What is the "crossing hands" in poetry?

Put your palms together (as a Buddhist greeting)

Crossing hands is a poetic disease. It is impossible to prove when the saying of crossing hands originated. Song Wenzhi's poem "First Arriving in Huangmei" says: "Spring on the way." Ji Yun's "mistakes in the publication of Yingkui Law" commented: "On the way, immediately, in late spring, cold food, it is not easy to cross hands." From Ji Yun's comments, it is not difficult to see that the concept of putting hands together has prevailed at least in the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, we can also boldly estimate from the poems of the Song Dynasty-at least in the Tang Dynasty, there was no saying that hands were folded. Shen Kuo's "Meng Qian Bi Tan" and Cai Kuanfu's "Song Poetry" both point out that "one sentence and one meaning" should be avoided in confrontation. Wei Qingzhi, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, summed up "two sentences can't agree" in Jade Chips. Poets in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties came up with the name "fighting". Probably the origin of the earliest crossing of hands.

Why is there a reference to crossing hands?

Let's look at the historical changes first. Tang dynasty, unrestrained, atmospheric, famous sentences emerge one after another, but at this time there is no one crossing their hands. The stability, ease, the rise of ci and the creation of poetry in the Song Dynasty were far inferior to those in the Tang Dynasty. At first, there was a saying to avoid "one sentence and one meaning", but it was far from mainstream. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the idea of putting hands together prevailed, and many faults were found in Tang and Song poems, but few of them can be called famous works through the ages. On the contrary, the creation of vernacular novels reached its peak, and the creation of poetry couplets (which can be regarded as a part of poetry) changed from focusing on content to focusing on form. Why do we have to do that？ The malicious guess is-don't upgrade now.

Let's look at the table again. Poetry, in the Tang dynasty, long poems emerged one after another; In the Song Dynasty, it seemed that only metrical poems and quatrains were left, and long poems became scarce. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, quatrains and couplets became the world. In other words, in the Tang Dynasty, creative space was more free and more words could be written. There is nothing taboo about two sentences and one meaning, because the author has enough space to express them. In the Song Dynasty, the length of creation was reduced, and in order to enrich the content, I began to realize that two sentences with one meaning should be avoided. But after all, there are words with rhyme and enough space, so it is not popular. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were only four or even two sentences left in the mainstream of creation. At this time, it is necessary to whisper the righteousness, and the space is insufficient, so the statement of crossing hands becomes taboo. This is something that can't be helped. Just two sentences, you wasted another sentence. In addition, stereotyped writing prevailed in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the imperial examination had strict restrictions on the format and method of composition, which was also a reason for the prevalence of cross-hand theory. ...

In fact, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, when the cross-hand theory prevailed, there was already a division in literature: the literati poems of Yangchun Baixue and the vernacular novels of Xialiba people. Poems with folded hands frequently appear in vernacular novels, which is strange-this is a poetic disease, not good, and should be taboo! Sorry, nobody cares, because there is enough space and words to express the content, and poetry is just embellishment. Who cares if you cross your hands?

In the 1980 s, rhythmic poetry rose, and the idea of avoiding the cross of hands advocated by literati poems in Ming and Qing Dynasties was put forward again.

For a long time, even in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was no exact definition of crossing hands. In the forties of last century, Wang Li gave the definition of "hand play": hand play is a phenomenon with the same double meaning in poetry and prose, and it is actually synonymous. In 1980s, Wang Li revised this definition. In recent twenty years, poets have put forward the theories of narrow crossing, partial crossing, heterotopic crossing and small crossing. Concepts defined on the basis of sentences are transplanted (expanded) into words and phrases.

Personally, I think that the theories of narrow cross, partial cross, ectopic cross and small cross are simply jokes. Hu Zili of Guilin summed up the characteristics of Chinese: "Morphemes, words, phrases and sentences are grammatical units at different levels, which constitute a complete structure and have different grammatical functions. The main function of words is to form phrases and act as sentence components. The actual unit of language use is sentences, because only sentences have the ability to express a relatively complete meaning, while words and phrases do not have this function. " In other words, from the perspective of language application, the theories of narrow span, partial span, heterotopic span and small span are simply untenable.

Let's take another widely criticized example of crossed hands to illustrate.

Hanging Qu Yuan on Dragon Boat Festival;

The water is full of resentment, and the dragon boat sacrifices the loyal soul.

Worrying about the country and the people, you speak frankly and remonstrate, and it is bitter for cynics.

I would like to keep company with clean water, not with turbid waves.

Li Sao has been a song for thousands of years, and the Wei government has a high wind, which is clear in the past and present.

This is a poem written by a netizen, "Gan and Qing are companions, why not follow the turbid waves?" It has also been approved by some experts as a cross hand. Since "sweetness is accompanied by clean water", of course it is "Are you accompanied by turbid waves?"

Some people even commented that the author intends to show his arms in the middle of an opposite, but he only takes images and uses things in a single way, which leads to only one thing and one meaning in the upper and lower sentences: he is willing to keep company with clean water and settle down with turbid waves. So I changed my mind and stopped crossing my hands!

Whether it fits or not, just saying "I would like to keep company with clean water and turbid water" is a genius idea! If we really want to change this way, I would like to ask, is this mourning or scolding Qu Yuan?

Therefore, it is not enough to look at words or single sentences, but also at the writing background (or application background), writing purpose, environment and other factors. At present, many scholars and scholars even discuss the cross-cutting of corpses in the mainstream media. They only look at words and don't look at sentences, or just look at sentences and don't look at writing background and application environment. They use their right to speak, calling names everywhere to show their profound knowledge, and create various nouns such as biased hand, abnormal hand and logical hand, which makes the latecomers "fascinated" and confused. But these people can't give an exact definition of crossing their hands. This is a joke.