A Review of Pu Jiangqing's Classical Poetry

Reading classical poetry is a kind of enjoyment of beauty, which can add a lot of fun to people. As the joke says, when you see the beautiful scenery, some people can unconsciously read "Lonely sunset in Qi Fei, one color in autumn water * * *", which is very artistic! This situation makes those who can only say "how beautiful" with poor words full of envy. In recent years, the cultural programs of poetry have also driven a wave of learning fever of classical culture and cultivated many people's interest in reading poetry. Recently, I was reading "Lectures on China Classical Poetry" by Pu Jiangqing, a classical literature expert. This little book is very suitable for friends who are interested in classical poetry.

Lectures on China Classical Poetry is a collection of Pu Jiangqing's poems, words, songs and drama essays, which is divided into three parts. The first part, "the origin of the system", expounds the origin, development and stylistic characteristics of poetry Sanqu, and also pays attention to analyzing the differences between different styles. The second part "Writer's Comments" made special comments on Qu Yuan, Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Shi, Xin Qiji and Guan Hanqing. The third part is "Interpretation of Works", in which classic works such as Lin Yulang, Nineteen Ancient Poems, Poems of Love and Palace of Eternal Life by Li Bai and Wen Tingyun are selected and explained in detail.

Pu Jiangqing's explanation is concise, with sufficient materials, reliable textual research and often some original opinions.

For example, Pu Jiangqing thinks that the source of Ci and Qu is Yuefu in his article The Origin of Ci and Qu. According to his point of view, Ci is the Yuefu of the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, and Qu is the Yuefu of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. This is slightly different from the view that "words are superfluous to poetry, and words originate from poetry".

Pu Jiangqing put the relationship between poetry, words and music together and distinguished them. Three hundred poems were originally sung with ancient music, but later the music of the Zhou Dynasty died out, leaving only the literary part, no score and no singing. Therefore, later generations call the chapters that can't be sung but are used to satirize poems Yuefu, while those that can be sung with the music at that time are collectively called Yuefu. The words that rose in the middle and late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties were all good at singing and dancing, and they were all Yuefu, while the words in the Song Dynasty were also called Yuefu when they were not explicitly named as "Ci".

What's the difference between poetry and prose? Pu Jiangqing believes that at the beginning, "ballads are original poems and conversations are original essays". Therefore, poetry is close to primitive folk songs, which is a natural connection between language and sound and full of emotional appeal; In order to express a complete meaning, prose should have coherent thoughts and logic.

Compared with prose, the sentences in poetry are far apart in thought, and there will be a feeling of "leap". This "leap" is also a method. Metaphor and duality commonly used in poetry can help poetry express jumping ideas.

From Guan Yu, in Hezhou to My Fair Lady, A Gentleman is Good, it is through comparison that two seemingly unrelated contents are linked together. Therefore, Pu Jiangqing said, "Bi Xing has the function of replacing logic in the language of poetry, and Bi Xing is a kind of logic in the thought of poetry".

Duality is different from Bixing. From "painting incense burners and leaning on pillows" to "the hills are full of powder and hidden worries", the former sentence refers to Beijing in the past, and the latter sentence refers to Kuifu now. It seems that the two meanings have nothing to do with each other. Using the dual method, through the confrontation between literal and rhythm, it gives people a feeling of close integration. This is also a kind of language aesthetic feeling brought by meter.

So Pu Jiangqing summarized the composition of poetry from two aspects: thought and language. Ideologically, expressing a complete meaning through certain logic is the content of poetry; Linguistically speaking, sentences and words are more coherent in the form of meter. In the final analysis, poetry is to integrate ideas into metrical language, so that content and form can be combined with each other to form a smooth whole.

From China's lectures on classical poetry, we can know that Pu Jiangqing has a deep research and understanding of classical poetry, and his comments on the origin of poetry and his analysis of the author and classic works are accurate. This handout on China's classical poetry is very suitable for those who want to learn classical poetry.

2018.11.02 rime