Ci, a literary style, is called Ci, which has no deep meaning. Ci is the meaning of lyrics, which is sung in concert with a popular music since Sui and Tang Dynasties. Originally circulated in the streets and lanes, because it is not like a poem expressing feelings, an ancient prose bearing pottery, or a game pen and ink about lovesickness between men and women.
However, this poem Hua, compiled by Ouyang Jiong in the third year of Houshu (AD 940), is not a serious lyric, but expresses some subtle and far-reaching attainments and realms, which is a wonderful thing. Ouyang Jiong's Inflorescence tells why I compiled this collection. I edited the lyrics written by literati and poets for that popular song in recent years. Originally, popular songs sung by ordinary people are more popular and less elegant. In particular, Preface to Flower Collection, edited by Ouyang Jiong, is a lyric poem of the poet. The purpose of editing is to let the literati sing these lyrics when they meet, and give them to beautiful singers to sing, so as to increase their fun of feasting. Originally, such lyrics generally have no deep meaning, which is why we call them small words in the title, but this is also why beautiful women sing and write the lyrics of acacia love at this kind of song feast, which will show the most subtle and profound accomplishment and realm that literati can't even express in poetry.
Regarding this situation, Wang Guowei's "Ci Hua on Earth" once gave a reason. He said that in the Song Dynasty, poetry was not as good as ci, as Wang Guowei said in Ci on Earth. He said that the Song people, the poems they wrote, and the Song poems were not as good as the lyrics they wrote. Poetry of Song people is not as good as ci. What is the reason? Because what they write in poetry is not as honest and true as what they write in words.
Why? Because of poetry, everyone first has a very serious concept that poetry is an expression of ambition and that I write poetry to express my thoughts and ambitions. Poetry, as Du Fu said, "To Yao and Shun", I want to "make the vulgar pure again", which is what poetry is about. Therefore, when a poet writes a poem, the first thing he has is the idea that he is looking for those bright and decent words. Of course, many poets are sincere, but sometimes they always show it to others, which inevitably leads to a false emptiness. But what about the lyrics? It's for singers, not serious. Huang Tingjian, a famous poet in Song Dynasty, also wrote lyrics about beauty and love. A friend who studied Taoism once warned Huang Tingjian that it didn't matter if he wrote too many poems. He said you could write such colorful songs and such obscene words. Forget it, don't write the lyrics of this boring lovesickness. How does Huang Tingjian answer a friend who is learning Taoism? Huang Tingjian said that he said, "Why is the Song poetry in the air not as famous as the Song poetry?" He said that the small words I wrote about lovesickness and beautiful love did not mean that I really had extramarital feelings, nor did it mean that I really had a relationship with a woman. I am just a game pen and ink, but an "air language". It is because of this concept that he thinks I can write anything at will. This doesn't represent me. I can write any romantic feelings of lovesickness. This is not my intention. So their spirit is relaxed when they write. And what happens when people relax? We often say that you have to observe a person and say "you have to observe a person"-do you want to see a person? What about being alone? Look at bowing and comity. In public meeting rooms, everyone is a gentleman-"Don't look at people in the game". When he is not in public, he shows his true colors when playing with people. Small words only express the most subtle and secret feelings of those poets, because they are not serious, not poems that express their hearts.
This phenomenon is gradually discovered, because everyone originally wrote lyrics for songs, so it is gradually discovered that the lyrics of these songs have some subtle and far-reaching significance. Song people began to find that there may be some far-reaching meanings in the little words about love of beauty. Like Liu Kezhuang in the Southern Song Dynasty, he said that "borrowing flowers makes poets and poets proud". On the surface, he wrote about beautiful flowers, but on the inside, he wrote about the lofty sentiments of those literati and poets. On the surface, Qiu Zong writes in his mind the feeling of letting the minister be taken away by the children, which is about the yearning and resentment for other women in his heart, but what he shows is the feeling of letting the minister be taken away by the children. But because Liu Kezhuang wrote these words to a friend of his, at that time, ordinary scholars still thought the fine print was improper, so they wanted to leave a face for their friends. He said that although my friend wrote some flowers, in my heart forever and flowers and beautiful women, it actually has profound significance. So this statement is not an objective statement, but a sentence to save face for his friend. So there is the possibility that this little word has profound meaning, but no one is sure in theory, saying that it can be written like this.
So this affirmation was not until Zhang Huiyan, who said a passage in the preface of Selected Works. Selected Poems is an anthology edited by Zhang Huiyan. On what occasion and under what background did Zhang Huiyan compile this anthology? At that time, I was a tutor at the home of a great scholar named Jin. Those students want to learn words from Zhang Huiyan. Zhang Huiyan is a teacher of Confucian classics and a scholar who studies China's Confucian classics. He is the tutor of another scholar who studies Confucian classics. He is embarrassed to say that I just want to read these small words to the students, so as far as the preface of Selected Poems edited by him is concerned, the word "meaning a thousand words" has a profound meaning. Beyond the thousand words, it transcends the beautiful love written in its language and contains a profound meaning, that is, "extreme life, wind and songs, lanes, joys and sorrows of men and women." Hesitation is embarrassing, metaphorically speaking. Compared with the world, the meaning of changing the wind is close to the poet's song. "This is what we have said, so I won't elaborate today. Small talk has a subtle function. This doesn't just mean that I have spoken my feelings and thoughts. It can be "Tao", which is explanatory and expressive. It is the deepest, vaguest, saddest and saddest feeling of a gentleman, and it is a feeling that I can't say directly. Small words, showing such subtle things. You can't call me a poet and writer during the performance. I'm not proud. I didn't mean that. But "I am embarrassed by my low hesitation to explain my reasons." "I wrote very tactfully, very calmly, very deep and very faint." "Metaphor" and "metaphor" mean expression, not explanation, but expression, expressing my feelings, my subtle feelings. So on the surface, it is a beauty love, but it is actually a bi xing. Bi xing has another meaning besides beauty love, just like Bi xing in the Book of Songs and the change of wind in the Book of Songs. The Book of Songs has both positive and changeable trends.
Write a beautiful politics and a beautiful life, that is, the positive wind, "Guan Guan Yu, in Hezhou." My fair lady, a gentleman is good ",this is the positive wind; It is an exploiter to say that "I can eat millet without food", and some words that are dissatisfied with the society at that time are to change the wind. If you are depressed and have a feeling of resentment, express it in words. Just like Li Sao, Li Sao uses beautiful herbs to express the feelings of a good gentleman, just like Zhang Huiyan said.
What I want to say now is the cultivation and realm in the small words. From writing the lyrics of "Love of Beauty", we later vaguely realized that there might be a deeper meaning in it, and the person who explicitly mentioned it was Zhang Huiyan. Then let's review the history: Picking Inflorescences was compiled by Ouyang Jiong in the third year of Zheng Guang in Houshu, that is, in 940 AD. Ouyang Jiong said that the lyrics of this kind of entertainment written by the poet's literati for geisha and wine girls are "Take the West Garden as a hero, cover happiness with feathers, and don't sing lotus boats." Therefore, the lyrics about beauty and love written by Chinese poets to geisha and wine girls in the preface to Huajian Collection are the original meaning of the fine print.
However, nearly a thousand years later, Zhang Huiyan wrote a word order, and he saw a deeper meaning in a small text. As we said just now, this kind of meaning was not seen from Zhang Huiyan, but was put forward in the preface written by Liu Kezhuang for his friends in the Song Dynasty, Liu Shuanqiu's Eight Words, but he was not sure. It was not until 1797 that Zhang Huiyan wrote "Preface of Ci" that he decided that there was a kind of resentment among sages and gentlemen in the small words.
(This article is taken from The Elegance of Small Words-The Cultivation and Realm of Ye Jiaying's Ci, written by Ye Jiaying, published by Peking University Publishing House on March 20 15, with abridgement).