A few years ago, when I went to Hefei, the poet Ye Dan took me to visit The Black Pond Dam. Compared to the rivers of many cities, it does not show its uniqueness. However, the appearance of the Notes on Blackpool Dam makes up for its lack of literary geography. "Blackpool Notes II" continues the refinement of the previous book and advances this possibility. Chen Xianfa once said in response to his writing dabble, "the dual education of geography and reincarnation." It is precisely because of the advent of notes that Blackpool Has a geographical sense in the literary sense.
"Notes on Black Pond Dam II", by Chen Xianfa, edition: Anhui Education Publishing House, June 2021
"Song of Invisibility"
Chen Xianfa's poetry writing has always run through a relatively constant aesthetic principle—of course, this must be based on the constant denial of the early self. And after he wrote a number of works such as "Past Life", "Street Admonition", "Migraine", "Fish Basket Order" and so on, his aesthetic style has formed a constant pattern. No longer obsessed with his early fascination with Western texts, he found his own "song of invisibility" in traditional aesthetics. Of course, this is not a kind of writing that simply seeks the traditional path, but a kind of introspective digging into traditional aesthetics formed within the framework of modernity.
Of course, the completion of his overall aesthetic style was still after the appearance of the "Nine Chapters". Critic Huo Junming said that from the perspective of the text, Chen Xianfa's "Nine Chapters" also embodies the remarkable characteristics of the composite and comprehensive text, which is the resonance and intertext of the poetic spirit in the sense of fusion of wind and materialism, word archaeology and synchronicity. As far as the Nine Chapters are concerned, generativeness and logic, contingency and predestination, individuality and universality go hand in hand.
The peculiarity of the Nine Chapters lies in the interconnected contiguity of each of its poems, a form of poetry that is a heterogeneous experiment in Chinese poetry. What makes it powerful is that it is an ascetic form of conscious writing. This poetic practice may have deprived him of a group of potential readers—for many people, Chen Xianfa's previous short poems, although also obscure, are like individual animals, and it is easy to find its meridians in close reading. The complexity of the Nine Chapters lies in the fact that its Möbius ring-like structure creates a natural reading offense, which is more like a series of works written for poets and critics than for ordinary readers.
"Powerful poetry is difficult to read, and its memorability stems from difficult pleasure, and pleasure that is difficult to a certain extent is a kind of pain." Harold Bloom said in The Writer and the Prophet. At this time, the launch of the "Notes on Blackpool" series is undoubtedly loosening the binding of "Nine Chapters", and its language charm has always been favored by readers, and its difficulty in reading has deterred many people.
Notes on Black Pond Dam, by Chen Xianfa, Edition: Anhui Education Publishing House, September 2014
"A beamless temple of language"
In the Second Collection of Notes on BlackPool Dam, the candlelight illuminates Chen Xianfa's poetic aesthetic experience. The collection of essays of outstanding poets is loved by everyone. In recent years, Brodsky's "Less Than One", "Sadness and Reason", Zagaevsky's "Two Cities", Herbert's "Labyrinth of the Sea", and Wolcott's "Twilight Telling" have all brought readers a new reading experience. In these essays, the poets become a narrator, rather than playing the prophet of the poem.
Although the work discusses phenomenal, philosophical, linguistic, sociological and other knowledge, the whole is still mainly poetry and poetics. Even, when discussing the above knowledge, we can feel a poetic extension. When discussing the definition of BlackPool Dam, Chen Xianfa used the following words: "March Twilight / Water Turbid Boat Lonely / Heron Bird Green and White / Shadow Thin Ink / Virtual and Real Interweaving / Long Breathing / What is Black Pond Dam?" / A beamless temple of language".
This beamless temple of language is a book of revelation. In the "Notes on Blackpool Dam" series, we begin to feel a "dry" posture. In the Chinese aesthetic, "dry" has always been a unique existence. Under the guidance of Zen culture, Japan has also extended this to develop a unique "dry landscape". Su Shi said in the "Commentary on Han Liu's Poems": "Liu Zi Hou's poems are under Tao Yuanming, Wei Suzhou is on the top, and the retreat is more dangerous, and Wen Li is not as deep as it is." The one who is precious is said to be withered outside and anointed in the middle, like a dry and beautiful. Yuanming and Zihou are also. If the middle side is dry, what is the way. Fo Yun: Like people eating honey, the middle is sweet. People eat the five tastes, know their sweet and bitter, and can distinguish between those who are inside. In his later years, Su Shi believed that "dry water" was a return to the truth after "the extreme of splendor", it was "in cleverness", it was a beautiful shorthand, it was plain and tasteful.
After centuries of change, dry culture has become a kind of dark energy. It is like a good red wine treasured by the French at the bottom of the lake, held hostage by the project and the lake, and its enduring fragrance cannot be changed. Chen Xianfa said that dryness, as a great aesthetic theme, is the most flexible and peculiar vein of Chinese culture, and now it is really dying. In this generation of indulgence in visual and sensory pleasures, coupled with the violent reshaping of human living methods by science and technology, the soil that cultivates the "heart of dying" and "pro-withering eyes" has dried up and compacted.
This abandonment of "dryness" has indeed penetrated into the practice of society. Every year, when people pass through the West Lake, they are always fascinated by Yang Wanli's "infinite blue of the lotus leaves, and the lotus flowers of the sun are different red." "People wouldn't have thought that when Su Shi passed through the West Lake, the residual lotus brought him a different life experience." These fascinations with "Rong" also profoundly affect our creations. Once upon a time, the overflowing lyricism controlled the discourse, and the restrained language was imprisoned. Here in Chen Xianfa, the dry posture is mentioned again. For Kuai, he was even obsessed. The "Second Fourth" entry reads: "Every year at the end of winter, there are dead vines everywhere, and they want to meet the first snow." Talking across the surface of the lake covered with ice floes, the voice can't sink into the water, and there are always people who are unwilling and want to say something. At night, the sound of breaking the ice is light and cold. There is a definite tolerance. It's the best time of year. ”
"The Heart of Writing Monuments", by Chen Xianfa, edition: Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House, October 2011
"Withering" is a kind of advent
The experience of dryness in the Eastern experience is, to some extent, also in contrast to the "late style" often referred to in the West. From Su Shi's exposition, we can also feel this tendency. In On Late Styles: Anti-Essential Music and Literature, Sayyid looks at the late works of modern and contemporary Western literature and music, and notices a special style. It is generally believed that years and experience give the master a kind of "harmony and tranquility". Or reconcile with life's problems, or achieve harmonious wisdom. But in examples such as Beethoven and Strauss, the late style not only does not see harmony and reconciliation, but instead shows a tendency of contradiction, isolation, and even self-exile. This is said to be the creation of what Sayyid calls a reverse anomaly. Here, time is misplaced: the creator crosses the apex of life, feels that the time is not given, but has the impulse to be maverick and self-alienating. Late styles are often eye-catching, but in obscure and even eccentric works, we feel that the artist has made strange moves, as if to compete with the inevitability of time.
Yes, if we start from experience, we tend to think that this kind of "dryness" is a kind of return to the basics, or "look at the mountain or the mountain, look at the water or the water." As a modern poet, Chen Xianfa has long crossed his barriers, and what he understands is not copy-paste in the traditional sense. His "dryness" has a broader infusion, which is a new interpretation of "dryness".
Recently, Chen Xianfa created a new set of poems, "Seven Dry Poems". The first of these is this: Every winter, the dry lotus unfolds the posture of a dead man / We know that this is also the style of an immortal / The gradual decay is fascinating / But there is a single and never-ending life in the world / The surface of the dry, that is, the whole of the dry / There is no other imagination / Death is just a certain side of the coin rotating in the daylight / Why only the dry is a kind of landing.
Here, Chen Xianfa interprets "dry" into two levels, the dry surface is the whole of dry, and "dry" is a kind of landing. This is a new understanding and interpretation of dryness. The first level shows us the path and meaning of dryness, and the second level shows us a kind of praise for "dryness"—the advent.
The interpretation of dryness is the mirror image that our time needs. It is by no means a gloomy collection, but a condensation of the spiritual symbols of Chinese culture. In a geographical sense, Chen Xianfa was born in Tongcheng KongZhen, Anhui Province, which has withered, standing on the Black Pond Dam, and he is carrying out some kind of slimming exercise for Chinese poetry with a dry posture.
Indeed, in all his interpretations of dryness, "it seems that dryness is a dilemma." But it is not the dilemma of thought and the dilemma of poetry, for poetry, dry is the only paradise. It is tempting precisely because it merely appears to be some kind of dilemma, and the word 'mere' gives the poet an incomparably clear self-positioning and self-certainty. A poet's best ability is his strong ability to immerse himself in the 'dry'. ”
In our writing, "dry" has moved away. And Chen Xianfa is still calling, he shows us the posture of dryness in the series of "Notes on Black Pond Dam", and in writing, not only "Seven Songs of Dryness", but also his writing after forming a personal aesthetic style is moving closer to "Dry". For example, he never pursues long sentences, follows the language rules of The Chinese language, and his short sentences have always been charming. This is enough to prove that he is a "dry" believer. In the material of the image, his choice is also a "dry" posture.
I think that understanding the weight of "dry" in Chen Xianfa's works can also interpret the central nervous system of his aesthetics. He redefines for us the aesthetics of contemporary poetry, and in the infinite possibilities of withering, a tradition is completed and resurrected.
The author | Zhao Jun
Editor | Zhang Jin
Proofreading | Zhao Lin