"A pot of wine between flowers, drinking alone without blind dates" and "Bright moon and pine light, Qingquan stone upstream", these popular Tang poems are still classics recited by later generations today. A poem was born in a world before the spread of printing, and after that, based on handwritten manuscripts and oral performances, it came to us step by step through the wind and sand of the times. Each poem became "unique" because of the differences between its scribes and reciters, experiencing the influence of "memory" and the polishing of "colloquiality", becoming what we see today.
What is the original appearance of these "Tang poems" and how did they evolve? Why did ancient poetry prosper in the Tang Dynasty? How was the circulation of Tang Dynasty poetry deeply embedded in social change?
The following is a Q&A with readers from the translator of "Poetry from the Tang Dynasty", Ph.D. in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, and assistant professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences of Tsinghua University.
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God's Fish: Teacher Feng, why do we have to let our children insist on reading Tang poems from childhood to adulthood? In modern society, does ancient poetry have any other meaning besides beauty?
Feng Naixi:
I believe that the meaning of ancient poetry, as the essence of ancient Chinese culture, is not only to bring us aesthetic experience. Modern society, especially cyberspace, is full of unpolished, redundant and even too crude vocabulary expressions, which will affect children's literacy and aesthetic taste in the long run. The significance of returning to the literary classics is first of all to impact the potential vulgarization tendencies in popular culture and balance the problems caused by the "short and fast" stimulating entertainment methods. Tang poetry has its condensed language expression, which is a good language training for children, and can enhance their "Xindaya" language ability in a subtle way. Tang poems also show many profound images and scenes, such as the magnificence of mountains and rivers, the hardships of border life, and the joy of reunion after a long absence, these experiences and emotions are worth pondering repeatedly, and we find the power of nature and life from them. I also believe that reading Tang poems should not be mechanical rote memorization, but should be combined with real-life scenes. For example, if you take your child to see a willow tree in the spring, you can naturally teach him to "not know who cut the fine leaves, and the spring breeze in February is like scissors." In the process of recitation, children not only learn the language, but also observe the appearance of willow leaves and imagine the shape of the spring wind. It is a comprehensive and enjoyable learning experience.
Qing Xi Liu Yue (Where): What are the modern characters that can be compared with the poetry of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Is there a difference between Tang poetry and Song poetry for modern times and whether there is or not?
The literary classics represented by Tang poems and Song Ci are still very important to us today. First of all, poetry can give us a concise, beautiful, and meaningful language experience, which is exactly what Internet buzzwords lack, and it is also what we urgently need to regain now. Secondly, the magnificence of nature depicted in literary classics or the hundreds of changes in the human world can often give us the emotional power to penetrate the ancient and modern times, so that people have the courage to face difficulties and dare to express their feelings. In addition, literary classics are also the source of self-confidence of our nation, and learning classics is the process of understanding our own history and culture.
Little Hedgehog Zhigang: May I ask the teacher, was Tang poetry a colloquial singing song at that time? Was there a female poet as famous as Li Qingzhao in the Tang Dynasty?
In the Tang Dynasty, the function of poetry was very diverse, and many poems had a strong colloquial nature and could be used for singing. Liyuan musicians and Chang'an City musicians also often ask famous poets for poems to perform, please refer to my previous reply. Of course, the poetry of the Tang Dynasty underwent an obvious process of regularization, becoming more and more a skill that showed the identity of the literati, and gradually becoming a more pure literary art, and some of it was gradually disconnected from performance.
Surging netizen zi6F73: Hello Teacher Feng, it is easy to get high scores in the exam, and the word "idiomatic" represents elegance? Is popular necessarily secular?
Hello. I think that the text itself is neutral, that the strange characters are not directly related to whether they are elegant or not, and that popular words and literature must not simply be equated with vulgarity. The use of strange words may reflect a person's broad knowledge to a certain extent, but the use of common words does not mean that a person is not knowledgeable enough. Literary works composed of common words can also be deafening. Please see Mr. Lu Xun's "Scream", there are very few strange words, but each article directly hits the sore point, which is amazing. Look at Wang Wei's "Lu Chai": "The empty mountain does not see anyone, but it hears people's voices." Return to the deep forest and look back at the moss. "All are common words, but they are full of painting and poetry, very beautiful and moving." Since the late Ming Dynasty, popular literature such as opera novels has become increasingly developed, and Feng Menglong's "Mountain Song" has received many small songs of the times, which are very popular, but they are not literary. In summary, there is no strict boundary between elegant customs, blunt "dropped book bags" are not necessarily elegant, and using blunt colloquialisms is not necessarily vulgar.
Lei Lulu: Teacher Feng, why does your "Yushan Danchi" translate Fuchun River as Fuyang River?
Thank you for reading it carefully. Fuchun River was also known as Fuyang River at that time, and the author used Fuyang in the original text. In order to respect the original intention, I also discussed it with the editors and teachers at that time, and decided to use the name of "Fuyang".
Surging netizen NV3Ezi: Why are the ancient poems of the Tang Dynasty highly prosperous, but the words are rarely mentioned?
Compared with Tang Dynasty poetry, words appear to be less famous, and there are many reasons for this. First of all, our understanding of ancient literature today is deeply influenced by the saying that "there is literature from generation to generation", and "Tang poetry, Song Poetry, Yuanqu, Ming and Qing Novels" has become a kind of "common sense" thinking, as if the words before the Song Dynasty were not good, as if there were no novels before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which is obviously misleading. This line of thinking is brought about by the traditional narrative of literary history, and we should keep reflecting on it. Secondly, compared with poetry, the word creation of the Tang Dynasty was generally limited to more private banquets and entertainment occasions, and it was around the middle and late Tang Dynasties that it gradually became popular. The number of extant Tang Dynasty words is also relatively limited, and the works of Wen Tingjun and Wei Zhuang are familiar to everyone. The Tang Dynasty words were compiled into a collection of words later, and it was not until the Five Dynasties period that the famous "Huajian Words" was born. In contrast, the poetry of the Tang Dynasty was created on a larger scale, and the Collection of Tang Poetry had been produced since the Tang Dynasty, and it seemed to be more prosperous. Finally, scholars usually study the words of the Tang and Five Dynasties together, analyze their relationship with Lefu poetry and Gelug poetry, and also analyze their influence on Song Dynasty poetry. Tang Dynasty words are highly valued in academic circles, and it can only be said that it is not as famous as Tang poetry among ordinary readers.
It is quite difficult to change the name: please ask the teacher, how do foreigners understand Tang poetry? Can the translator turn out the rhyme and rhythm?
There are many outstanding Experts in Tang Poetry among overseas Sinologists, and Stephen Owen, professor emeritus of Harvard University, is one of them. Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspectives often give them the opportunity to see new problems, and they can also be unique in interpreting the literary and artistic value of Tang poetry. Foreign translations of Tang poems also have a long history, and good translations try to reproduce the imagery and emotions in the poems, reproducing as much as possible the "charm" you mention. However, due to the difference in language, the lattice cannot be fully reproduced. I think it is not difficult to explain the content of a Tang poem in another language, but it is difficult to reproduce it completely "by faith". This is not only a problem faced by Tang poetry, but also a problem faced by poetry in all languages.
Cherry Father Q: Teacher Feng, what is your comment on the statement that "Spring River Flower Moon Night" is a lonely article? What is the artistic level of "Spring River Flower Moon Night"?
According to scholars' research, the poem "Spring River Flower Moon Night" does not appear in the extant Collection of Tang Dynasty poems, that is, it may not have been so famous or representative in the Tang Dynasty. It first entered the poetry collection, which should be in the "Lefu Poetry Collection" compiled by Guo Maoqian in the Northern Song Dynasty. Poetry critics of the Ming Dynasty began to pay more and more attention to this poem. For example, the Jingling poet Tan Yuanchun believes that it is written with affection. The saying "a single piece covers the whole Tang Dynasty" gradually became popular during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Wang Minyun put forward the idea of "isolated pieces", and Wen Yiduo further praised it as "poetry within poetry, peak among peaks". We should note that this is a process of continuous elevation of status, and the comments of critics of different eras on "Spring River Flowers and Moonlit Nights" must be closely related to cultural phenomena such as ideological trends and aesthetic tastes of the times in which they live. Zhang Ruoxuan currently has very few surviving poems, and "Spring River Flower Moon Night" is a very precious surviving work. Personally, the poem is very beautifully written and contains a philosophical contemplation.
Watermelon Coke Flavor: Please ask the teacher, Li Shangyin so many untitled Tang poems, is it because he can't think of a name? Or is the name lost in circulation?
The function of the title of Poetry in the Tang Dynasty is slightly different from the function of the title of our literary works today, it is not only to name the main theme of the article, but also to introduce the background of the production of the work. Common poems in the Tang Dynasty are relatively long, such as Wang Wei's "Remembering the Shandong Brothers on September 9". However, in later generations, these poem titles were also modified by later editors, such as "The Year of the Li Turtle on the River" was changed to "Acacia" (Red Bean ShengNanguo), which became easier to remember. Li Shangyin's situation is very special, his untitled poems are the focus of poetry researchers, of course, it has also caused a lot of controversy, and it is still inconclusive. Generally speaking, Li Shangyin's untitled poems refer to those that were not given a title when they were created. Most of these poems are poignant and misty, and there are few traces of social and singing, more like a person's inner monologue, or the lingering sorrow of expressing love, or the sustenance of personal feelings. I think perhaps because the title method that prevailed in the Tang Dynasty was not suitable for the creation of works like Li Shangyin, he chose "untitled". Of course, this is not to say that Li Shangyin can't think of a name, and he still has many works with titles.
JinSerSixian: Teacher Feng, how does Tang Shi integrate the artistic conception and emotion so perfectly?
The reason why we can feel today that Tang poetry has such a high achievement in literary conception and emotional expression is because the "Tang poetry" that we are familiar with now is a classic carefully selected after more than a thousand years. If you open the Quan Tang Poetry, you will find that in fact, there are a large number of poems in the Tang Dynasty that are not so exquisite. Bad poetry and rough poetry exist, but they rarely appear in the field of vision of the average reader. What we usually read, especially those recited to children, can be said to be the essence of the essence, of course, can achieve the perfect integration of emotions and moods.
Rose-colored you: Was Li Bai very appreciated by the emperors of the time when he was alive? Why did Li Bai, who wanted to be a politician, end up becoming a poet?
In the Tang Dynasty, most poets were not the kind of professional writers we understand today. They had multiple identities, mainly studying for a career and then serving as officials in the dynasty. Almost no one in the Tang Dynasty wrote poetry for remuneration, and most of their poetry had social functions, such as communicating with friends and, of course, recommending themselves to high-ranking and powerful people. Li Bai's poetry should have been very popular with the ruling elite at the time, but his career was not ideal. In my opinion, it cannot be said that he was hindered in his career and then turned to the role of poet, which is more like the choice of the literati of the Ming Dynasty, when the road to livelihood of professional writers has emerged. However, Li Baishi's unsatisfactory journey did inspire his melancholy and made him write a large number of wonderful works.
Dancing Van Gogh: Are the people of the Tang Dynasty famous for writing poetry like modern stars and Internet celebrities? Will there be fans chasing them for poetry?
Many Tang Dynasty poets were already famous during their lifetime, such as Liu Yuxi, Bai Juyi and so on. They do have a lot of enthusiastic readers, and someone will find a way to get their new poems and copy or sing them. Among these fans, the most interesting may be the Singer Ji of the Chu Pavilion in Qinlou and the Pear Garden Musician in the Palace, who will also actively sing the poet's new poems, and these works will invisibly add color to their performances, and correspondingly enhance their reputation.
Let's go to sea together: Teacher Feng asks you, why are Tang poems limited to three hundred? If so, which one is the best? Which ones are selected in the muddy waters?
There are a large number of Tang poems in existence, and the Quan Tang Poems compiled in the Qing Dynasty contain about 40,000 Poems of the Tang Dynasty, so it is said that the Tang poems are by no means limited to three hundred. The impression of "three hundred poems" should come from the anthology of "Three Hundred Tang Poems", which is an anthology of Tang poems compiled by the early Qing Dynasty scholar Sun Su, and excerpts more than three hundred Tang poems that he considers to be the most classic. The reason for choosing the number "three hundred" may be due to Confucius's deletion of the "Book of Poetry" into three hundred: "Three hundred poems, in a word, it is said: thinking innocence." "This anthology is very popular to this day. There are many masterpieces in Tang poetry, and every reader has his own first in his heart, and there is no absolute standard.
A guest line: Teacher Feng, when did the literati of the Tang Dynasty write poems? Why do so-and-so titles send so-and-so there?
There were many occasions when the literati of the Tang Dynasty wrote poetry, of which social occasions accounted for the main body, such as encounters on the road, gatherings and banquets. Your observation is very accurate, the farewell is a very important occasion, many poets feel a lot in this situation, clinging to their friends, so they specially write poems to give to each other.
Surging netizen NV3Ezi: There is a problem that has not been understood, we are now interpreting ancient poems, including primary and secondary school textbooks and even fixing various imagery, so is the content of such an interpretation the meaning that the author wants to express? Or how should we read ancient poems?
Our current understanding of an ancient poem is influenced by multiple factors. The literal meaning of the work itself is easy to change due to the differences in the experience and ways of life in ancient and modern times. At the same time, the interpretation of successive generations of critics and editors may have an important impact on the circulation of works, which will also shape our understanding today. The case of fixed imagery that you mentioned is often a problem that arises after the classicization of the work. Perhaps the first poem can be interpreted in many ways, it can be a chant, a puzzle, or it can express love or resentment at the same time. But this pluralistic and fluid meaning will gradually become fixed in the process of circulation and be incorporated into a certain interpretation. In my opinion, reading ancient poetry should return to the text itself, starting from the scene, image and even sound itself constructed by the words, and experience the content and aesthetic characteristics of the poem.
Zi FeiYu: May I ask whether the people who wrote poetry in the Tang Dynasty were all literati and scholars, or high-ranking officials and nobles, but only a relatively niche circle? Far from becoming a mass event?
The authorship of existing Tang Dynasty poetry is diverse, mainly among them scholars who intend to enter the army, but there are also monks, women, and so on. Poetry became popular among literati, which was closely related to the development of the imperial examination system; writing, passing on, and reciting poems became part of social activities. The literacy rate of the Tang Dynasty has increased significantly compared with before, but it is obviously incomparable with the literacy rate of modern society. It can be said that the poetry creation of the Tang Dynasty was more popular than before, but it was still not an activity in which everyone participated in modern society.
Wen a pot of moonlight wine.: Some people say that most of the Tang poems we learn now have been deleted and revised by later generations, is it true?
The Tang poems we see now go through a long and complex process of circulation, in which it is common for the poetry text to change. Before the spread of printing, the circulation of Tang Dynasty poetry relied mainly on handwritten and oral transmission, and these reproduction methods were full of instability and could easily change the text. This change occurred in the Tang Dynasty, even when the author was still alive, and continued in later generations. Taking Wei Zhuang's "Qin Women's Yin" as an example, there are many copies of the manuscript in the Dunhuang scrolls, and there are slight differences between each copy. For a specific discussion, you can refer to "There are poems from the Tang Dynasty", which has a very detailed analysis in the book.
Long-haired rabbit blue blue: Why did tang Dynasty gelug poetry pay so much attention to rhyme?
In fact, ancient poetry had an emphasis on rhyme, but in different times there were different ways. For example, the large number of overlapping words that appear in the Book of Poetry (such as "Qingqing ZiZhen, leisurely my heart"), and the "Xi" in the Chu Ci to connect sentences (such as "the road is long and its cultivation is far away, I will seek up and down" are different ways of creating prosody. In the Tang Dynasty, the rules of verse prosody became more explicit, and were widely applied to the creation of five-character and seven-word poems, forming what we call "Gelu poetry" today. Gelug poetry, also known as "near body poetry", here the "close body" is relative to the Tang Dynasty", which corresponds to the "ancient body" poetry of the Six Dynasties of Han and Wei. Grammatical poetry can also be subdivided into rhythmic poems, sentences and other forms. Rather than saying that Tang Dynasty gelu poems pay attention to rhyme, it may be said that it is precisely because Tang Dynasty poetry pays attention to rhyme that they have obtained the name "Gelu poems".
Medock: Why don't people like to ponder poetry now? In those years I also heard about Wang Guozhen... Can writing a poem in a college entrance examination essay give a high score? Isn't poetry more concise and charming in conveying information? If the peak of the poem was in the past, now "pear blossom body" "peeing body"... In the future, where is the poetry road? Ask for advice.
Hello, I also think that ancient poetry conveys more concise and more rhyme, and its way of expressing emotions and ambitions is more elegant. There are complex reasons why there is now a decline in interest in poetry. Reading poetry requires quietly and slowly pondering the words and sentences, thinking repeatedly. Maybe it's that we now have more avenues of entertainment and can find fulfillment in a shorter period of time, so we don't spend more time reading literature. We now have very few people who are in a state of hands that cannot be released, and most of them are "hands on the phone". The time allocated to the reading of classics is constantly compressing, and in the mass media text environment that creates gimmicks and pursues eye-catching headlines, our language expression ability has also been correspondingly problematic, which is indeed worrying.
Residents of Macondo: Hello Dr. Feng, my confusion is why the Tang Dynasty is divided according to the early Tang Dynasty, Sheng Tang, Middle Tang, and Late Tang Dynasty, is there any other more innovative division criterion?
The division you mentioned in the "early Tang Dynasty, Sheng Tang Dynasty, Middle Tang Dynasty, and Late Tang Dynasty" has its academic basis. The history of the Tang Dynasty has been divided into several stages because of a number of important historical events, each of which has its own relatively unique political, social and cultural conditions. This division is intended to facilitate academic discussion and has the meaning of "convention". In the context of Tang Dynasty poetry, these stages often symbolize different poetic cultures, such as the early Tang Dynasty poetry is the development stage of Gelug poetry; the Sheng Tang poetry is very diverse from genre to genre, and also produces giants such as Du Fu and Li Bai, and so on. Of course, this division is not absolute, and in fact each stage is closely related to each other. The specific era classification criteria to use depends on the topic to be discussed. Other division methods include the imperial year number, the Gregorian calendar "century" year, etc., which are also very common in academic research.
The surging netizen niIrqe: In ancient times, there was no internet, how was a poem written and known by the same people, and how did it spread to the circle of the people? Will there be no good works that can't be passed on for miles? Thank you.
Of course, ancient works can be widely circulated, otherwise it would be difficult for us to see so many literary classics today. Specifically, in the era before the spread of printing, poetry was created and disseminated both by pen and paper, but also by mouth. It is not what we envision today of the poet "writing" a definite text and then copying it, but gradually spreading in the process of copying, singing, and performing. In the Tang Dynasty, poetry could be inscribed on temple walls, on mountain stones, or sung by children and singers. Readers can borrow a friend's poetry to copy, and there are often poems in the temple. As the saying goes, "one pass ten, ten pass a hundred", can be used to describe the spread of ancient poetry. The book "There Are Poems from the Tang Dynasty" explains in detail how Tang Dynasty poetry was circulated, and if you are interested, you can read it.
MagicWaltz: Hello Teacher Feng, there is a saying that The Tang and Song poems were sung at the earliest times, so many of the rhymes are different from today. Is this really the case?
Hello. Ancient Chinese poetry is very closely related to music. For example, the Book of Poetry was revised based on the folk songs of the time; most of the Han Le Fu poems also had specific tunes that could be performed and chanted. The word plates we see in song words today (such as "Ru Meng Ling") and the Yuan Ming Qu cards (such as "Tianjing Sha") have fixed grammatical requirements, which also means that they were once able to be supplemented with music and could be sung. It is true that poetry can be sung, but this is not the reason why some of the words in Tang poetry are different from today. Our Chinese pronunciation today has undergone a long process of evolution, and has become different from the Tang Dynasty, which is a relatively complex linguistic problem. Simply put, the pronunciation of the Tang Dynasty was more complex and more tonal than that of today's Mandarin (such as the Tang Dynasty had but modern Mandarin did not have), and some scholars say that it is closer to today's Cantonese or Hakka. This change in linguistic characteristics makes some verses appear less pronounced in Mandarin.