Zhu Guangqian

Selected works of Zhu Guangqian's aesthetic literature (Hunan People's Publishing House, 1980).

In writing, the most important and difficult task is not to search for materials, but to select and arrange them after having them, that is, to give them a complete and vivid form. The material is only crude steel, and the selection and arrangement only show the tempering and description of art. As far as raw materials are concerned, what can be thought of and said in the world has generally been thought of and said. However, future generations will inevitably think, because everyone has his special life situation and experience. Although what he wants to say is basically the same, he just thinks differently from what he says. The form has changed, and so has the content. Therefore, what he wants to say, though seemingly platitudes, can actually be a vivid work, if selected and arranged, it will be endowed with new forms and new life. "Autumn wind, waves and leaves in Dongting [autumn wind, waves and leaves in Dongting] Qu Yuan's poem" Nine Songs, Fragrant Lady ". A curly, lively look. Wave, wave, is used as a verb here. Wood leaves, leaves. " Generally speaking, there are two sentences in Li Jing's "Huanxisha" in the Southern Tang Dynasty related to "fragrance sells green leaves, and the west wind worries about green waves". Li Jing (9 16—96 1), a five-pronoun person, was a monarch of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Lotus. Lotus. "Show the same emotional interest. Moreover, each has its own advantages, and it cannot be said that the latter is a copy or plagiarism of the former. After Shakespeare wrote Shylock, many writers went on to write the same typical miser (Habagon in Moliere) and the famous French playwright (1622- 1673). The main works are Hypocrite and Miser. Habagon, now generally translated as "Arbagon", is a character in the comedy Miser. And Balzac's Goliath is now generally translated as "Grandet". The protagonist in Balzac's novel Eugenie Grandet. It's just as reasonable. Although the materials are roughly the same, each writer has his own different choices and arrangements, that is to say, he has his unique artistic skills, so he can still have his special artistic achievements.

The best articles, like the English novelist Swift (1667- 1745), are now generally translated as "Swift". His masterpiece is the fable Gulliver's Travels. It must be said that "the best words are at the best level." Finding the best words depends on selection, and finding the best level depends on arrangement. In fact, these two jobs are very important in all aspects of life, which are needed all over the world, and the hub of success or failure is here. I often pay attention to the use of soldiers in the war and think it is exactly the same as the composition. Anyone who is good at generals knows that there are not many soldiers. A good soldier can be used by many people. The original meaning of fatigue [fatigue (Ló ng)] is the morbid state of stooping and high back, which generally refers to old age and illness. I am weak and ill. The more disabled, untrained and undisciplined soldiers are, the more difficult it is to mobilize, but it becomes a burden or obstacle. Every meaning or sentence in the article is a soldier. You must check it before calling it. Those who can't fight must be eliminated, leaving only the elite to stand in their respective posts and play their respective roles. Posting is posing, which is called "layout" in the article. When dispatching troops, it is an ancient car that can walk, ride guns, work and ride. This refers to the ordnance, food, clothing and other materials carried by the transport troops when marching. There must be contacts and care, and generals, schools, commanders, soldiers and fighters should be step by step, and the backbone and flanks of the whole front, forwards and reserves, especially in an orderly manner. Although they are elites, if they are not carefully manipulated and disciplined, they will become a rabble and will not win the battle. The layout of the article is also a kind of battle, and each paragraph is a team. Only when it is placed in the most effective position can it produce the greatest effect.

There are only two common problems in the article: I don't know how to choose and I don't know how to arrange. The first step is to choose Stephenson [Stephenson (1850- 1894)] as an English writer. Now it is generally translated into Stevenson. Literature is "the art of tailoring". Cutting is the negative of choice. If you have a choice, you must give it up and give up your love. When we are in high spirits, we often feel that everything we think is good, especially what we have worked so hard to get. It seems a pity to write it off. Therefore, it is difficult to give up your love. It needs to be objective and calm, especially careful self-criticism. Don't know how to choose, mostly because of the illusion of laziness and vanity. When I come across a topic, I don't want to think deeply. I just make do with saying something really superficial, trite and self-righteous, and I will say it all. I often read the papers of college students, and all the words of a topic are detailed and every point is briefly mentioned, but none of them are thorough, even repetitive and contradictory. If several people are working on the same topic, what they say and what they say are mostly in the same form, and it seems that they only feel that "the world is as black as an old crow." How can this kind of article persuade or move readers? Here, we can fight with soldiers again. The key to winning by soldiers is to occupy the fortress and break the main force. The fortress fell, the main force was broken, the others were invincible, and they would not attack themselves. Therefore, the ancients had the poem "Shoot the horse first, catch the thief first, catch the king first" in Du Fu's Nine Embankments (Sixth). To disintegrate the enemy, we must first catch its leader. "statement. If you waste your forces in non-strategic places, what victory can you expect to win when your own forces are exhausted and the enemy's fortress and main force remain motionless? The fuss is not to the point, and the mistakes are the same. In art, just like in nature, the most effective method is often the most economical one. Waste is not only a loss, but also a harm. Instead of concentrating on doing ten things and failing to do any of them well, it is better to concentrate on doing one thing and do it unswervingly. The same is true of making an article. There is nothing to say in the world. If you want to finish it, you will be stupid. You have no reason to say what everyone says, unless you speak better than others, which is not something you can do by saying everything. Every article should have a theme, and you must completely focus on this theme, so as to explain the problem thoroughly and to the point. Push, analyze, analyze. Inside, inside. , baking and dyeing [baking and dyeing] set off the rendering. Incisively and vividly, let the emotional situation you write become a world, which stands out from the crowd, just like a relief protruding on the surface of a stone. Readers can immediately have a strong impression when they see it, and they can't help but be unconvinced and moved. This is a choice, this is a breakthrough.

We'd better use drama novels to explain the reasons for our choice. Both plays and novels describe people and things. The complicated relationship between people and things has always been extremely complicated. One person has karma with many people. One thing is related to many things. If we trace these relationships, we can deduce them to infinity. A drama or novel just cuts out a fragment from this endless human relationship, making it an independent and self-sufficient world, and many things that are related to other aspects but have little to do with what is written on the one hand must be cut out. We are talking about the hero Liang Shanbo who robbed the birthday class. The luxurious occasion where the birthday class was sent may be worth describing, but we can't control it. Who doesn't want to know that hamlet in wittenberg refers to the university of wittenberg, the new cultural center of german humanism? But now we only talk about his family tragedy. Time and space constraints do not allow us to move to Weidenburg to have a look. On a small scale, a novel or drama must be centered on one main character or story, interspersed with other characters' stories, and must be able to set off the protagonist's character or clarify the clues of the main story, and enough is enough. It will be bloated and complicated to insert one more person or thing. As far as the details of a character or a story are concerned, there are countless more. You must have a choice, and you must be typical when choosing a certain detail. If you choose, the remaining countless details are self-evident. Misers are stingy everywhere. When Wu wrote Yan Jiansheng in The Scholars, he only chose to see two wicks in the oil lamp when he died and didn't close his eyes. A Dream of Red Mansions pays the least attention to Miaoyu, but her cold and unforgettable psychology makes us unforgettable at first sight. Granny Liu had the teacup thrown away and poured Baoyu a sapphire bucket herself. Baoyu's birthday, the sisters are very happy. She sat alone in meditation [meditation (cā nchá n)]. Buddhists sit quietly and meditate to understand Buddhism. , but secretly handed a pink note. A few strokes, a character and a situation are vividly written. Play with the rope in these places [play with the rope] and grope repeatedly. Only then can we realize the truth of choice.

Besides choice, the second important thing is arrangement, that is, posing. Military strategists have the so-called "Changshan snake array", which is called "Changshan snake array" for short and looks like Changshan snake, hence the name. Changshan snake, a kind of snake in ancient legend, can save each other from beginning to end. Its characteristic is that "hitting the head should follow the tail, hitting the tail should follow the head, and hitting the belly should follow the tail". "See Sun Tzu's Art of War in nine places. The original text of these sentences is: "If you hit it on the head, it will be finished; if you hit its tail, it will be finished.". " "。 Aristotle said in Poetics that the structure of drama should be complete, so he gave a seemingly ordinary but profound definition of the word "complete": "When I say complete, I mean that a thing has a head, a middle section and a tail. There is nothing to cover your head in front, there must be something behind. Middle section, if there is something in front, there is something in the back. There is something in the tail in front, and there is no need to have something in the back. " This is actually the same as the definition of "Long Mountain Snake Array". In modern language, a work of art must be a complete organism, a living thing. A living thing must first have a head, a tail and a middle section. Secondly, the head, tail and middle section are in an inevitable position. Thirdly, there is a kind of vitality that permeates everything, some of which are affected, and the rest cannot be insensitive. A good formation should be like this, and so should a good article layout. If a passage is still harmless to the full text, it is a wart (Zhu √ yó u), which is a metaphor for unnecessary and useless things. ; If the moving position of a paragraph is still harmless to the whole text, then the layout of that article is thoughtless. The looser the layout, the weaker the vitality of the article.

Once upon a time, China literati talked about the principles of writing articles. Format is often regarded as a rigid form, for example, the whole situation must be coherent, the context must echo up and down, the tone must be cadence, and the meaning must have two sides, such as calligraphy and painting, with yin and yang back. Of course, these words make sense, but they are all derived from the analysis of works. Without works, it is inevitable to talk about righteousness. We want to know the tricks of typesetting, and we'd better analyze the perfect works ourselves; At the same time, when writing, I also took pains to weigh and consider. The best analytical materials are masterpieces of western dramas, because their structures are usually extremely tight. Learning drama is also the best way to learn layout, because drama must express actions in limited time and space. If the ups and downs are not compact, it is impossible to concentrate the audience's interest and produce nervous emotions. Most of the important books in the history department of China, such as Zuo Zhuan and Historical Records, are also particularly particular about the layout, which deserves careful understanding. A perfect work, if carefully analyzed, must have the following two elements in structure.

The first is a clear hierarchy. Literature, like German scholar Leisen (1729-1781), is now generally translated as "Lessing". Playwright and literary theorist. The reason why it is said is that it extends along a line because it is based on the words passed down from time. If there are many clues at the same time, we can't put them on the same plane at the same time, just like many things coexist side by side in the picture; We must put them in chronological order, say one thing, then say another, and so on. There must be a hierarchy between those who speak first and those who speak later. Only when the hierarchy is clear can there be the head, tail and middle section mentioned above. The beginning of an article is the most difficult, because the beginning is the selected starting point, from which endless meanings will come out in turn, such as roots, stems, branches and leaves emerging from buds. Only when the article grows can it become a complete organism. The so-called "hair growth" means that the above meaning produces the following meaning, and there is hair growth on it, which has been accepted below. There are many kinds of "impassability" in the article. The most powerful thing is that the meaning of the previous sentence is put aside without clear explanation, and the meaning of the next paragraph suddenly appears without root. Follow the natural development of meaning, the context will be connected, there will be no problems of disconnection and suffocation, and the meaning will be integrated and not inconsistent. Slapping yourself in the face is the biggest weakness of the article. Zhang Shizhai [Zhang Shizhai (1738—1801)] is Zhang Xuecheng, and Shizhai is his word. Historian of Qing Dynasty, born in Huiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), is the author of Literature and History. I chose a good example in Han Tuizhi's Preface to Send Meng Dongye. It says that "everything is not flat, then it sounds", and it goes on to say that "Yi Yin [Yi Yin] was a famous man in the Yin Dynasty. Shang Ming, Duke of Zhou [Duke of Zhou] surnamed Ji Mingdan, brother of (France), uncle of Cheng Wang (Yong), politician in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, was the most powerful person to consolidate the Zhou Dynasty. "Zhou Ming, Yi Yin, duke of zhou. This is contradictory, and the following meaning is not derived from the above meaning logic. When meanings are born in order, they can echo each other and get together in a class without being messy. There are two kinds of clutter: first, what should be said in the last paragraph is omitted, and then it is barely inserted in a place that is not commensurate; First of all, what has been said above will be repeated below. These problems are rooted in lax thinking. If you think carefully, your organization will be natural and meticulous.

The second is to distinguish between light and heavy. The article should be not only hierarchical, but also light and heavy. Light and heavy are like the yin and yang of a painting, one can avoid monotony and cause cadence; The second is the light and heavy contrast. The heavier the person, the stronger the effect. If the characters and stories of a drama or novel are not divided into subject and object, and there is no leadership, it will certainly appear messy. If a reasoning article has five or six meanings and pays equal attention to it, it must be dull and can't convince readers. The characteristic of art is wholeness, wholeness is related to wholeness, and wholeness is unified. For perfection. When multiple meanings coexist, in order to produce a unified impression, it must be clearly defined. No matter how long the article is, the article must have a theme, and the paragraph must have a theme. The theme is the outline, and the meaning derived from the theme is the purpose. The outline must be eye-catching, and the eye must be attached. In the outline, the pecking order, and then can be integrated. "For example, Beichen lives in its place and the stars arch the moon [for example, Beichen lives in its place and the stars arch the moon]. See the Analects of Confucius for politics. Beichen, Polaris. Arch, surround. " The main idea of an article should be that the stars should be divided into different sizes in this weather. Theme is the focus, just like the focus of photographic projection, all other meanings are attached around and gradually disappear. There are usually two ways to display the weight of an article: the first way is to display it at the level. The same meaning, different status, different effects, but we can't specify a status as the natural focus. The beginning can sometimes be the focus, because it covers the whole article and has a "preconceived" effect on readers; The ending is usually emphasized, and anticlimactic is the taboo of the article. Writers often dig deeper and deeper, constantly arousing the reader's curiosity, so that he can't help reading it until the theme ends, the story comes to an end and the mystery is revealed. The middle section is a link between the preceding and the following, and it can also be the key point. The peak of the play mostly falls in the middle, which can be proved. Whether a place can be the focus depends on the author's rendering and contrast skills. We can't make rules, but we can get some news from analyzing famous books (especially narratives). Secondly, the weight can be displayed in the length component. Generally speaking, the meaning is important and the space is more; Meaning is not important, space should be less. This is not only for the theme, but also to show a little rhythm in proportion, just like the yin and yang in the picture. The inversion of light and heavy is a problem in any artistic work. However, this cannot be generalized. Celebrities' arguments or narratives are often stirred up in all directions. The main idea has been achieved, just like the finishing touch, but it has passed lightly without much pen and ink.

From the above, we can know that the article has certain principles, but there is no certain method. Therefore, we only briefly talk about the principle, unlike ordinary grammar and rhetoric books, but more about analyzing the meaning and methods. "A master can teach people rules, but he can't make people smart." Look at Mencius with heart. The original text is: "A catalpa maker can follow other people's rules, but he can't make people smart." In ancient times, Zijiang Lunyu was also called "hippo chef", "craftsman", "Lunyu" and "jade", and also referred to carpentry in general. . "If you know how to practice articles, you may not be able to make good articles. The basic principle of art is the combination of change and neatness, which is easier said than done, and change depends entirely on the wonderful luck of the mind. This is the so-called "God is bright, but there is only one person". It means that the knowledge and understanding of mysterious and profound things lies in people's ability to use keen wisdom. " Yes

1943