Lecture | Xia Kun Planning | Li Xiaolin
Text finishing | Zhang Burning Editor | Chen Wen
Perhaps we can trace the importance of poetry back to the pre-Qin period. Confucius once said: Poetry can flourish, be observed, be grouped, complain, and learn more about the names of plants, animals and birds.
Although he is talking about the Book of Songs, from another angle, we can also see the importance of poetry in China's traditional culture.
Confucius also said, "If you don't learn poetry, you have nothing to say". Although the era of Confucius has passed two or three thousand years, the importance of poetry can not be ignored in any nation or country. Why do you say that?
Because in any country, any nation, poetry is always the most essence, the most exquisite and the highest part of the mother tongue, and there is no one. Therefore, every nation, the most proud and outstanding figure, must have a poet's name, and it often becomes the pride of the whole nation.
For example, Whitman is to the United States, Tagore is to India, Pushkin is to Russia ... What does this have to do with Tang poetry? Because Tang poetry is the peak in the history of China's poetry development, it is irreplaceable.
Let's go back to what Confucius said. Like Socrates, Confucius lived in an era of elite education, in fact, he was cultivating nobles. But our education now is universal education. Does it matter?
In my opinion, this relationship is very close.
As a teacher with more than 20 years of teaching experience, I have felt the modernization of education more and more over the years, and its progressiveness, advancement and positive significance are undeniable. However, modern education has its insurmountable shortcomings, which are innate.
What is this drawback?
Looking back at the beginning of modern education, the purpose is to export a large number of labor to factories after the industrial revolution, and the highest goal of education is to be qualified, excellent and efficient. Under this system, there is a lack of exploration of human nature and care for people's hearts and lives.
A century ago, Chaplin's "Modern Times" created an image of a screw on an assembly line, and he went crazy at the back. I believe that no parents want their children to be like this.
So what should we do when the inherent disadvantages of modern education cannot be overcome? Not to completely deny school education, but what else should we give our children besides school education?
Today, I only talk about one issue, that is, the caring role of Tang poetry or poetry in children's lives.
What is the role of learning Tang poetry?
Tang poetry makes children's life course beautiful and rich.
Modern people live very tired, and adults have a deep understanding of this. I often hope that children will not be so tired when they grow up, and they can enjoy life and beauty.
There is no shortage of beauty in life, what is lacking is the eyes that find beauty. Then how to train children to find beautiful eyes, art is the only way, and Tang poetry and poetry are very important parts of art.
The language, emotion, image and artistic conception of Tang poetry show us a very rich and beautiful world, which allows children to look at society with beautiful eyes and establish their own life course.
Tang poetry makes children noble and elegant.
Our children have been oppressed by their studies since childhood and by their jobs, cars and houses when they grow up, and they have never had themselves. I don't want my children to live like this in the future. I hope that when he grows up, he can speak with others in elegant language and have an elegant personality.
The nobility and elegance of Tang poetry can be said to be the pinnacle of Chinese literature in China. Whether the stars are falling from the open place, the moon is running from the river, the white sun is covered by mountains, the golden river is drained by the ocean, or Jiangling, thousands of miles away, they are all revealing a beautiful and elegant world. To cultivate children's magnanimity, I think Tang poetry is the best choice.
Tang poetry makes children affectionate and compassionate.
I read Kafka's Metamorphosis for the first time in college, but I couldn't understand it. With more and more experiences, I realized that Kafka wrote really well. In life, we are often alienated into beetles and busy with hard shells all day. Life is getting faster and faster, and people are getting colder and colder. This is Kafka's alienation, and it is difficult to have such feelings as "deep affection and compassion".
And I hope that when the child grows up, he will be a sentient, righteous and compassionate person who knows compassion and feelings.
And Tang poetry can give this kind of affection. Poetry is a romantic style, and it is difficult to talk about poetry without feelings. "Grass across the plain, come and go with the seasons", which is the deep feeling in the face of friends leaving; "The thread in the loving mother's hand makes clothes for the wayward boy's body", which is affection; "Ah, Xie's youngest favorite daughter, unfortunately married this penniless scholar" is a deep feeling in love.
Of course, there are many things as beautiful as Tang poetry, such as music, movies and paintings, but I think Tang poetry is a better tool. On the one hand, parents are eager to learn, on the other hand, Tang poetry is also very helpful for children's academic study and exams.
The misunderstanding of parents letting their children learn Tang poetry
Many children can recite many Tang poems when they are young, but they will get farther and farther away from poetry when they grow up.
Why? I think there are two reasons.
Family reasons. Parents only use Tang poetry as a way to exercise their children's memory, and even let their children carry a capital to show off to their friends and neighbors. "How many ancient poems can my children recite?" In fact, parents seldom read poems with their children. Understanding poems and reciting them is the ultimate goal of reading poems, which is very wrong.
Poetry must be recited, but recitation is only a means of testing, and it is definitely not an end. The ending at the beginning is wrong, and the path behind it is definitely incorrect.
School reasons. I have been a teacher for more than twenty years, and I know very well how to teach poetry in school. Most of them talk about the background of the times, make the words clear, then recite them, recite them, but they can't recite them, copy them fifty times ... children are largely afraid and resistant, and can't feel the real beauty and charm.
How to Let Children Approach Poetry
Stories and Tang Poetry
First of all, we should teach children poetry in the way they like. I also happened to find out that I can tell children stories about Tang poetry.
Ten years ago, when my children were six years old, I told them bedtime stories every day, including Andersen's fairy tales, Grimm's fairy tales, the little prince, the daughter of the sea ... many classic fairy tales. Because I teach high school, I am not familiar with children's education, so I will prepare lessons in advance. But one day I didn't have time to prepare lessons, and I felt terrible. I don't know what to say today. I had a brainwave and told such a story:
There was a very famous poet named Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty. Bai Juyi used to be a big official in the imperial court, but later he was demoted to Jiangzhou, a small place. But Bai Juyi is a good man and a great poet, so he has made many friends, and Liu Shijiu is one of them.
One day, winter was like this. It was going to snow and the wind was blowing. Bai Juyi warmed a pot of wine. The ancients liked to keep warm with stoves. Bai Juyi used a small pocket stove made of red mud. But he thought how lonely it was to drink alone. Do you want to buy a friend a drink? His children said they could invite Liu Shijiu.
So Bai Juyi wrote a letter to Liu Shijiu. Because Bai Juyi is a poet, he also writes poems, so I have a suggestion for my friend Liu:
There is a ray of green in the old bottle and a trace of red in the quiet stove;
It feels like snow outside at dusk. How about a glass of wine inside? .
The next day, the children volunteered to tell more poetry stories, and I began to adapt them. It is found that every poem is a story, as long as it is reasonably and appropriately imagined and told to children on the basis of respecting the original work.
For another example, I told my children about Du Fu's "Looking for Flowers Alone by the River":
When Du Fu was in middle age, many people died in the country because of the war (I didn't tell him about the Anshi Rebellion when the child was young), and Du Fu's family fled to Chengdu and lived in a place called Caotang next to Huanhuaxi. The child said, "Well, it's Du Fu Caotang!" . I said, "Yes, it's Du Fu Caotang".
Du Fu has many good neighbors, one of whom likes growing flowers very much. Her name is Huang Siniang. There are flowers everywhere in her house and on the path. Because there are many flowers, many butterflies flying in it and many birds singing in it. The scenery is beautiful. Du Fu wrote a poem called "Looking for Flowers Alone by the River". He walked alone by the river to see flowers;
Huang Siniang's family is full of flowers, with thousands of flowers low;
The butterflies in the flowers are dancing, and the soft yinger in freedom is just singing happily.
The above poem is about scenery, and some Tang poems are stories themselves. For example, Cui Hu's "South Village of Capital" is a wonderful story:
There was a poet named Cui Hu in the Tang Dynasty who went on an outing one spring and walked to the south of Chang 'an. He is tired and thirsty. When he saw a peach grove, he approached a family in the peach grove and knocked on the door. The door was opened by a girl. He said to the girl, "I'm thirsty. I want to drink water. " Then the girl brought him a bowl of water. Cui Hu leaned against the door and looked at her while drinking. Say that finish, Cui Hu drank water and left.
The next year, Cui Hu went on an outing again, again, tired and thirsty, and went to that family again to ask the girl for water. After knocking on the door for a long time, the girl never came out. Cui Hu was very sorry, so he wrote a poem on the door entitled "Chengtou is Nancun":
Last spring, in this door, the girl's face contrasted with the peach.
Today, I came here again. I don't know where the girl went. Only the peach blossoms are still there, smiling in full bloom in the spring breeze.
In fact, I don't just tell stories, but visit poets and get to know them through history. When children grow up, they should cultivate their reading habits, let them read some easy-to-understand poetry anthologies, and let them know the background of poetry in combination with history.
Painting and poetry
Besides poetry stories, I think there are many other ways to get children close to poetry. When I was reading poetry with my children, I began to use painting later.
I won't talk about some simple poems, let the children read them by themselves, let them draw after reading them, and then let them tell me about drawing.
I found that children like it very much, and many times their paintings are particularly interesting. Now I'll show you some.
The picture below shows Wuyi Lane of Liu Yuxi:
Weeds are blooming beside Suzaku Bridge, and the sunset at the entrance of Wuyi Lane is oblique;
Swallows under the eaves of Wang Dao and Xie An have now flown into the homes of ordinary people.
Du Fu's quatrains:
Two orioles sing green willows, and a row of egrets go up to the sky;
My window framed the snow-covered western hills. My door often says "goodbye" to ships sailing eastward.
Poetry and music, manual activities, humanistic walking.
I remember that Deng Jun had a set of songs for writing ancient poems, so I might as well give them to my children. Including when is the bright moon sung by Faye Wong, which is also a very classic tune in the composition of ancient poetry. In addition, looking at Jiangnan is also a very good version.
Therefore, there is no need to think of poetry as something far away from us. It will be very interesting to interpret it in a modern way. Besides poetry, stories and music, I tried some other methods when I was doing some poetry summer camps later. For example, the combination of poetry and handwork, games and human walking have also achieved very good results. Let me show you some photos.
It is surprisingly good to let children express poetry with plasticine. He will teach himself poetry and pay attention to every detail and image of poetry, which I didn't expect.
Besides, we will also buy some blank porcelain plates, cups, round fans and folding fans, so that children can write and draw poems on them and show their understanding of poetry in the traditional way of China, and the effect is also very good.
In the enlightenment practice of Tang poetry in recent years, I also tried to get children out of the classroom and walk in the humanities. Every city is a historical accumulation and a treasure house of humanities. As long as you are willing to explore, you will find that there are humanistic elements behind every place. If you take your children out and do your homework in advance, you will gain a lot.
For example, Chengdu is a famous historical city. There are Du Fu Caotang, Susan Temple, Dujiangyan and Wuhou Temple. After telling the children about Du Fu, I took him for a humanistic walk, went to Du Fu Caotang and Du Fu Museum, got to know Du Fu at close range, went to see the place where he once lived and learned everything he experienced in Chengdu.
A poet in the middle Tang Dynasty took his children to Wangjiang Park, the former residence of Xue Tao, a poetess in the Tang Dynasty. We learned about Xue Tao's life in this place through field trip.
When talking about Su Dongpo, we took our children to Susan Temple and Susan Temple Museum in Meishan for a cultural walk to learn about the places where Su Shi lived and their life information.
When talking about Li Bai, we went to the former residence of Li Bai in Mianyang, which is about 0/00 km away from Chengdu/KLOC-,visited Li Bai's hometown and got to know Li Bai better.
The ancients said that "seeing is not as good as practicing", but seeing is not true. They also said that "read thousands of books and take Wan Li Road". In fact, I think it is hard for children to like poetry if these walks and games are introduced into poetry education. If our parents take their children out, get on the bus to sleep and get off the bus to take pictures like most tourists, what can they expect their children to gain?
Interactive question and answer q&; A
Q 1: Does Mr. Xia recommend a poem story reader?
In fact, I think this poem story, the first one is to use your own language, plus appropriate imagination, is actually a story. In addition, parents should take a look at the precautions before telling their children. It is more effective for parents to speak than for children to read by themselves.
Q2: Excuse me, Mr. Xia, can preschool children not understand or recite Tang poems?
I think it's absolutely impossible. We can't underestimate children's understanding ability, what's more, the poems we want to tell should be more suitable for children. Including "Goose Goose, Xiang Tiange" or "Two orioles singing green willows", there is no need to talk about things that children don't understand. Remembering on the basis of understanding, I am against rote memorization, and I am even more opposed to starting to recite blindly without knowing anything.
Reciting is actually just an exam, a by-product. I never asked our children to recite, but later I found that he could recite almost all the poems I told him. Because after he understands it, he will recite it, he likes it, and he will watch it again. We should let children form the habit of loving poetry from an early age and let them learn by themselves. This is the best way.
Q3: What suggestions do you have for preschool children's Tang poetry enlightenment and reading expansion activities?
In fact, when I first told my child about Tang poetry, he was still in kindergarten, not in grade one, and he didn't know a word. So I told him poetry stories, and then I painted. My child likes painting very much. This expansion activity is very good and simple. We can also take them to make some handicrafts, plasticine and so on.
Q4: After reading so many Tang poems, do you find that the three views conveyed in some Tang poems are contrary to modern values? Can you read Tang poetry rationally?
Of course, there must be many. For example, in many ancient poems, the status of women is very low. In ancient times, men had three wives and four concubines and liked to go to brothels, which is contrary to modern values. If the child is young, you can avoid it first. When children grow up, such as high school and junior high school, you can tell them that this is the custom at that time. Don't ask the ancients with our current concept. We are enjoying the works now, not learning the way of life of the ancients.
Q5: Do children need to know more about the historical background when reading Tang poetry?
This is definitely necessary, but I think we should pay attention to the child's growth stage. You don't need to talk about complicated problems with a child who is too young. For example, when I started to talk about the poem "Huang Si's maiden is full of flowers", I didn't talk about the Anshi Rebellion. I can only say that there was a war at home. If the Anshi Rebellion is said, it will be too complicated. How to tell the story of Tang poetry in combination with the historical background is also a gradual process.