Taste the poetry of the ancients

The ancients wrote poetry, paying great attention to the alchemy of words, often "chanting a word, twisting off a few stems and whiskers" and "two sentences for three years, one chanting and two tears". The so-called refining of words, that is, according to the needs of content and artistic conception, carefully select the most appropriate and expressive words to express affection. Its purpose is to represent people or things in the most appropriate words, appropriately and vividly. For example, Du Fu's "Good sentences for human nature, words are not surprising and endless", Du Xunhe's "Life should be born without a day, death is not a time to groan", cao Xueqin wrote after the dream of the Red Chamber: "After reading for ten years, adding and deleting five times." It is all about the speculation and consideration of sentence words, which is also a common phenomenon in classical literary creation, that is, what later generations called alchemy. The art of refining words is still worth learning, and the following interview is a few examples:

Word for word. Express rich meaning with condensed words. For example, "I don't know where to blow the reed pipe, and I look at the hometown all night." (Li Yi, "The Night on the City of The Flute") End: All. With the word "exhausted", it is written that the number of people who are homesick is so large, and the length of time they have been waiting for hope.

Static with motion. For example, "Bright Moon Matsuma Illumination, Qingquan Stone Upstream." (Wang Wei's "Mountain Residence Autumn Dawn") The previous sentence wrote what the poet saw: The autumn moon of Langzhao is exceptionally clean in the pine forest, casting a dappled light and shadow, and the realm appears extremely quiet. The latter sentence is written by the poet: the mountain spring is exceptionally clear and clear, it flows on the rocks, and it seems that the sound of its clanging water can still be heard. The use of clear springs to flow can reflect the tranquility of the "empty mountains".

Turn static into motion. For example, "Spring breeze and the south bank of the Green River, when will the bright moon shine on me?" (Wang Anshi's "Berthing Boat Guazhou") This "green" character as a verb writes out the momentum, strength and role of the spring wind, the realm is open, the colors are bright, giving people a sense of spring and vitality.

Write quietly. For example, "on the sand and on the poultry pond, the clouds break the moon to make flowers and shadows." The moon was originally relatively static, but because of the fluttering of the clouds, the "moon" was also written. With a "broken" word, write the movement of the bright moon breaking through the clouds. The "flower" is also relatively static, and with the word "get", it is written in a swaying and colorful way. The word "lane" means to point out: the moon protruding from the cracks in the clouds sprinkles the moonlight on the flowers, like a soft white veil covering the flowers, and the evening wind gently strokes the delicate flowers. The flowers swayed in the moonlight. The words "broken" and "lane" personified the three scenes of clouds, moons, and flowers, making them have vitality.

Manifest the virtual with the real, and show the invisible with the tangible. For example, "the green poplar smoke is cold and light, and the red apricot branches are full of spring." (Song Qi's "Magnolia Flowers") "Spring meaning" is only perceptible, not heard. Spring came, red apricot blossoms crowded the branches, and the poet wrote it alive with a "noisy" word on this picture of spring scenery, using anthropomorphism. This "noisy" word is both a painting scene and a love affair, which not only depicts the gorgeous scenery of apricot blossoms, but also writes the lively posture of the apricot branches swaying and the flowers moving slightly under the spring breeze.

Mourn with joy. Such as "when the feeling of flowers splashing tears, hate other birds frightened." (Du Fu's "Spring Hope") Birds and flowers are originally pleasing to the eye, and flowers and birds are originally entertaining things, but because of the feeling of hating each other, the poet was shocked to see it. In this way, the mourning is lined with a happy scene, which makes the mourning even more mournful.

A word of purpose. For example, "the warm wind smokes tourists drunk, and Hangzhou is directly made of Hangzhou." (Lin Sheng's "Title Lin'an Residence") These two sentences ostensibly say that those tourists who are enjoying the scenery of the West Lake are intoxicated by the fragrance and enjoy themselves. In fact, this word "drunk" shows the shameful face of those who have forgotten their homeland. These people have not only lost their morale, but even have no backbone. Condensed the author's emotion and indignation.

The methods of "refining words" are various, Huang Tingjian's poem: "Guiyan is slightly without a three-month event, and Gao Cicada is using a branch to sing", "use" the word "to make the first work: "hug, occupy, in, belt, want", until the tempering to the word "use" is not considered to be finalized. Teng Yuanfa's poem "Moon Wave Building" has a sentence: "The wild color is more without mountain partitions, the spring light is connected with the water", "from" at the beginning is "straight", it feels inappropriate, and I have done the refining words, which is a wonderful sentence. Du Gongbu's poem "Qu Jiang vs. Wine" has a sentence: "The peach blossoms chase the Yang flowers down, and the yellow birds fly at the same time as the white birds." The first sentence of the first draft is "Peach Blossom Wants to Share Yang Hua Language", the poet repeatedly pondered and corrected, and finally changed "Want to Share" to "Fine-grained", changed "Language" to "Fall", such as a change, so that this pair of sentences is more neat and appropriate, and the meaning is endless. It can be seen that the poems need to be tempered and changed! There are also many stories about the refining of words.

The young Tang Dynasty poet Jia Dao went to Chang'an to take the exam. He rode a donkey and walked down the street thinking about his own verses. Suddenly, he thought of two good words: "Birds stay in the trees by the pond, and monks push the moon down the door." Thinking about it again, I thought it was better to change the word "push" to the word "knock", and when he thought about it, he only heard a shout from the other side: "What for?" Before he could figure out what was going on, he was pulled off the donkey and brought to Jingzhao Yin Hanyu. It turned out that he met the great literary scholar Han Yu and his entourage, and after Jia Dao told the story again, not only was he not punished, but it aroused Han Yu's interest in the verse. Han Yu thought for a moment and said, "It's better to type." In the picture of the silence of the night, a 'knock' word makes the night quiet deeper, a little more sound, which can be described as quiet and moving; besides, it is louder to read, and this scene is very beautiful. So the word "push" was changed to the word "knock". Later, "scrutiny" became the meaning of repeated consideration. This is the well-known "scrutiny" story.

According to legend, Su Dongpo discussed poems with Su Xiaomei and his poet friend Huang Tingjian and tested each other. After the little sister said "light wind fine willow" and "light moon plum blossom", she asked her brother to add a word from each of them and say the poetry eye. Su Dongpo immediately said: the former adds "shake", and the latter sentence adds "ying", that is, it becomes "light wind shakes the willow, light moon reflects plum blossoms". Unexpectedly, Su Xiaomei was rated as "the next product". After thinking carefully, Su Dongpo said triumphantly: "There is, 'Light wind dances fine willows, light moon hidden plum blossoms.'" The little sister smiled and said, "Good is good, but it is still not a good product." Huang Tingjian, who was beside him, couldn't help himself and asked, "What about Little Sister's high opinion?" Su Xiaomei then read: "The light wind supports the willows, and the plum blossoms are lost in the light moon." Su Dongpo and Huang Tingjian chanted, played, and couldn't help but high-five. What is the magic of such a change? Let's have fun too. "Light wind" Xu Lai, "thin willow" dynamic is not obvious, how can it be worthy of such revealing verbs as "shake" and "dance"? Only the word "fu" is just right, and "light" and "fine", it seems harmonious, and it personifies the wind, vividly depicting the soft state of the breeze and willow branches, giving people a sense of softness. The addition of "ying" and "hidden" in the next sentence is also inappropriate. Just imagine, the idyllic moon has filled the earth, and plum blossoms are naturally not as conspicuous as during the day. In the moonlight, it was eclipsed. In this way, a "lost" word outlines the scene of the moonlight and plum blossoms blending with each other, enhancing the appeal of this verse, which is really a word.

Yuan Ming wrote in the "Poetry of Suiyuan": "All poems always need words to stand on paper, not words on paper." The "standing" mentioned here is actually to require that the refining language of poetry be vivid, vivid, and three-dimensional, rather than abstract and lifeless and weak. The use of this method of refining words makes the image of poetry language more vivid, thus showing a brilliant and colorful sense of figurative beauty, so that the work has higher aesthetic value and artistic appeal. Ancient poets repeatedly deliberated and polished for a word, and this meticulous spirit of writing should have enlightened the creation of our poetry.

(Qilu Evening News)