Wang Dingjun, born in 1925, a native of Lanling, Shandong, is a famous prose master. In 1949, he went to Taiwan and served as the editor-in-chief of several newspapers and periodicals. In 1978, he moved to the United States.
His creative career lasted more than half a century, and he wrote nearly 40 kinds of works, involving prose, novels, drama and other fields, and was a well-deserved prose master.
Throughout his life, he has enthusiastically written his own experience into beautiful prose to convey to others, which has both appreciation and practical value, and "Six Essentials of Composition" is a representative work in this regard.
Li Xin, a senior publisher, said, I want to tell my young friends that if you want to improve your writing ability, you must read Wang Dingjun. You'll benefit from his six unusual master classes.
sequence
When I first started writing, I looked everywhere for ways to write.
At that time, the seniors of the literary world began to talk about genres, ideas, and methods, and they all said that writing was "Mo zhi zhi, Mo Zhi Zhi Zhi", and there was no method.
The literary friends of the same generation regard the methods they know as a secret, and according to the jianghu code, "can help ten hanging money, do not pass on the craft."
Books such as "Novel Practice" and "Essay Practice" cannot be bought in bookstores, and there are no activities such as writing seminars and writing training classes in the literary and art circles.
But I firmly believe that there is a way to write, and I hope to learn the method and teach the method later. I made a wish that if I found a way one day, it would be made public and shared with everyone.
That's how this little book came about. Professor Zhao Youpei planned the writing process into six steps: observation, imagination, experience, selection, combination, and performance.
Six courses, one big road, is the biggest gain I am looking for. These six courses, which I call the "six essentials," are like the "six laws" of a painter and the "six degrees" of Buddhism.
In the future, such and such literary trends will surge by, and those who study writing will still have to take these "six essentials" as the basic kung fu. I wrote down my understanding and my practice, as I had first wished.
After some vicissitudes, I have long lost contact with this book. Mr. Peng Zhengxiong, President of the Taipei Wenshizhe Publishing House, and Ms. Feng Deping, President of Taipei Wenxun Magazine, were able to recover the copyright.
The old things are reunited, and the sorrows and joys intersect. Over the years, I always have a little progress, so I learned the new from the past, and then I came to the top, carefully repaired and polished, and increased the experience of later practice, not only expanding the length, but also increasing the level step by step.
After it was reborn from the fire, the Mongolian Commercial Press allowed it to be published, and it had a new title: "Six Points of Composition".
This book has helped many of my contemporaries, and now I sincerely hope that "Composition Six Essentials" will be of greater help to young friends.
The following is an excerpt from "Six Points of Composition", and some of the titles are added by the editor.
You have five senses: Do you use them?
External things touch our senses, make us have thoughts and feelings, we use words to express it, share it with others, in the words of words, this is called "moving by feeling things."
The organs that we can "feel things" are not only the eyes, but the most important of them is vision.
In addition to vision, there are hearing, smell, taste, and touch, and when it comes to "observation", they should all be included.
Hearing: The four seasons that Han Yu can hear
Let's start with hearing. We are exposed to the outside world, and hearing and vision are equally important. People who write articles, unfortunately lose their sense of taste, lose their sense of touch, lose their sense of smell, and can still have achievements, but if they can't see it and hear it but can't smell it, it's very difficult.
The American writer Helen Keller was blind and deaf since childhood, and although he has created miracles in the history of literature, he can only write simple prose sketches in the end. Therefore, you, me, and all those who write articles must protect their eyes and ears well, and use their vision and hearing well.
The world that the auditory sense can access is vast and rich.
Ouyang Xiu said that autumn can be heard.
Don't be surprised, Han Yu said, spring, summer, autumn and winter can be heard.
The producer of the radio program said that life, old age, illness and death can be heard, and Confucianism and Daoye can be heard.
What they can hear, you should be able to hear, even if you can't hear it in the past, after learning, you should be able to hear it in the future. Hugh said it didn't matter, I could see it anyway, so why not listen to it before you saw it, or look at it later after listening to it?
Do you also read the poems of the ancients? That's our important nutrition.
Some works, written from the perspective of hearing, have a special taste.
"Idle flowers fall to the ground to listen to the silent", it is rare for him to remember the hearing at this time, after he solemnly mentioned, as if the silent flowers are an unusual thing, immediately remembered that some other poets vigorously chanted the falling flowers, and suddenly felt that the falling flowers were not falling flowers.
"The sea rain and the wind can't bear to listen", a "listen" word, you can imagine two people standing on the dock, or on the deck, or on the beach, or on the top of the mountain, in short, there are very few people, the strength of people is very small, and the power of nature is very large.
"Leave the remnants of the lotus to listen to the sound of the rain", you see, the poet is operating his hearing, the stumps of leaves, become garbage, a "listen" word makes it like a musical instrument, has value.
Leave the sycamore also listen to the sound of rain, stay basho also listen to the sound of rain, what is the difference between this rain sound and that rain sound? You can't tell the difference now, one day in the future you can distinguish clearly, write slowly, don't be anxious.
Chinese New Year's Eve, Chinese New Year's Eve, on the last night of the lunar year, are you still keeping the old age?
Keep the new year, the whole family does not sleep, waiting for the new year to come.
Now, the television set tells you that the New Year has arrived; there was no TV before, and firecrackers told you that the New Year has arrived, and someone wrote at that time: Firecrackers are the sound of time, and the New Year is rushed to the back.
When he was ten, he felt that the sound was like playing in the water; when he was twenty, the sound was like a flash flood; at the age of thirty, the sound was like a basketball game; at the age of forty, the sound was like a rushing march; at the age of fifty, he said, the sound was like killing! Why did he say that? You don't understand it now, and one day you will.
Some things in the sound are invisible, can only be heard, for the writer, that part of the content can not be lost, it is a pity to lose!
"Midnight bell to the passenger ship", if the bell is discarded, the whole poem is discarded.
If the person who writes the poem has no feeling for the bell, if he forgets the bell when he writes the poem, someone unceremoniously says that he will not have to write poetry and composition in this life!
Why? You will understand later, we are all waiting for you to grow, waiting for you to understand.
Taste: Sweet is more "sweet" than sweet
Let's talk about taste. Don't think that taste is just helping us choose food, it also captures inspiration for poets.
"Guests go to tea to leave the tongue book", guests come, brew good tea hospitality, the taste of good tea, drink into the mouth a little astringent, a little bitter, after drinking it is sweet, sweet left in the throat and the root of the tongue, called "back to the sweet".
Don't think that "sweet" and "sweet" are just the difference between vernacular and literary, in China, this is a different taste, or two levels of a taste, gan is one notch higher than sweet.
If the sense of taste can also pay attention to the grade, we must elect Mr. Wang Zengqi to come out to demonstrate. This novelist and essayist, in his later years, sealed all the secrets of sentient beings that came from sight and sound.
Anything he wrote could be eaten; he could write anything he ate, and he could write about ordinary wild vegetables and turnips as delicacies and beautiful texts. Taste makes him, and he makes taste.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms records that Cao Cao marched, the weather was hot and waterless, and the officers and soldiers were thirsty. Cao Cao raised his horse whip and pointed forward, saying that there was a piece of Merlin in front of him, and he could stop the horse. The taste of bayberry was very sour, and as soon as the officers and soldiers heard Merlin, a lot of spit was secreted in their mouths, and they survived this water-deficient journey.
From this thought, Zhou Yu has a deep musical cultivation, often listen to plays and songs, he usually does not pay attention to those who sing on the stage, if anyone is wrong, he only looks at the person who plays the piano, there are girls who play the piano to win his eyes, deliberately play a note wrong.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" does not write well about hearing. Cao Cao wooed Guan Yu and did not write about his sense of taste for "three days for a small feast and five days for a big feast". Lü Bu is a hero, Sable Cicada is a beauty, and their adventure in love is a major event for novelists, and they should write about touch and smell. I really hope that modern people will polish it again, make up for the sight, hearing, and taste, and the person who will make up for it in the future may be you.
Enjoy the touch: the floral fragrance is strong and can "attack people"
And the sense of touch. Some people say that touch is a low-level sense and cannot be included in poetry. But what do you say about "the cold green sleeves are thin, and the sun is leaning on the bamboo"? What do you say about "the night is as cool as water"? Spring has arrived, a night of spring rain, the mountain on the door is green, but also expanded, open the door in the morning, only to feel that this door is pushed open by Qingshan, "two mountains row min to send green to come." The mountains are aggressive, the flowers are also aggressive, the weather is warm, the flowers are fragrant, and they can "attack people". Aren't guns more aggressive? Have you ever looked at the muzzle of a gun head-on? I really feel like that black hole isn't outside of your body, it's in your muscles.
The Analects records that Confucius's disciple Yan Zhi once pointed out a skit in which three things were: one refers to hearing (singing) and two refers to touch (swimming and dancing in the wind).
Touch is a part of our lives and an ability to perceive our environment, and it naturally becomes a source of literary material.
Idioms include "the seat is not warm", "hot and hot", as well as "the world is hot, the human feelings are cold and warm", "drink ice water on a cold night, dripping in the heart", and the motto has "without a cold bone, how to get plum blossoms".
In addition to the taste, there is also the taste, old tofu, tender tofu, and frozen tofu that has been frozen, all of which are tofu, and the touch is different. "Drink soup in winter, ice in summer", both drinks, and the sense of touch is also different.
How many things in the world are carried away by touch! There was a boy who saw the girl he liked with other classmates in the distance, and immediately felt a punch in the stomach.
Looking at the new literature again, Li Jinfa said: "I feel the heating of your skin with my presumptuous fingertips." Yang Mu said, "In the young gallop, you are the oncoming wind. ”
Turgenev said: "The sunset has long disappeared, and its last afterglow is slightly white in the sky, but in the hot air not long ago, through the cool night air, it still feels hot and baked." And "use your hand to pluck the wet branches, and a heat that is stored in the night will immediately hit you."
In the summer, on the beach, some people dig sand pits and ask their companions to bury themselves in it, only exposing their heads. Enjoy the touch. In the novelist's pen, the man who guards the warehouse, stripped naked and buried his whole body in the rice, what is he doing? It is also to enjoy the sense of touch.
Sense of smell: Su Dongpo's nose
Finally, there is the sense of smell.
"Good bamboo even mountain bamboo incense", mangosteen forest, should be bamboo shoots have become bamboo, new shoots have not yet been born, Su Dongpo is a gourmet, the nose is more sensitive than the average person, it is expressed with the sense of smell.
"Stepping on the flowers to return to the horseshoe incense" "The flower seller goes to have the afterscent", there is a sense of smell and its own article. "Before the wine arrives, it becomes tears", the normal situation is that "the wine into the intestines turns into tears of acacia", Fan Zhongyun took the first step with his sense of smell, lifted the wine glass, smelled the smell of alcohol, the wine was not drunk, and the tears fell first.
"Come back and laugh and smell the plum blossoms, spring is already very much in the branches", so to speak, spring is also a smell - zi yan red, you see spring; warblers cry swallows, you hear spring; blowing noodles are not cold willow wind, you touch spring; in addition, you have an organ that can find spring.
Everyone has his smell, called "body odor".
You and I've both seen that the police dog sniffed a piece of clothing and could track the smell to find the man who was wearing it. It is said that when you wash clothes, the clothes you wear and the clothes I wear will spread the smell, and experts can distinguish and collect.
Every hobby leaves behind odors, such as smoking and not smoking, playing and not playing, having and not having cats. Each profession has its smell, such as fish and vegetable sellers, brush writers and oil painters, barber shops and clinics.
Every family has the smell of each family, we went to visit a stranger, did not enter the door, first smelled the smell of his garbage can - the smell is the information, we have a preliminary understanding of this family. Every community has its own smell, I take the subway outside, from south to north through the Chinese, white, black, South American immigrants, each to a district to change a group of passengers, a different smell.
"Whoever walks by will leave a trace", and this trace is his smell, your article.
I think of two essays I've written.
An article writer who has read a magazine for decades remembers that when the new magazine arrived, he opened it and smelled the aroma of ink. This paragraph is full of color and is immediately selected.
There was also an essay about old things left by his mother, and an article said that many years ago, when my mother was alive, she personally knitted a hat for him with wool. The subject was originally unremarkable, but the author said that now that he held up his hat in both hands, covered his nose and mouth, and breathed deeply, he could smell the warmth of his mother, smell the grease secreted by his mother's fingers, and even smell that it was densely covered with his mother's fingerprints. With such a paragraph, this article is at the top of the list.
(The above text is from the "Six Points of Composition")
Further reading:
1. "Di QingLan": The latest essays of Contemporary Prose Master Wang Dingjun are collected, and the Drip pen and ink are all painstaking and lonely. How to get a glimpse of the doorway of literature? How to appreciate the excitement of literature? And how to see more hilarity in the doorway of literature? Let the layman find the doorway, let the insider see more liveliness.
My expression aims to carry forward the predecessors, to pick up the attractors, to establish personal characteristics from it, to look at the big picture, out of the blue is also out of the blue, from the small point of view, maybe there are some places that are different from the blue and different from the blue? This is the life of a "diqing blue" one.
——Wang Dingjun
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2. "The Spirit of The Cloud Moon: Wang Dingjun's Self-Selected Collection": The mountains are long and the waters are wide, and the nostalgia of the reverse journey is nostalgic; the light in the heart, the xuhui on the paper; at that time, the bright moon was there, and the clouds had returned. Mr. Wang Dingjun collected the works of Pingsheng, and through his personal interception, collation and weaving, he compiled four groups of articles: "Wu Si Wu Xiang", "Wu Ai Wu Shi", "Wu Xi Wu Wen" and "Wu Le Wu Qun".
3. "Peach Blossoms Flowing Water Gone- Wang Dingjun Prose Collection": Feel the "masculine beauty" of prose! The torrent of the great era, rich experience, deep feelings; mature skills, thorough insights. Books are flowing and natural.
4. "It's good to live to be old": Mr. Wang Dingjun's collection of essays in his later years, writing a thorough sense of life and showing the wisdom of life.
Someone once asked a question: In the New Year, is there a year more or a year less? Optimistic people say "more", pessimistic people say "less", from this point of view to grow, another way to see "loss".
A poet put forward his answer: "The ruthless years increase and decrease, and the tasteful poetry books are bitter and sweet." "Playing with his meaning is like exhorting the world to cherish time." His answer was that time decreased, knowledge increased, and if there was already a loss, it was necessary to gain it.
Professor Dong Yuanfang said in her "Blossoming Flowers" that the ancients drank Tusu wine for the New Year, which was "out of age" for the elderly and "old" for the young, and this arrangement was too appropriate. It may be said that the age that the old man loses is the one year that the young man loses, and one hand is handed over, and the other hand is taken over. Every year Chinese New Year's Eve night, the family guards the new year. It is a silent inheritance.
I have been dealing with it for so many years, really and falsely writing so many words, finally to this day, see the true color, hear the main tone. I also began to have my own mental outlook, with aphorisms coming from spirituality, not from cynicism. Novelty does not come from driving in the opposite direction, but from extending forward. Writing essays is not shouting at the enemy, it is talking to friends, it is not turning ink into the blood of others, it is turning your own blood into ink.
How many people have said that the essays of Dinggong in his later years are very "accessible", and this "tongda" is not exquisite in eight aspects, but pure fire.
--Joe Regeneration