The level of poetry
Poetry is composed according to the medieval phonetic system. In order to maintain the musicality, it must be read according to the medieval phonetic system. (Whether copycats should also imitate cats or tigers is a complicated issue that will be discussed later.) This is a principle or an ideal; if you really read it, you cannot ignore the fact. The truth is we can't quite do it. There are many reasons, the most powerful of which is that, by Mandarin standards, we no longer have a single voice. To put it in general terms, it is not only impossible but also too troublesome to pronounce every word according to "Poem Rhythm". Impossible, so I have to relax. Relaxation can also be divided into levels of lenient and strict: yan means flat and straight (not four tones) and completely follows the old, and lenient means only the keywords follow the old. Take Du Fu's "Five Poems on Ancient Relics" ("Going to Jingmen with thousands of mountains and valleys") as an example:
Going to Jingmen with thousands of mountains and valleys, there is a village of Mingfei. ·As soon as I left Zitalian·Shuo·Desert, I left the Green Tomb alone facing the dusk. Draw a picture to know the face of the spring breeze, and wear the sky to return to the night, the soul of the moon. The pipa has been playing nonsense for thousands of years, and the resentment is clearly expressed in the music.
The highlighted characters all have different pronunciations in ancient and modern times (of course, speaking of the phonetic system). Among them, except for "Lun", which is pronounced in the flat tone in the old time, they are all characters with entered tones. It is impossible to read with the shining sound, so we have to take a step back and be content with maintaining the oblique sound, that is, reading with the falling sound. This is the strict way, that is, all the characters with the entering tone are read as if they are with the passing tone. You can relax further and maintain the oblique tone for only the keywords, while other non-keywords can be pronounced in the current tone. In this way, the only two characters that can be changed to read are "Shi" and "Lun" ("Qu" is pronounced with a rising tone, and it does not need to be changed to a falling tone). Why can you relax like this? Let’s talk about this situation below.
The problem comes from the musicality, which is quite complex and even quite subtle. As mentioned before, rhythm is the basis of musicality, but this is not clearly stated; if we want to make it clear, we must clarify the relationship between musicality and rhythm. To use an analogy first, music is moral, with strict and detailed requirements; rhythm is legal. It is said that a great virtue should not exceed leisure, but a small virtue can go in and out. Moral control is broad, and it also covers the small things of looking at a beautiful woman on the road (the so-called heart-breaking). The law cannot be like this. As long as it is not serious enough to take action, we will ignore it. The same goes for musicality. Maybe the difference in mood should also be taken into account? If this is the case, then, for example, flat tones have a cheerful rhyme and oblique tones have a dull rhyme, which is related to musicality. It can also be refined, just like a flat tone. The fifteen rhymes are suitable for expressing boldness, and the five subtle rhymes are suitable for expressing melancholy, which is related to the musicality. You can also add more details, even the same oblique tone and the same rhyme of ten gray. Take Du Fu's high-style couplet "The flower path has never been swept by the destined guests, and the gate is now open for you". The upper tone "sweep" If the word "kai" is replaced with the word "cai" instead of the tone, regardless of the meaning, the musicality will be worse, right? We have never paid attention to such subtle points because: first, we cannot know everything clearly, so we cannot grasp it accurately; second, even if we can understand it clearly, the laws are like a feather and the burden is too heavy, and we will suffer from not knowing what to do. So I had to take a step back and take a practical path, that is, a rough path, just to conform to the rules. Rhythm ensures obvious and important musicality, and everything else is left to the author to figure it out.
Rhythm is mainly related to sound in two ways: one is rhyme, and the other is coordination of tones and tones.
Let’s talk about rhyme first, which is the use of loops to express the beauty of music. The rhyme word is usually placed at the end of the sentence. Generally speaking, because, for example, in "The Book of Songs·Zhounan·Guan Sui", "Scattered water plants flow left and right, and graceful ladies covet them." The rhyme word is placed before the empty word at the end of the sentence. Poems since the Middle Ages no longer have this form, so it can be said that the rhyme words are always placed at the end of the sentence. The rhythmic requirement of rhyme is that the rhyming characters must have the same rhyme (this is based on the local style, the ancient style and word restrictions are wider, the details will be left to later), so when reading, if the rhyming characters have different pronunciation in ancient and modern times (mainly different oblique and oblique), just Be from the old and keep the beauty of the rhyme music. Take the following songs as examples:
The dusk clouds are all gone and the cold is overflowing, and the silver man turns the jade plate silently. This night in this life will not last long. Where can I see the bright moon next year? (Su Shi's "Mid-Autumn Moon")
Thousands of birds have disappeared, and thousands of people have disappeared. A man with a coir raincoat in a lone boat, fishing alone in the snow in the cold river. (Liu Zongyuan's "Snow on the River")
It's a good time to visit the West Lake during the Qingming Festival. It's full of prosperity. There's a fight over who can get there, and the green willows and red wheels are driving the car. Tourists are leaving at dusk, they are drunk and noisy, the road turns to the embankment, and there are always flowers all the way to the top of the city. (Ouyang Xiu's "Picking Mulberries")
The cicadas are chilling, it's late in the pavilion, and the showers are beginning to stop. There is no trace of drinking in the capital tent. Fang is nostalgic for the place, and the orchid boat urges him to leave. Holding hands and looking at each other (read in flat tone), the tears in the eyes were speechless and choked. Thoughts go thousands of miles away, the sky is vast and the mist is heavy at dusk. Passionate feelings have hurt parting since ancient times, and they are even more worthy of being left out in the autumn festival. Where will you wake up tonight? The dawn wind and the waning moon on the willow bank. After so many years, it should be a good time and good scenery. Even if there are thousands of customs, who should I tell them to? (Liu Yong's "Yulin Bell")
The first two poems are poems. The first song rhymes with the fourteen cold rhymes of the flat tone. The fourth sentence "kan" is pronounced according to the current pronunciation, and cannot rhyme with "han" or "pan". In order to maintain the beauty of the music, it must be pronounced in the flat tone. The second piece rhymes with the entering tone of Jiuchi, and the rhyme words are read according to today's pronunciation. "Jue" is a flat tone, and "Xue" is an upward tone. It cannot rhyme with "Mie". In order to maintain the beauty of the music, it must be pronounced as if it is a falling tone. The last two poems are lyrics. The previous song rhymes with Pingsheng Liuma. The rhyme character "Che" at the end of the previous piece, now pronounced chē, cannot rhyme with "华", "家", "hua", "Xie" and "花"; in order to maintain the beauty of the music , read chā.
The latter poem basically rhymes with the rhymes of June and Jiuci (only "Kuo" is in Qiyi rhyme, and the 18th part of the rhyme rhymes with five things, June, Qiyi, Baxiao, Jiucan and Shiliuye are all used together. ), "xie", "fa", "choke", "bie", "jie", and "shuo" are all pronounced in flat tone today, and cannot rhyme with "qie", "kuo", "yue", and "she"; for To maintain the beauty of music, it must be read as if the sound has disappeared.
2 The Rhythm of Poetry
As far as the rhythmic requirements of rhyme are concerned, the rhyming characters are keywords. If the pronunciation of the keywords does not match the medieval pronunciation system, it will disrupt the rhythm and destroy it. Musical beauty. As for rhyme characters, if there are no other rules (referring to the coordination of level and oblique, discussed below), it is not a bad idea to relax a little, at least it won't matter much. For example, among the four songs listed above, the character "Du" in the second song is the Rusheng character, and it is pronounced as the flat tone according to Jin's pronunciation, so it won't sound too unpleasant. Similarly, the word "Zhi" in the third song is also the Rusheng character, and is pronounced as Zhaojin's pronunciation. If you read it in a flat tone, you won't find it unpleasant. This is a broad path. Just follow the rules, or just focus on keywords. To put it bluntly, you have to make do and be improvised. The purpose is to lighten the burden so that a large number of aspiring learners can get by without too much effort. Of course, if you are willing to take the strict path, like the "lone" and "zhi" mentioned just now, because you remember that they are the characters with the ruxing tone, they can be read as if they are the rhusheng tone, so "alone fishing in the cold river snow" will be reduced to 廄廄平平廄 , "There are always flowers until the top of the city" is reduced to flat, flat, flat, flat, which is closer to the ancients, and even today's people will not object.
Let’s talk about coordination. Chinese pronunciation has tones, and the tones can be divided into two categories: flat and oblique. "Facts" are native to China, while "theories" are foreign. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Pi wrote a letter, saying that "the festivals are different at the same time, things are different and people are different" (组平平廄, 任廄平平). Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty wrote an article, saying "the sky is clear and the air is clear, and the wind is gentle and smooth" (平廄廄平, 组平). (Ping, Ze, etc.), etc., as Shen Yue said in "Book of Song·Xie Lingyun's Biography": "The eloquent words and wonderful sentences, the phonology is natural, all of them are dark and reasonable, and they come from thinking." This is high, this is wonderful, and this is reasonable. , it’s just a trick (or unintentional) to play with variations. In the Southern Dynasties, Shen Yue, Xie Tiao and others not only intensified their efforts, but also absorbed the principles of Sanskrit pinyin in translating Buddhist scriptures and created the theory of four tones and eight diseases. The requirement for changes in oblique and oblique changes changed from "hidden and reasonable" to intentional pursuit. What to pursue? Generally speaking, the sound is beautiful. It's more troublesome to say it specifically, because it must be made clear that Li Dian's "Open the door, the snow is still floating" (平平廄廄平) is better, but Feng Jie's "One Night in the North Wind" (廻仄仄平廄) is worse. If you change it to "One Night" "Auspicious snow falls" (廄廄廄廄廄) is even worse. Why? Presumably, our ears are reluctant to accept sameness. On the positive side, I like to hear changes. The change here is a flat change. In the simplest terms, the nature of the flat tone is to raise, while the nature of the oblique tone is to suppress, which are exactly opposites. The change means that after the raising, there is suppression, and after the suppression, there is rising. Why does it sound better with this change? Perhaps a music theorist can explain that, as for those outside our "home," we might as well settle for "nature takes its course." In other words, it is easy for us to take it for granted that the ears welcome changes in levels, but it is not easy to know why.
What is not easy to know is that the required change is not a random change, but basically two syllables (some people call it "foot", some people call it "section"). Unit changes. Taking modern five-character poetry as an example, the required changes are not 廄平廄平廄 or 平仄平廄平, but 任仄平廄 or 平仄仄平. This kind of change expands outside the sentence and becomes the change of the upper and lower couplets:
五字七字
仄仄平仄平仄仄平仄
平 平廄廄平仄仄平平任仄平
This is in a couplet. Two identical syllables of level and oblique are combined into one before the change is required; and it is required to be thorough, in two directions (left, right, up and down) Neighbors have to change. There are very few poems that follow the rules like this, such as:
I love the beauty of this riverside (廄廄平平廄), and linger until the sun sets (平平廄组平). I sleep in the yellow calf (pronounced oblique sound) grass (flat, flat, flat, flat), and sit on the white gull sand ( flat, flat, flat, flat). (Wang Anshi's "Ti Fangzi")
The sound of firecrackers (pronounced oblique sound) is heard (pronounced oblique sound) at the end of the year (任仄平平廄廄平), and the spring breeze brings warmth into Tusu (平平仄仄仄平平) . Thousands of households always exchange new peaches for old charms (任仄平仄廄平) on the 戈戈日 (平平廄廄平仄平廄). (Wang Anshi's "Yuan Ri")
This is every word in line with the rhythm, and there is no nonsense at all. The reward is that you will feel the ups and downs when reading it, which is indeed good to listen to.
However, the neat changes of words that conform to the rhythm of oblique and oblique rhythms often fail to blend in with the meaning. For example, I felt something for a while and made a sentence like this, "Baoyou is sad." It happened to be 廄廄平平廄, and every word conformed to the rhythm, which was very satisfying. But think about it, the thing was not caused by Baobao, but by Baobao. Chunyou had to change it to "Chunyou's sad story" and became Ping Ze Ping Ze. What should I do? In this kind of place, the ancients did not dare to be tough, so they accommodated the meaning, gave up some territory in sound, and were willing to look back and ignore the front, that is, they recognized two syllables, the latter one was the key point, and gave up the lighter one as a last resort. There is also a famous saying, "One, three, and five are irrelevant, but two, four, and six are clear." This hall is based on seven words. If it is five words, it should be changed to "Ignore one or three, but be clear about two or four." When we look through the collection of poems, we will find that there are many poems that make do in this way.
3 The oblique tone of poetry
Take Du Fu, who prided himself on "delicate poetry" as an example:
·Jiang moves·The moon moves the stone (pronounced oblique sound), the stream Virtual clouds and flowers. · Bird perch knows the old way, · Whose house does Sail stay at? (One of the "Six Quatrains")
Caoge (pronounced oblique tone) Chaifei·Xingsanju,·Langfan·Jiangbai (pronounced hè) Yufeichu. The mountain bird introduces the child and feeds the red fruit, and the stream girl gets (pronounced oblique) money and leaves the white (pronounced bò) fish. (One of the "Twelve Poems to Relieve Boredom")
The dotted words should be "jiang", "yun", "sail", "star", "jiang", "xi" and "liu" "Yue", "bird", "lang", "nu" and "get" should be flat and flat. Some positions are one, some are three, and some are five. They are all the previous syllable of a unit. In this way, Xiao Gui and Cao Sui, for example, read the following two poems by Du Lao:
·The country is broken, the mountains and rivers are there, and the city is springy with deep vegetation. The flowers shed tears when I feel grateful, and the birds are frightened when I hate to say goodbye. The war rages on for three months, and a letter from home is worth ten thousand gold. ·The white-headed scratches are shorter, and the lust is overwhelming (read flat tone) hairpin. ("Spring Hope")
I wear spring clothes every day when I return to the dynasty, and I return drunk from the river head every day. Drinking debts are commonplace, but rare in life. Through the flowers, you can see the butterflies deeply, and the dragonflies fly in the water. Rumor has it that the scenery is constantly changing. For the time being, we should appreciate each other and do not contradict each other.
(One of "Two Songs of Qujiang")
The dotted characters are "国" and "白" in the first position, and "七" and "白" in the third position. "蛱" is a character that enters the tone, so it can be read according to the current pronunciation according to the principle of relaxing lightly and grasping firmly. Also in accordance with the principle of light relaxation and heavy grasping, "bie" in the second position and "十" in the fourth position are also characters that enter the tone, so they must be read according to the medieval phonetic system, as if they are the elimination tone.
The above examples of pronunciation can be accommodated. The five-character sentences are not in the third position, and the seven-character sentences are not in the fifth position. I want to add that in these two positions, even if It is not necessary to discuss, but it is always better to discuss. The reason is that if you don’t care, it will be like this:
五言七言
任仄·任仄平任仄·仄平仄
任仄·平平 Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping
Ping Ping·Ping Ping·Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping
Read Try it, it doesn’t sound good. Why should the three in a five-character sentence and the five in a seven-character sentence be treated differently? It's difficult to reason, but we might as well imagine a phenomenon-like law, which is just like accumulating salary, "coming from behind". Being on top occupies an important position in the ears. VIPs cannot be treated slowly, so it is not appropriate to relax. Based on these principles, there are poems like this:
The flower branches give rise to the founding chapter, and the phoenix tube brings out the shining sun. I would like to ask the benefactor, how long are the two moths? (Huangfu Ran's "Jie Hao Yuan")
Silver candle (read in oblique tone) The cold autumn light paints the screen, and the light fan blows at the flowing fireflies. The night in Tianjie is as cool as water. I lie down and watch Altair and Vega. (Du Mu's "Qiu Xi") The four dotted characters are all entering the tone. Today's reading is in the flat tone, and the position is either third or fifth. From now on, it is not good to read. It is better not to worry about it. From the old, it is pronounced like the falling tone. (The first character of the five-character sentence "Ping Ping" and the third character of the seven-character sentence "Ping Ping" should also be discussed. We will talk about it later when we talk about composition.)
We must also follow the When it comes to the case of coming from behind, it is a word that is symmetrical to the rhyme character. The five-character sentence is in the fifth position, and the seven-character sentence is in the seventh position. Although it is also an odd number, it must be different from the rhyme character, so it cannot be said. . For example:
Green mountains lie across the north of Guo, and white water surrounds the east city. This place (pronounced in oblique tone) is a farewell, and I am alone and marching thousands of miles away. The wandering clouds convey the love of an old friend. I waved my hand and went away, and the horses roared. (Li Bai's "Send Off a Friend")
The water flows and the flowers fade without mercy, sending all the east wind across Chucheng. The butterfly (pronounced in oblique tone) dreams about a home thousands of miles away, and the cuckoo branches are at the third watch of the moon. The book "Hometown" has been moving for many years, and the spring hair has spurred the growth of hair on the temples. Of course, if you don't return, you will get it. Who can compete with the misty scenery of the five lakes? (Cui Tu's "Spring Eve Journey")
The four dotted characters are all characters in Rusing tone. Today, it is read in Ping tone. Because it is at the end of the sentence, it is symmetrical with the rhyme character, so it should be read as before. Voice.
The above discussion of the coordination of levels and obliques takes modern poetry as an example. What about word reading? "Basically" also requires the change of tones like the poem, the key words are 24 or 246 and the end of the sentence.
For example:
Light, short, boat, west, lake, good, green, water, meandering, fragrant, grass, long embankment, hidden, hidden, Sheng ·Singing place·place·song. There is no Feng Shui, the surface is smooth, the boat is moving, the boat is moving, the ripples are moving slightly, and the sand birds are flying on the shore. (Ouyang Xiu's "Picking Mulberries") Thin, dense fog, clouds, sorrow, and eternal day, auspicious, brain, pin, gold, and beasts. Jia·Jie (pronounced oblique tone)·Double·Ninth Festival, jade·pillow·gauze·kitchen, midnight·night·cool·early·penetration. In the east of the fence, after the wine is yellow and dusk, there are dark, fragrant and full sleeves. Mo Dao does not disappear, the curtain rolls in the west wind, and people are thinner than yellow flowers. (Li Qingzhao's "Drunken Flowers")
4 The flatness of poetry
What can be accommodated is roughly the first singular number.
I say "roughly" or "basically" because the requirements for the plainness and obliqueness of words are stricter than those for poetry, and the changes in obliqueness and obliqueness are more complicated than poetry. The difference comes from the syntax and rhythm of the words, which are different from those of poetry. Let’s talk about syntax first.
Poetry, especially modern style, can be said to be only in two types: five-character and seven-character (six-character works are very rare). The words are different, ranging from one character to a cross. Just give examples of the less common ones at both ends. There are two types of one-character characters: big break and small break. For example, the first character of "Sixteen Character Order" should break the sentence and enter the rhyme, which is the big break; there are many leading words, such as "·The frost is getting colder, the wind is getting sad", "·sad" "The time spent in the guest house is wasted", the dotted word should be read with a pause, which is a small break. There are many two-character characters, mostly used at the beginning of the change, such as "Mingyue, Mingyue", "·Jiang·Guo, Zhengjiji". There are more three-character ones, such as "Xiao Shengyan" and "Qin Louyue". The number of sentences exceeding seven characters is not large, such as "The Qingqiu Festival is even more neglected", "Heroes have no place to find Sun Zhongmou" is an eight-character sentence, "The setting sun is at the place where the willows are broken by smoke" is a nine-character sentence, "If you don't see the jade ring, the flying swallows are all dust" It's a cross sentence. Now, let’s talk about the rhythm. Deep pursuit can be as detailed as what Li Qingzhao said in "Ci Lun": "Poems are divided into flat sides (oblique), and lyrics are divided into five tones, five tones, six rhythms, and clear and voicing." We. I don’t dare to ask for it, but I can’t retreat to poetry, which is only satisfied with mediocre changes. Situations beyond poetry can be roughly divided into two categories. One type is thicker, which is a change of flat and flat, not flat and flat. It can also be divided into two types: shortening and lengthening: shortening means changing to less than two characters, such as "like a dream, like a dream" (平廄, 平廄) in "Ru Meng Ling", "teardrops" ("天仙子") 廄平廄), "May spring stay temporarily" (廄平廄平) in "Liu Chou Chou" are all; the extension is changed by more than two characters, such as "peach blossom red" (平平平) in "Recalling Qin Mo" in Pingyun ), "Like a dream, with dark tears" (廄廄廄, 廄廄廄) from "The King of Lanling", "Oriole Pianpian" from "Huang Ying'er" (Mei Ping Ping Ping), "Miserable" from "Slow Voice" "Qi Qi" (廻仄廄廄), "The Fisherman Returns with his Crying Palm" (平平平平平) in "Midnight Music", and "Zhu Ma Wang Su Po" (任仄仄任仄) in "The Offender" are all . Another type of refinement is not only distinguishing between oblique and oblique sounds, but also restricting which oblique sounds are used in some places. For example, in "Yong Yu Le", "Can you still eat?", the "no" must be in the rising tone; in "Ruihexian", in "And it has become a thin body", the "thin" must be in the falling tone; in "Hong Lin Lao Jin" In "Xiao Suo Shuiyun Township", "suo" must be used in the intonation. (For words such as "Recalling Qin'e" and "Congratulations to the Bridegroom" that are customarily rhymed with rhymes, the rhyme words must of course be rhymed with rhymes.) It's so trivial, what should a beginner do? There are two methods: Lao and Yi: Lao is to compare the word score, and Yi is to read roughly as you would read a poem (pay attention to the changes in tones and rhymes). Of course, if you imitate, you can only follow the path of labor.
To summarize what has been said above, take the following two songs as examples. The pronunciation of the highlighted words should be the same as before, so as not to destroy the beauty of the music.
Good rain knows the time and season (jiè), when spring comes (fà). Sneaking into the night with the wind, moistening things silently. The clouds in the wild path are all black (hè), and the fire on the river boat is only bright (dù). At dawn, see (kān) red, wet (shì) place, the flowers are heavy in Jinguancheng. (Du Fu's "Joyful Rain on a Spring Night")
I was tasting wine in my single clothes, feeling disappointed that my time was wasted in the guest room (zhì). May spring stay for a while, and return like a passing wing, leaving no trace (jì). Why ask where your home is? There was a storm at night, and the palace of Chu was buried in ruins. Where the hairpin fell, the fragrant fragrance left behind, cluttered the peach stream, and lightly turned over the willow road. Who is more passionate about pursuing and cherishing (xì)? 》But the bees and butterflies knock on the window. The east garden is quiet and dark, gradually becoming dark and green. It quietly circles the bottom of the treasure bush and sighs. Because of its long length, it annoys travelers, just like holding a piece of clothing while waiting for words. The feeling of farewell (biè) is infinite (jì). The disabled young man has a strong hairpin and a scarf (zè). In the end, it doesn't look like a hairpin with its head trembling and tilting towards people. When drifting, don't take advantage of the tide (xì). I'm afraid Duanhong still has the word "Lovesickness", how can I see and get (dè)? (Zhou Bangyan's "Six Ugly")
Finally, let's talk about a problem that may be encountered in practice, which is theoretically nothing. It is: reading from the old (let's say there are very few) is difficult, and it is completely Isn’t it possible from now on? Difficulties come from different sources. A small one is in conflict with "effort saving". This has been discussed before. In order to save effort, we have to sacrifice the beauty of music. There is only one way to go. Which way to go is a matter of personal freedom. There is no need to force it, and it is useless to force it. Another big one is the conflict with the promotion of Mandarin. As far as I know, this is the reason why poetry is read on radio and television according to the current pronunciation. This is collective freedom, and there is no need to force it. But this will lead to a small contradiction, which is: reading, mostly describing how beautiful a certain song is, this beauty includes the beauty of the artistic conception and the beauty of the sound, and if you recite it according to the current sound, such as "Guizhou Yue" that is symmetrical with "Tonight in Yanzhou" "中 Only look at it alone" is pronounced as guīzhōngzhǐdúkàn, and the sound becomes quite unpleasant. How to solve it? It is inevitable to be in a dilemma. This is more proof that how to pronounce poetry is still a question worth studying.