人間詞話（選）人间词话（选）

1#

In ci poetry, jingjie, the world a poem opens, is the highest thing. A poem that has it rises of itself to a high style and has lines that are remembered. This is why the ci of the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song stand alone.

3#

There is a world with a self in it, and a world without a self. "Eyes full of tears, I ask the flowers; the flowers do not answer; the scattered red flies past the swing." "How can I bear it, shut in a lonely inn against the cold of spring, the cuckoo calling as the sun sinks?" These are worlds with a self. "Picking chrysanthemums by the eastern hedge, I see the southern hills, far and calm." "Cold ripples rise, slow and wide; white birds come down, unhurried." These are worlds without a self. In a world with a self, one looks at things through the self, so that things all take on the colours of the self. In a world without a self, one looks at things through things, so that one no longer knows which is the self and which is the thing. The poets of old mostly wrote worlds with a self, yet they were not unable to write worlds without one; it depends on whether a person of real strength can stand on his own.

6#

A world is not made of scenery alone. Joy, anger, grief and delight are also a world within the human heart. So a poem that can render true scenery and true feeling is said to have a world; otherwise it is said to have none.

7#

"On the branch of red apricot, spring is in uproar": with the one word "uproar," the whole world appears. "The clouds part, the moon comes out, and the flowers play with their shadows": with the one word "play," the whole world appears.

16#

A poet is one who has not lost the heart of a child. So the Last Ruler of the Southern Tang, born deep in the palace and raised in the hands of women, was the poorer for it as a ruler, and the richer for it as a poet.

17#

The objective poet must see much of the world; the deeper his experience, the richer and more varied his material, as with the authors of The Water Margin and The Dream of the Red Chamber. The subjective poet need not see much of the world; the shallower his experience, the truer his nature, as with the Last Ruler of the Southern Tang.

26#

Everyone, past or present, who has achieved a great work or great learning must have passed through three stages. "Last night the west wind stripped the green trees; alone I climbed the high tower, and gazed down the road to the end of the sky." This is the first stage. "My robe and sash grow loose, yet I never regret it; for her I am worn and wasted." This is the second stage. "A thousand times I searched for her in the crowd; turning my head by chance, I see that person there, where the lamplight is dim." This is the third stage. Words like these could only have been spoken by great poets. But to read these poems in this way would hardly have been allowed by Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu and the others.

47#

Xin Qiji, drinking until dawn on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, wrote a poem to the tune Mulanhua Man in the questioning manner of the Heavenly Questions to see off the moon: "Lovely moon of tonight, where are you going, so far, so slow? Is there another world of men, where they are only now seeing your light rise in the east?" A poet's imagination went straight to the truth that the moon circles the earth, in close agreement with the men of science. This may be called a divine insight.

54#

When the four-character poem wore out, there came the Songs of Chu; when the Songs of Chu wore out, there came the five-character poem; when the five-character poem wore out, there came the seven-character; when the old-style poem wore out, there came regulated verse and the quatrain; when regulated verse and the quatrain wore out, there came the ci. For when a form has been in use for a long time, many hands have dipped into it, and it hardens into habits and set patterns. Even a person of real strength finds it hard to bring out anything new within it, and so escapes into another form to set himself free. This is why every literary form flourishes at first and declines midway. So I cannot believe those who say that later literature is worse than earlier. But taken one form at a time, the claim cannot be disputed.

55#

The Three Hundred Poems and the Nineteen Old Poems, and the ci of the Five Dynasties and Northern Song, all lack titles. It is not that they lack titles: the meaning of a poem cannot be contained in a title. Since the anthologies Hua'an and Caotang gave a title to every tune, and even made up titles for the old untitled ci, it is as if, on looking at a fine landscape painting, one at once declared, "This is such-and-such a mountain, such-and-such a river." Would that do? When poems took titles, poetry died; when ci took titles, ci died. Yet few people of middling talent understand this and can free themselves from it.

56#

In the work of the great masters, feeling always goes to the heart, scenery always opens the eyes and ears, and the words come out naturally, without any affected or ornamental air. This is because what they see is true and what they know is deep. It is so in shi and ci alike. Measure the writers of past and present by this, and you will not go far wrong.

60#

A poet must enter into the universe and human life, and must also come out of them. Because he enters into them, he can write them; because he comes out of them, he can see them. Because he enters into them, his work has life; because he comes out of them, it has a lofty air. Zhou Bangyan could enter but could not come out. From Jiang Kui on, poets have never dreamed of either.

61#

A poet must hold outward things lightly, so that he can order the wind and the moon about like servants; and he must also hold outward things dearly, so that he can share joy and sorrow with the flowers and birds.