Chapter 28 What is a golden partridge?

The rhyme of a poem, the strokes of a painting, the motive of a piece of music, the theme of a novel, and elements that are repeated in an artistic composition may be the idea that the creator most wants to express, or maybe not; maybe it is the creator who lingers Maybe it's an emotion, maybe it's not; maybe it's a spell that the creator doesn't notice, maybe it's not; maybe it's a little concern that the creator is afraid of being exposed, maybe it's not.The origin of this element is so mysterious that it seems that any kind of explanation can explain the reason for its repeated appearance in the works.However, an explanation cannot and always cannot explain: why is it repeated in some places of the work but not in the rest?In other words, if we regard "continuous repetition" as the creator's emphasis, why not make that element appear exactly where it already appears, no more and no less?Must it be so?

A few years ago, I was chatting with a friend who wrote novels and also commented, and his wife who studied Western literature. For some reason, I suddenly mentioned the theme of Homer's epic poem "Odyssey".My friend was cautious and pondered for a long time.His wife responded with "homeward bound" almost without thinking.I questioned: "Why not 'Call from afar'? At least two siren birds (Siren) seduce sailors with beautiful songs, and the classic scene of trying to make them shipwreck is supporting 'Call from afar' Instead of 'desire to return home'!" My friend and his wife politely stopped arguing with me.At first glance, "Calling from afar" also seems to contain a (larger) meaning of the work than "Longing for Homecoming"; however, I cannot further explain: in a work as large as "Odyssey", , and which specific details can support the establishment of "Calling from afar".For example: after twenty years of suffering, the only thing in the hometown that can recognize the hero Odysses (Ulysses) is his old dog, and the dog dies immediately after recognizing the master; But I can't smell any "call from afar" in it?

My interest in the topic "What is the subject of a novel" stems rather from my aversion to the way it was discussed in the past.People are used to extracting a "central idea", a "most important concept", and a "sentence that is sufficient to outline the spirit of the work" from the work to summarize the author's intention and the meaning of the work.This kind of reading method and understanding attitude seems to be understandable at first, at least it reveals the possibility of abstract thinking close to the work, and it is suddenly revealed according to the author's aspect of "saying here and meaning there".However, it is a convenient philosophical operation to attribute the work to a "central idea", "the most important idea" or even a "sentence enough to outline the overall spirit of the work"; Thoughts, big ideas, endless analogies and repetitions of that succinct statement.Especially in Chinese, since the word subject is related to the word "master", the rest are secondary, to be followed, to obey the reason, the so-called principle is established and the Tao is born, and the outline is drawn but the eyes are open, then——He Yong works for?

However, we have heard professors and judges point out in too many literature classes or awards meetings that the theme of a certain work is very profound, while the theme of a certain work is relatively shallow, so that the "theme awareness" of a certain work is quite Health, the "theme" of a certain work is a bit narrow... This kind of discussion that I can't bear to repeat seems to be based on the level of protein (and only protein!) Standard amount (hard feed protein content not less than 21%/soft feed protein content not less than 9%). It is of course an extension of the inspection system to ask for the health of the "theme awareness" and the correctness of the "theme thought" from the novel.However, even comparing the depth of themes between novels and novels inevitably makes this art flatter the popularity of political correctness in a certain era.Why, then, do readers of fiction have to test the protein content of their novels, led by their sophisticated and educated opinion leaders?It is true that protein is an important nutrient for the production of amino acids to maintain the life and activities of dogs. However, taking the standard content of protein as the only or priority consideration for dog feed is not a kind of jealousy for dogs with keen sense of smell. What about oppression and humiliation?

The discovery of the theme of the novel is, after all, just a necessary convenience, because otherwise readers would not be able to build their understanding of the work; the role of the theme is also based on the fact that it is the beginning of the understanding of the whole work, and it is only a beginning. Take music as an example.The first few bars of a symphony are often regarded as the theme of the piece.The presentation of the theme takes precedence, in order to establish music, a purely time-based art, in the process of conveying its aesthetic experience, so that the audience has a basic support that can be recognized by memory.Therefore, the theme must be repeated and then developed. Even after several variations and developments, it must still flash from time to time until another theme blends in and replaces it.Here, the theme has no question of health, correctness, or even depth, but only completeness, repetition and expansion.

I have heard and read the following statement more than a few times: "War, death, and love are the three major themes of the novel." Is it legal?In fact, on the contrary, it is a sentence that cannot fully refer to what the subject is; it is true that a novel has written one of the "three big", or the "three big" is all about it, and it cannot be regarded as the novel. Because war, death, and love are just three isolated words (like individual notes in a piece of music), they are too vague and general to support a novel. At a minimum, there must be every rational correspondence between the subject of the novel and the length of the novel.The reason why this "must" be so is that the novel cannot get rid of the factor of time in the process of conveying its aesthetic experience.A novel of few lines cannot allow one theme to pass to another, and a long novel cannot tolerate the chatter of a single theme. (Since the theme transition of a novel is a complicated topic, it cannot be accommodated in this article, and it will be extended in "Symphony of a Novel") Here, only short stories are described.

A story without an independent title is recorded in the notes "Kui Che Zhi" written by Guo Yu from the Song Dynasty, so let's call it a story.The full quotation of the original text is still too long, so I try to summarize its content in a way that does not abridge the meaning of the text: Guo Yu, who narrated this story, added a commentary for it, thinking that "Liu's true energy is so strong that he can attach himself to dry bones."However, the meaning of it should be more than that.The understanding of such a work can actually start from discovering its repeated elements—themes.

If we roughly divide it into three parts—that is, "Visiting the Temple", "Giving the Robe" and "Bone Bone", we can find that the cleaning and sweeping actions of the protagonist Mr. Liu appeared three times, and each time has a unique meaning. different references.In the paragraph of "Visiting the Temple", the theme is presented, which reminds us of the famous poem in the Zen Koan, "The body is like a bodhi tree / the heart is like a mirror stand / always wipe it diligently / don't let it stir up dust", readers who are familiar with the background of this allusion Immediately, I will think of the machine front of "Bodhi has no tree / mirror is not a stand / there is nothing / where is the dust".However, this level of enlightenment is not achieved overnight as the novel intends, but readers who remember these two poems and verses will naturally be interested in "wiping until Bodhi (enlightenment)" after reading the twists and turns of Mr. There will be some experience of entering the world, but enlightenment is no more than a sharp edge.In the third paragraph, the style of the novel becomes more and more strange; Mr. Liu is not only fearless about death (the bones) (going into the grave to avoid the rain), but also fearless (myopia).If it is said that the wealth implied by the monk robe is something outside the body and can be wiped away; then death is the duty of life, and Mr. Liu even made it "fall to the ground without moving anymore" with just one blow!What a light and unrestrained theme that washes everything away.It is repeated three times, which seems neither too much nor too little, since we cannot think of any reason why one less time would make the novel leaner and one more time would make it richer.

A theme that can withstand repetition and expansion is bound to be able to cover many details that the novel must deal with, and it is precisely this theme that makes the character's personality, emotion, action, life, situation, and thought a metaphor for this theme.From this point of view, it is the theme that makes the ordinary and trivial details of life, the vulgar appearance of the world and the chaotic flow of consciousness emerge meaningful.For example: in the novel, it is the old beggar who "travels all over the temples" doing nothing (not seeking fortune and longevity) and "wipes the statues of gods and Buddhas". What they do not have in the real world and in the world of other works, that is, the meaning of "refusing everything but this solitude" (even death).

Most of the stories in Chinese notebook novels are like ancient Chinese music, which is a linear development form, without paying attention to themes that can be explored as usual.Purely from the perspective of requiring the structural aesthetics of novels like buildings, it seems that there is no possibility of establishing a theoretical model with the theme as the core among the vast number of works.But from a relative point of view, works like this do not need to be molded from the Western structuralist aesthetics in order to achieve their value in line with that model, so that critics or researchers can "select gold from the sand, often "See Treasure" and praised it: "My country actually has it!" - it has its own origin.

In fact, the demonstrated theme building implicitly comes from "Xing" in Chinese poetics. Xing: lifting, ascension, exuberance of interest, associations arising from a high degree of understanding.Its approach is different from the literal interpretation of the text, and it is also different from the metaphor or symbol of such and such.The purpose of Xing (if any) is not to be accurate, but to provide an accurate range.After metaphors or symbols are commonly used, used, familiarized and abused, the metaphors and metaphors are often locked in a reversible and formulaic way.Xing is not the case, it is a mystery in Chinese poetics.Zheng Qiao's "Six Classics Austrian" said: "Those who are prosperous, what they see is here, and what they get is there; they cannot be analogized, and they cannot be rationalized." The meaning of this passage is to point out: as a poetic method , Xing——There is no absolute empirical relationship between "this" and "that" that evokes associations, and there is no inevitable logical relationship.In the text of "The Book of Songs·National Style": "Guanguan Jujiu/Zaihezhizhou" and "My Fair Lady/Gentleman is good at it", at first there was only a harmonious connection between rhyme and foot characters.In terms of the meaning of the sentence, is it true that the Jujiu singing at the gates of Hezhou is a male and a male, but is it a good match between a lady and a gentleman?Or when a gentleman and a lady are married, there is a pair of Jujiu beside them, and they are closed to congratulate them? "Taozhiyaoyao/Zhaozhuoqihua" refers to the beautiful wedding scene of "Zhizi Yugui/Yiqishijia"?Or is it the bright and beautiful face of the married daughter?Or is the blossoming peach blossom a grand blessing for marriage and family? Xing is so inaccurate; but because of its inaccuracy, it draws extensive and free associations in the following texts, which can point to the east or west; it is like another form of rhyme, based on The meaning norms with few restrictions make the symbols and texts that seem to be irrelevant and incomprehensible have a meaningful relationship with each other.The three sections of cleaning the dust, presenting the robe, and beating the bone are exactly the three songs of this poetic mystery. The theme has to be picked up in the first half of the work, and then echoed later-is this a formula?of course not. My teacher in college, Mr. Wang Jingzhi, quoted such an example in the introduction to his "The Book of Songs": "The last two sentences of Wen Tingyun's "Bodhisattva Man" say: 'Newly embroidered Luoru, both golden partridges.' is completely This is the method of Guanju. Guanju first said that Ju and Jiu are both in the continent, and Wenci first narrates, and finally said "Shuangshuang golden partridge" which arouses emotional associations. The prosperity of the words comes after the words." When the novelist is tired of putting the theme in front of the text, developing it sequentially, changing it, or repeating it (just as the poet is tired of the "fu" of "stating the matter" and the "comparison" of "similar to this") , new technologies will be created. Joyce is an obvious example. Most of Joyce's works (especially short stories) deal with an inevitable revelation of Christian civilization.Joyce made the novel a journey of sudden "epiphany".The plot is definitely not an action climax under the almost suffocated, dull, and stagnant narration—a scene like "Hamlet" where people are almost dead is definitely a scourge in Joyce's eyes. Joyce wants readers to Leading to an inner truth that even the protagonist himself must be very surprised, surprised and even terribly strange. "Suddenly, a switch is flipped in so-and-so's body, oops!" That's what it is.Much the same is true of modernist fictional institutions. There is nothing wrong with imitating Joyce's novels-the protagonist of the story is as stupid and mechanical as the author, who suddenly "understands", "awakens", and "discovers" after doing nothing but groaning in a mysterious way... In a word It was an epiphany that he served the wrong God.This is a horror novel. We certainly don't want to blame Joyce for all the bluster and noise that terrorist fiction has come and gone in this century.In fact, Joyce's spiritual enlightenment can also be regarded as a great pioneer of inverting the position of its theme in modern novels. How can we be disrespectful? In Wen Tingyun's case, "Shuangshuang Golden Partridge" is at the end of the chapter, and it turns its head to dye not only "Xin Zhixiu Luoru" - because the golden partridge can be the pattern on the embroidered Luoru, or it can be more than just a pattern .It can be a double image of a beautiful woman facing a mirror, or it can be the appearance of a pair of lovers.By chanting about uninhabited things, you can write about the people in the opposite shadow, and you can also contain lovers and husbands and wives in it. , adding many explanations. And in Joyce's pen, the teenager (me) in "Arabian Trade Show" came to the epiphany at the end of the chapter-"gazing into the darkness, I saw myself like an animal driven and mocked by vanity, with eyes burning with anguish and Anger" is precisely what exposes the latent motive of this teenager's "falling into bitter love": "staring at the darkness" (seeing his own skin color), revealing the root of adolescent lust.Readers will also have to wait until the end of the article to appreciate the association between this "darkness" and skin color, and the dark dynamics of love from the sentence "Gazing up into the darkness, I saw myself...". The same technique is replicated in The Dead, also included in Dubliner.Joyce makes a long and boring banquet complete in front of the reader without loss, and the reader can finish reading this article almost in the time it takes to attend an equally long and boring banquet.Also at the end of the novel, the protagonist Gabriel Conroy stares at his sad and sleeping wife in the moonlight, and suddenly has a realization: he has never loved his wife, and his wife is afraid Never loved him either.The themes thus emerge: "I am dead to my life" (the Conroys and even the hypocritical little bourgeois at the previous banquet) and "I am alive to my death" (waiting for my love in the rain and dying at the age of eighteen. A boy who died of pneumonia) These two states prove that "the loss of the ability to love is death."Joyce writes with utmost delicacy, trying to keep the theme of the novel hidden, until the protagonist "the switch in the body is turned on", and the reader then "recalls" everything before Fu She also rediscovered the "new patch embroidery Luo Ru" and various associations that had been "pretold" (pretold). Regardless of whether the theme "looks ahead" or "beforeseen", and no matter how it flashes, repeats, or unfolds, it cannot be set as the gist of the novel, because the theme can be reduced without "being" into an isolated word and thing, and an isolated word has no meaning at all.