? An empty layman
Since the May 4th Movement, some cultural pioneers have put forward a series of reform opinions and measures on traditional literature and its forms of expression, so that vernacular Chinese can be developed and carried forward. The excellent form of traditional classical literature has not died out, and it is still full of vitality until now. In China education, the two are also compatible. Primary school is mainly literate, and junior high school is mainly written in vernacular, but ancient poems are added. In high school, they increase their efforts, that is, they don't go to college, and the basic knowledge of ancient poetry is enough. Since the May 4th Movement, some people in the literary and art circles have vigorously advocated poetry reform, with the main purpose of vigorously advocating new poetry. Although a large number of excellent new poems (free poems) have been produced, they are mainly influenced by foreign poets and works, and have little to do with the reform of traditional poetry in China. At present, there is no mature opinion on the reform of ancient poetry, and the excellent poems left by Lu Xun and Mao Zedong are basically flat and smooth. Some phonologists and poetic theorists such as Wen Yiduo have also studied and discussed traditional poetic rhyme, which is more about the inheritance of excellent classical cultural heritage, and does not mean reform. Only li jinxi, Bai Dizhou and others have made great achievements after more than 20 years' efforts, and initially formed the "New Rhyme of China". The new version of the rhyme (that is, the eighteen rhymes of "New Rhyme of Chinese", which retain the entering tone characters) is perfect, but most people don't use it or buy it.
At the end of the last century, influenced by the tide of reform, China Poetry Society put forward a new reform plan in the past twenty years, proposing that "respecting the present and knowing the ancient, the two tracks are parallel, the present can be ancient, and the leniency does not hinder the strictness." Unfortunately, most people (including some influential people) do not fully understand this policy. In 2004, the editorial department of "Han Shi" hastily launched a discussion draft and a short list of fourteen rhymes, announcing the cancellation of Rusheng characters, which caused an uproar. More than 500 experts and scholars jointly opposed it, and the national poetry circle was in an uproar, and a war of words was launched around the old and new rhymes for several years. Defenders of Pingshuiyun have built many creative platforms through the Internet, and some experts and scholars have also vigorously organized classes to teach, thus cultivating a large number of new reserve forces of Pingshuiyun. The Chinese Poetry Society has held several youth poetry competitions, and more than 90% of the winners are Pingshui rhyme writers. A large number of writers who write new rhymes gradually join the ranks of Pingshui Rhyme. President Sun Yiqing and Professor Huo passed away one after another, and the new rhyme was basically leaderless in China Poetry Society. Although some famous experts and scholars of China Poetry Society are waving flags and shouting for the new rhyme, their own published works are all flat rhymes, and each issue of Poetry of China only gives four pages of new rhyme. In 20 17, the sixteen-rhyme draft of China and Yun Tong was published, and at the same time, it was once again emphasized that "respecting the present and knowing the ancient, the two tracks are parallel, the present can be ancient, and the width does not hinder the strictness." It's not that we don't advocate the terms "Ping" and "Linz", but that this term has been used for thousands of years and people are familiar with it, so we don't need to advocate it any more. Zhao, Zheng and others presided over the forum and wrote an article explaining that the direction was basically clear and the storm subsided. It is difficult for people who don't always pay attention to complex changes and have no time to study them.
As many poetry friends have asked me various questions, I can't answer them at the moment. After repeated study and research, I found that people put forward to the Chinese Poetry Society that "respecting the present and knowing the ancient, two tracks parallel, preferring the present and the ancient, and being lenient without hindering strictness." The principles and articles explained by Zhao and Zheng were not deeply understood. Let me talk about my humble opinion for reference only.
We advocate knowing the past from today, keeping the two tracks in parallel, making the present look like the past, and being lenient does not hinder strictness, bringing out the best in each other. First of all, it should be clear that the ancient poems (including the ancient styles after the Tang Dynasty) since the Book of Songs were written according to the phonology and harmony at that time, and the folk songs were also based on the local languages at that time, which were all irregular. Because pronunciation is the most changeable, reading the works of predecessors in the language of later generations will have a feeling of incomplete harmony for a long time. The metrical poems formed since the Tang Dynasty are different. It's basically solidified. They have strict and unchangeable metrical forms, and rhyming books, especially Rusheng characters, which have always been flat and even. Although the pronunciation changes greatly with the times and regions, they are all positioned as Rusheng. Zhou Deqing's "Rhyme of the Central Plains" in the Yuan Dynasty began to "enter three schools", but it was only used in northern music, which made it more difficult to create northern music now. Rusheng characters in poetry are still widely used in fixed tones. The four tones of the words in Rhyme Book, namely, flat, up, away and in, are fixed in Rhyme Book and do not change their flat state with the change of pronunciation. Therefore, the inheritance of poetry is much easier. Some words that have changed greatly in pronunciation over the years are gradually not used as rhymes, but this does not affect their existence. Just like dictionaries, not all words are commonly used, and some words change gradually with the changes of the times. Ping Shui Yun, which has been handed down now, is not what it used to be, and some new words are constantly increasing, which makes the rhyme book keep pace with the times and can be fully understood and utilized by future generations. For example, the word "concrete", that is, concrete, can be written as an eastern rhyme according to the current dictionary, and future generations will still use it. Maybe after thousands of years, there will be no figuration, or there will be a new word in figuration, and the pronunciation of this word will change unharmoniously, so future generations will not regard it as rhyme, but will slowly raise the old man as a spare word until it disappears. Do you still have to worry about whether Li Bai and Du Fu will be "figurative"? There are many words in The Book of Songs and Xinhua Dictionary, which are useless. If a poet is still a great poet after ten thousand years, I can guarantee that his masterpieces will still be circulated. Therefore, modern poetry has a high degree of immobilization, because the chanting method does not follow the sound, which is a great scientific invention and the superb wisdom of the ancients. This degree of preservation can't be achieved by other methods. The ancient Rusheng characters in metrical poems, like classical Chinese characters, maintain the dignity of metrical poems, and the fixed rhyming books, like genealogical books, maintain the order of generations. Rhyme books can't be changed by anyone who wants to, and there is no need for artificial reform. Man-made reforms are destructive and will be chaotic in the future. The appearance of Pingshui rhyme (Tang rhyme is stricter than Pingshui rhyme, and all Tang poems are in Pingshui rhyme) makes metrical poems relatively solidified, orderly and inheritable.
I think there should be many people in Tang and Song Dynasties who wrote metrical poems according to the pronunciation at that time instead of rhyming books, and they wrote well at that time, and there was no need to remember rhyming books. A few poems that have been handed down occasionally can only be regarded as ancient customs.
Most people suggest that many homophones in Ping Shui Yun are in different rhymes, and the vowels in homophones are also different. I used to have the same question about this issue, and I naively wrote a critical article. The point is that I only stood in the position of modern Mandarin and foolishly accused the ancients. In fact, the speed of phonetic changes is very fast, and it is very likely that the same pronunciation will be different for decades and hundreds of years. Metric does not change with pronunciation. Once the level tone is fixed, it is almost eternal until the word dies. Therefore, memorizing rhymes is a matter for thousands of generations. We don't know rhyme books. Can we understand the true meaning of ancient poetry works by commenting on the unqualified rate of ancient works with modern phonetic standards?
Metric poetry is the quintessence of China, and so is Beijing Opera. If you sing the best traditional jokes in modern Mandarin, it can only be called Beijing dialect, not to mention the Huangmei Opera of Yue Opera. Another example is painting Chinese painting. Some people who haven't studied professional painting are very skilled, and painters in the industry can see at a glance that they are amateurs. Similarly, it is difficult (not impossible) to understand the charm of ancient poets' works when writing new rhymes. Zhao Ceng clearly pointed out: "Poetry is not folk literature, not popular literature, it is different from ballads, fast books, jingles and other literary forms." Zhao's emphasis on "depth" refers to flat and even rhymes, which must be used when Chinese poetry reaches a high level. Zheng's emphasis on "Guang" also refers to Ping Shui Yun, saying that Ping Shui Yun is used by Chinese all over the world and can play an irreplaceable role in communicating the patriotic feelings of Chinese all over the world.
So the new rhyme is useless? Don't! This new rhyme is very useful. Pingshui rhyme cannot be mastered in a short time. There are more than 6,000 commonly used words (excluding uncommon words) in rhyme books handed down now (such as Peiwenyun and Heyun). A large number of intonations are hard to remember after several years of special efforts, and some rhymes are easy to mix. In ancient times, there were many scholars who raised their children in the examination room, but they missed them because of their mixed rhymes. Even during the Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty, X Quankui, who was recommended by Zeng Guofan and later became the confidant of the powerful minister Su Shun, was twice dismissed as "double fourth class" and provoked Su Shun to curse "damn thirteen yuan". Therefore, the main reason why Ping was vilified and attacked by some people is that it is not easy to master. The Chinese Poetry Society and the Chinese research group of primary and secondary schools of the Ministry of Education put forward the idea of introducing new phonology into primary and secondary schools. It is not difficult for middle school students to master the rhythm of poetry with new rhyme, and it can cultivate their strong interest in ancient poetry and lay a good foundation for further study of Pingshui rhyme. Middle-aged and middle-aged intellectuals who have not been exposed to poetry can quickly learn to write metrical poems with new rhymes. In the past ten years, a million troops of China's poems have sprung up overnight. Shouldn't it be attributed to the vigorous promotion of new phonology? Isn't it natural for New Rhyme to further master the level rhyme on the basis of quickly mastering the knowledge of meter? Even if you don't learn Pingshui rhyme, you don't want to be a famous poet. Use skilled new rhymes, you don't need to write down the words. You can entertain yourself, or you can sing songs among poets all your life. In recent generations, there are really excellent works that have been passed down to future generations and can be appreciated by future generations. Even if they are read as ancient styles, their ideology and artistry will not be reduced at all. Therefore, "advocating the present" can be well popularized, and "knowing the past" means improving on the basis of "advocating the present". When Zhao and Zheng talk about "width", they mean new rhyme, while "strictness" means stricter new rhyme (such as eighteen rhymes) or even rhyme, so the new rhyme and the old rhyme are mutually clear, so why attack each other?
Some people advocate the reform of Pingshui rhyme, but I don't think it is necessary. I have explained it above. Rhyme is also a market rule. Words that don't rhyme or are not commonly used will become idle words and gradually be eliminated. If someone uses them, they will live again. I don't use it now, and I don't know when I will use it again. For example, some so-called simplified characters in Xinhua Dictionary are actually archaic characters, such as "Hui" and its traditional characters, which were eliminated in the first Chinese character reform of 1955 and invited back in the second Chinese character reform of 1988, and there are many similar ones. I think that most of the so-called radical poets in the current poetry reform are ignorant of the excellent heritage of the ancients, and blindly do sth unconventional or unorthodox. The so-called articles written by them are groundless and nonsense (for example, Mr. XXX, who claims to be a poet in China). Although some people are famous and powerful, they are not necessarily wiser than the ancients. How can the rough compilation of fourteen rhymes and the blind determination of sixteen rhymes be as scientific as eighteen rhymes? Even if you don't understand "sound", "sound" and "rhyme", you express your opinions, don't accept reasonable opinions on scientific achievements, argue or even criticize them unreasonably. What kind of "reform" can you make? I'm flattered.