poetry (not limited to academic circles) about which poems I like to read the most, and how I feel about reading poetry. When the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House came to me to compile a medium-sized "Selected Poems of Song", I saw it without hesitation as an opportunity to realize the above ideas, and immediately signed a contract with the publishing house. I didn't expect the miscellaneous hedgehog collection, a year later, I only read the fifth volume of "All Song Poems", and there are more than sixty volumes of "All Song Poems" that have not yet been read! If this continues, the Selected Poems of Song will not be completed in another ten years, and I am afraid of delaying the planning of the publishing house, so I proposed to cancel the contract.
The selection of poems was difficult to complete for a while, so I had the idea of writing a poem. What is the nature of poetry? There is no consensus. Xu Yan, a Song dynasty, said: "Poets, discerning syntax, preparing ancient and modern, Ji Shengde, recording strange things, correct and false." Shen Maode, a Qing dynasty, said: "There are two kinds of poetry. The first is to discuss the method of composing poetry, cite the scriptures, seek right and wrong, and open the method of learning after the door, such as "A Scoop of Poetry". The first is the person who wrote the poem, he is short and long, the flowers are red and jade white, for the recent discussion of Xue, such as the "Lotus Slope Poetry" is also. "Their definition of poetry is too strict, and the meaning is too high, and if I write poetry like that, the result is probably not much different from the paper." In fact, the earliest poem was originally an essay by Ouyang Xiu who "retreated to Ruyin and gathered funds for small talk", but the content was related to poetry. Zhang Xuecheng of the Qing Dynasty tarted at poetry: "With the study of not being famous, enter the habit of becoming a good name; blackmail people as much as possible, and write what they want." This speaks from the opposite side of some of the qualities of the poetry that I approve of, namely, the simplicity, the casualness, the lightness. The poems I want to write are these kinds of essays about poetry, and they are my sporadic impressions of reading poems. There are no evidences, arguments, no notes, no bibliographies, and in a word, they do not conform to the "academic norms" in content and form, and they can never be counted as my "academic achievements" after they are published. I write these words not because I have a novel view of a poem, a poet, or a poetic problem, but rather, I want to say some clichés, and even if some of the readings are unique to me, I believe that most people will agree in the same reading context. Although "poetry is not enough", the emotional tendencies contained in a good poem are clear and perceptible, and I want to talk about the latter rather than the former.
Poetry is a highly personalized act, and after Huang Chao fell to the first place, Yongju said, "Stay until the autumn comes on September 8, and I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom", and that kind of agitated pride is exclusive to the revolutionary leader. But good poets are ordinary people, and their joys and sorrows are shared with millions of readers, which is why their works are well known. Reading poetry is also a highly personalized act, and Guo Moruo read from Du Fu's "Song of the Hut Broken by the Autumn Wind" that "nakedly expresses the poet's class position and class feelings", and that kind of torch-like gaze is exclusive to red scholars. But most readers are ordinary people, their understanding of poetry is plain and normal, and their feelings of joy and sorrow in poetry will not be much different. Jin Sheng sighed and said, "When composing a poem, you must say what is true in his heart, and he who is the same in his heart." To say that what is in the heart is true, so that the pen can shed tears; to say that what is in the heart is the same, so that the reader of my poem can shed tears. Between the good poet and the vast number of readers, there are indeed "those who are the same in their hearts", whose hearts are connected. In view of the above views, I believe that my feelings about reading poetry are very similar to those of other readers, and I can open my heart to communicate with you about reading poetry without worrying about the shallowness of others laughing at me. "Hiss hiss, his friend." This is the voice of the ancient poets, and as a reader of ancient poetry, I have the same hope.
In "Liezi Yang Zhu", there are two stories of stupid people, one is "dedication exposure" and the other is "sacrifice of qin", and the result of the latter is: "The crowd complains about it, and the people are ashamed." "I have benefited a lot from reading ancient poems, and I would like to "offer exposure" and "sacrifice parsley" to everyone, in order to avoid the result of "resentment among all", let me first introduce the benefits of reading poetry.
First of all, poetry can move and comfort the reader. He Xiu, a Han Chinese, believes that poetry originated from "the hungry sing their food, and the laborer sings their deeds." Chung Rong of the Southern Dynasty pointed out more specifically: "Jiahui will send poems to relatives, and leave poems to complain." As for Chu Chen's going to the realm, the Han concubines resigned from the palace; or the bones crossed the wilderness, and the soul flew away; or the negative Ge Wai Shu, the murderous male side; the Saike clothing list, the widow wept; or the soldiers had xie Pei out of the dynasty, and forgot to return; the female had yang moths into favor, and then hoped to fall into the country. Vance all kinds of feelings, touching the soul, why does non-Chen poetry show its righteousness, and why does non-long songs show its feelings? Since the core connotation of poetry is the feeling of "feeling the heart", it must have the powerful function of feeling the reader's heart. The Song people Yan Yu read "Leaving the Troubles", "the song is suppressed, and the tears are full of tears". Lu Shi, a Qing dynasty man, read Du Shi's poem, "The liver and intestines are like fire, and tears flow." The ancients did this, so why should the people of today be different? What is even more gratifying is that, as Han Yu said: "The sound of peace is weak, and the voice of sorrow is wonderful." Words of pleasure are hard to work, and words of poverty are easy to say. "The real good poems are the uneven sounds that express the grumbling in the chest, and since ancient times, the good poems composed of "words of pleasure" have been like the morning star. Since the highest state of reading poetry is to achieve spiritual resonance between readers and poets, the readers who can most move good poetry should be ordinary people with "sad thoughts". Han Yu laughed at Fu'er and said, "I don't understand the words and drink, but I can only get drunk in the red dress." "Today's rich people indulge in luxurious places day and night, and they are not in the mood to read poetry. Only the ordinary people of my generation are the most qualified people who read poetry, and we will spread out the poetry scrolls against a green lamp on the night when the moon is white and the wind is clear. Reading poetry is our monopoly and cannot be easily abandoned.
Second, reading poetry is the easiest act to manipulate. The length of the ancient poems is very short, and the poems are mostly thin pamphlets, and there are few luxuriously packaged tomes. This has two advantages: First, the price is low, and it can be purchased without too much financial resources. The second is the convenience of carrying, whether it is a business trip or a tour, putting a book of poetry in the bag will not add much weight. The selected works of poetry are all independent of each other, and it does not matter whether they are in reverse order, how many poems you read each time, and where to start, you can do whatever you want. Sometimes I drink from poems, turn to a random page, and start reading from there. If you accidentally close the book, you don't have to bother looking for the place you just read, just turn a page at random. After reading a song, you may wish to squint your eyes to taste it, just like taking a sip of good wine in your mouth, it is really a special taste. Once you've read it and memorized hundreds of poems, you've stored a book of poems in your belly, and you can continue to read even on a dimly lit, noisy train. This spiritual enjoyment at our fingertips, why don't we enjoy it?
Since reading poetry has so many benefits, I have to rest assured that I will "offer exposure" and "sacrifice parsley" to everyone. The forty poems included in this book are the impressions of my reading poems over the years, they have no profound meaning, nor do they have any novel ideas, but they are all my heartfelt words, hoping that they will resonate with friends who also love to read poetry, and I hope that they can play a role in recommending ancient poems to readers who do not have such a hobby for the time being. The treasure of the world should be shared with the world. Classical poetry is the common wealth of all people who speak and write Chinese characters, and we must not give up the right to inherit this precious inheritance.
August 11, 2005 at Nanxiu Village Apartment of Nanjing University