对仗可分解到单字——旧体诗创作新说:对仗篇

Parallelism Split into Single Character——New Theory of Classical Poetry Creation:Parallelism

对仗是近体诗创作中最基本最重要的技法之一。当下介绍诗律的读物,包括王力《诗词格律》,论及对仗,都说上下句语法结构须一致,相对的词语须词性相同。这只是教初学者要守规矩,按其规矩却未必能写出精彩的对仗。古人写诗靠熟读经典,举一反三;靠语言感觉,习惯成自然,并不讲语法。如今的古汉语语法,是近现代学者借鉴西方语言的语法而构建的,出现很晚。又,古人讲词汇只粗分两大类:"实词"与"虚词"。所谓"实词"指名物词,与现代汉语里"有实际意义"的"实词"非同一概念。所谓"虚词",则是除名物词之外的一切其他词汇,与现代汉语里"没有实际意义,只有语法功能"的"虚词",也非同一概念。古人并没有现代汉语中"名动形数量代副介连助叹"等词性概念。其创作实践中,不同词性词语相对仗,不同语法结构句相对仗的情形甚多。故当下介绍诗律的读物,关于对仗的界定不完备、不准确。笔者以为,对仗之要诀,宜分解到单字,而不仅是单词。物理意义上的物质变化到分子为止,分子不变,故不产生新物质;化学意义上的物质变化则要突破分子界限,到达原子层面,旧分子拆分重组为新分子,故能产生新物质。对仗以单词为最小单位,好比物理学变化到分子为止;以单字为最小单位,好比化学变化可到达原子层面。论全新变化与千变万化,"化学变化"较"物理变化"更占优势。故对仗分解到单字,较之仅分解到单词,有可能更新更活更多变。写得好则可能会更有趣,更有味,更奇妙而匪夷所思。

Parallelism is one of the most fundamental and important skill in modern-style poetry creation.Touching upon parallelism,the rhythm book,including Wangli’s Rhythm of Poetry,tells us that syntactic structure of the above and the following sentences should be the same,and property of parallel words should be identical.They teach beginners to abide by the rules,but rules do not always lead to good parallelism.Ancient poets usually read plenty of classics:they drew inferences about other cases from one instance;they got language sense and they needed no syntax.Learning from western languages,modern scholar established grammar of ancient Chinese.Meanwhile,there are only two kinds of words in ancient Chinese:notional words and empty words.Notional words refer to name and matter,not the"notional words"which mean"practical sense"in modern Chinese language.Empty words refer to any other words except name and matter,not the"empty words"which mean"grammatical function"in modern Chinese language.The ancients have no concept of noun,verb,adjective,numeral,quantifier,pronoun,adverb,preposition,conjunction,interjection and so on.In their creation,parallelism can be employed in words of different properties and in sentences of different syntactic structure.It implies that definitions about parallelism are inaccurate and imperfect in rhythm books nowadays.This essay argues that the tip of parallelism is to split into single character,not single word.An analogy might be helpful here that the changes of matter in the physical sense are constraint to molecules,and molecules remain the same matter,so no new matter is produced.The change of substance in chemical sense needs to break through the molecular boundary and reach the atomic level.The old molecules are split and recombined into new molecules,so new substances can be produced.In some rhythm books nowadays the parallelism takes the word as the smallest unit,this is just like matter goes up to the molecule in the discipline of physics,whereas in this essay,the parallelism takes the character as the smallest unit,as matter goes up to the atomic level in the discipline of chemistry.In terms of creativity,"chemical change"is more potent than"physical change".Compare with single word,parallelism split into single character can be more dynamic and more changeable.If you can write it well,it might be more interesting,more wonderful and more fantastic.