Ye Jiaying: The cultural heritage of chanting, cherishing thoughts

Chanting is a very important way to get started with learning classical Chinese poetry. I grew up chanting poems, and in my personal experience, reading and chanting aloud is a way to learn poetry and ancient texts; reading without sound cannot really have a deep understanding and understanding of the content and feelings of the work.

Chanting is a way that not only follows the characteristics of the language, but also follows the personal understanding, follows the flat tone of the work, and expresses the mood, sorrow, and emotional ups and downs in the poem through the tone of its own depression and anti-fall, which has a deeper understanding of the connotation of the work than ordinary recitation; chanting is a meticulous, creative, and evocative reading method and expression method, which is a comprehensive expression of words, sounds and feelings, and is a precious intangible cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation by our nation. The purpose of chanting is not to be heard to others, but to enable one's own mind to achieve deep and intimate communication and induction with the mind of the poet in the work through the sound of the chanting. Therefore, there are two bases that must be inexcused before chanting: one is the understanding of the author's and the poetry's affection; the other is the rhythm of the recitation. Freedom chanting cannot be reached without these two foundations.

In the whole world, only China has chanting, and literature in other countries does not. Some people translate chanting as chanting, which is not accurate, chanting is actually a Buddhist chanting, unlike the chanting of poetry. The Language of China is very different from other languages in the world, and the language of other ethnic groups is pinyin language. Several major ancient civilizations in the world have been interrupted, only our ancient Civilization in China, whether it is the "Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic", "I Ching", or "Book of Poetry", we can still read and recite, and we can also write sentences such as "Guan Guan Ju Dove". Why? Because when the times are different and the places are different, as soon as the voice changes, the pinyin text and the things it contains are easy to lose.

Although there are different dialects in China, and there are changes in ancient and modern phonetics, the Chinese is not pinyin, but hieroglyphs. Each form that makes up a text is a syllable, a monophonic monophonic body. Chinese "flower", a monophonic; English flowers have the rhythm of syllables. Our monophonic language has a rhythmic basis of two words and one syllable, and the same is true of Chinese chanting. Therefore, the earliest "Book of Poetry" is "Guan Guan/Ju Dove, in the River/Continent." Lady/Lady, Gentleman/Good Lady". However, if it is always two words and two words, it is too monotonous, so from the four-word poem with two words and one pause to the five-word poem, the pause of the five-word poem has two possibilities: it can be "two three", it can be "two two one", and the rhythm will change more. After that, it developed from five words to seven words, and became the rhythm of "two two three".

The purpose of poetry is to give the reader of poetry an immortal mind that is endlessly alive and full of excitement and emotion. Why is the chanting of poetry important? Because poetry has a rhythm, "ping ping, ping ping, ping ping", its depression and ups have a rhythm, a kind of setback. Chanting is not only an important way to read, appreciate, and understand poetry, but also an important way to write poetry. The poem has to "run" out on its own. How does the poem "run" out on its own? You have to be very familiar with the sound, rhythm, and rhythm of the words Chinese poetry. You are familiar with chanting, so your poems come out with the sound.

China's good poetry has a kind of power to move, where does this power of moving and moving come from? Both the author and the reader are concerned, and they are derived from chanting. Chanting is a rhythm that precedes words, and language and words "run" out of their own with the rhythm of this rhythm. The real good poem is by no means a word pieced together by looking up the dictionary and facing the rhyme book, but must be naturally "running" out with the sound of chanting- the so-called word comes out of the sound, the word comes out of the rhyme, and the word used is from its pronunciation, its rhyme. Therefore, when composing poems, why this word is used instead of that word, sometimes because of the relationship between meaning, sometimes because of the relationship between sound. When you do this kind of deliberation, it is not pure reason, it is discerned by the sound when you chant, it is very subtle, very powerful.

Chanting is not about making a musical tune to sing, it's not rigid. Everyone is different, and the chanting of the same person will be different. You can chant the same poem a little higher in the morning and a little lower in the evening, or you can chant a little faster today and slower tomorrow, and you can accompany the environment and mix your heart, feelings, and thoughts with that poem. Chinese chanting is not a singing tune to teach everyone to sing in unison, not a flower soprano, nor a tone of "Guan Ju", another tone of "Shuo Rat", and another tone of "Will Zhongzi". The chanting of Chinese poetry is to convey different feelings subtly in the same tone. The appearance looks very simple, four words a sentence, two words a pause, all the same. But when you read it, which word is longer, shorter, higher, or lower, there are subtle differences and variations. Chinese chanting is not originally a performance, not in the public to be appreciated by many listeners, but like when I was young, my mother and aunt whispered, my feelings and this poem should be able to combine, your mood tonight is like this, so you read a little higher, tomorrow you read a little lower in your mood, although the changes are very subtle, a lot, but the rhythm is unchanged.

The inheritance of chanting is best grasped from the doll, which is a century-old plan to improve the quality of national culture. Inheriting and carrying forward chanting requires both seriousness and not a rush to achieve quick success. If the specious "chanting" is over-promoted just to attract more attention, or even turned into a kind of talent show, it will only confuse the public and eventually backfire. Chanting is an art passed down from ear to ear, the predecessors of chanting either have family inheritance or have a teacher, their chanting practice is a valuable cultural heritage of the world, and later learning should ask the predecessors of the chanting industry to summarize the rules of chanting, preserve it in its original taste, and promote and spread it on the basis of inheritance.

◎ This article was originally published in the "People's Daily" (author Ye Jiaying), the source network, the copyright of the picture and text belongs to the original author, if there is infringement, please contact to delete.