Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Merits and Demerits of Classical Chinese

4.1 Classical Chinese meritorious service As mentioned above, after the formation of classical Chinese, it became a written language separated from spoken language.It has a long life, rich content and great influence, and it is our considerable wealth.Wealth is useful, so it must have merit.But it is divorced from the masses, and it is always in the pen of the upper class literati, and it cannot be blamed.Merits and demerits are the evaluation of value, and it is inevitable that the benevolent see benevolence, and the wise see wisdom.Here I want to focus more on common sense, discard the small and choose the big, and just talk about what is estimated to be acceptable to most people.The nature of classical Chinese has been discussed in many places above. Talking about the nature will touch on the advantages, and the advantages are merit.In this way, when talking about the merits of classical Chinese, it is inevitable to repeat what has already been said.But here is an investigation from another angle, focusing on how to evaluate classical Chinese and how to treat classical Chinese, and some meanings cannot be omitted.The way to reconcile is to make calculations in terms of severity, lightly mention what has already been said, and say a few more words that are new enough.

4.1.1 It has accumulated rich cultural heritage This topic is too big, I want to divide it into three paragraphs.Let me talk about "cultural heritage" first.It is the sum of traces of human activities, which can still be seen or inferred.Trace Mountain can be divided into several levels from intangible to tangible. For example, moral concepts and life hobbies are intangible, social systems, customs and habits are in the middle, and the Great Wall and Song edition "Selected Works" are tangible.Logically speaking, since it is a trace, it should be counted regardless of whether it is tangible or intangible, and regardless of the time; but the habit always refers to the tangible, and the time is not very recent.There are high and low values ​​of heritage, and even some that should not have value, that is historical value.Among the innumerable heritages, the most useful and therefore the most valuable is the written language.Because: First, it uses a set of symbols to preserve the knowledge of predecessors.We know that there are a large number of human activities that cannot be spread or have not been spread, such as the thoughts of Mencius and the architecture of the Efang Palace, which can only be spread by knowledge.Second, human activities of whatever nature can only be preserved in detail in written language.This can be known by looking through books such as daily life notes and real records.Third, the situation of all relics other than written language can often be understood clearly only with the help of written language.To give an early example, such as the oracle bones in the Yin Ruins, if there is no written language, we cannot know that they are divination tools.Therefore, we can say that among the various types of cultural heritage, the one with the highest value is the one labeled "written language"; Part of it is classical Chinese.

Let's talk about "accumulation".Culture is created by people for the convenience and rationality of life.Creativity mainly comes from knowledge. Only with knowledge can we understand and use the old culture and move forward.This proves how important the accumulation of culture is for the advancement of mankind; and the accumulation of culture is mainly through written language.For example, Mencius was born more than a hundred years after the death of Confucius. He taught the way of Confucianism and wrote seven chapters of "Mencius" because he already had a written language.Sima Qian wrote "Historical Records", which records the treasures of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, because there are already written languages ​​such as "Zuo Zhuan" and "Guo Yu".You can also give a negative example. In ancient times, there were the so-called six classics, but there were actually five. Because the "Book of Music" had no books, so although Confucian scholars later said that "the son was in Qi and heard Shao, he didn't know the taste of meat in March" ("The Analects of Confucius") "Shu Er"), but no one can tell what happened to Shao Le.The so-called accumulation here includes two situations: one is to preserve after creation, such as the seven chapters of "Mencius"; .In the process of accumulation, losses are inevitable, and often large losses.For example, the books recorded in "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" have survived to this day. Very few books have been preserved today; Emperor Liang Yuandi Jiangling fell, and 140,000 volumes of books were burned at one time; Of course, there are many copies that cannot be passed on, and that is just a flash in the pan and died out.The collections in our current library are some of the surviving ones, which are part of the sum accumulated over the past three thousand years.

However, even this little surviving is enough to be rich.Now say "rich".It is not easy to say that the words are true, because on the one hand, the volume is too large, and on the other hand, the content is all-encompassing.Let's talk about quantity first.The last big book compiled in the old era was the "Siku Quanshu" during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.Compiling this book has another purpose, which is to eliminate anti-Qing thoughts; and it wears colored glasses, and those who think it is indecent will not be accepted; there must be omissions.But this is the case. There are 3,503 species in the "Summary of the General Catalog of Siku Quanshu", comprising 79,330 volumes, and 6,819 species, comprising 94,034 volumes, adding up to 10,322 species, comprising 173,364 volumes. After the "Siku Quanshu", some people compiled the bibliographies that were not collected in the Siku, some compiled and burned the bibliographies, and there were many fish that slipped through the net.In short, the volume of classical Chinese classics is indeed astonishing.Besides, the content is all-encompassing.This is even more difficult to say, because it is too complicated to be summed up in a few words; if it is forced to say, it will inevitably miss everything, or be shallow and unrealistic.Here I would like to talk about three aspects as examples.One is an overview.Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the cataloging of books in our country has been divided into four parts: classics, history, sons and collections.Shi, Zi, and Ji are roughly classified according to the nature of the content; otherwise, it is due to noble birth.Whether such a division is reasonable or unreasonable, in short, it cannot reflect the specific nature of the content.Classics are documents, and when we use documents, what we are most eager to know is what is said in them.This is too complicated.In the old days, some people vigorously studied literature and divided the content of literature into several categories. For example, Ma Duanlin's "Benwen Tongkao" is divided into land tax, coins, household registration, service, taxation, market purchase, land tribute, national use, election, school, etc. Officials, Suburbs, Ancestral Temples, Royal Rites, Music, Soldiers, Punishments, Yudi, Four Descendants, Classics, Imperial Lines, Feudalism, Xiangwei, and Objects, there are 24 categories in total.This seems to be very comprehensive, but it is not, because what he pays attention to is only the "laws and regulations" that the emperor will care about.As for things that are more closely related to ordinary people, such as dressing and eating, life and death, marriage and so on, they are all omitted; and these are not many in written language.In this light, we may exaggerate a little by saying that whatever material you seek in our collection of books, it will never disappoint you.The second is to look at a part.Many people will be interested in the activities of the predecessors, so you can look at the history of the four volumes.Among them, the most prominent ones are of course the more than twenty official histories from "Historical Records" to "Drafts of Qing History".Followed by other sub-categories of the Ministry of History (chronology, chronicle, history, miscellaneous history, etc.).Also, there will be useful material in many books outside of the Ministry of History, because written language is written by people, and there are always references to human activities.In short, partly speaking, it is also inexhaustible.The third is to look at what some people think is rare.This refers to scientific knowledge.Some people say that our oriental classics talk about self-cultivation, family harmony, state governance, and world peace, while scientific materials are very scarce.This is obviously not true. For example, the movement of many comets (including the most famous Halley's Comet) can only be clarified by referring to a large number of records in China.In addition to astronomy, various departments of modern science can find a wealth of information in our classics (for details, see the British Needham's "History of Science and Technology in China" published by Science Press).The above three aspects can prove that we are seeking truth from facts when we say richness, and most of this achievement is inseparable from classical Chinese.

This rich cultural heritage is of great value because it is useful.Great use is mainly manifested in three aspects.One is to learn from the past to know the future, that is, to refer to the experience of the predecessors, to go the right way, and not to go the wrong way.The second is to use the gains of previous people as capital to go further and climb higher.The third is to appreciate and obtain artistic enjoyment.Naturally, there are inevitably dross in cultural heritage, and it is inappropriate to accept it wholeheartedly.Of course we all know this and should accept it critically. 4.1.2 The power of Chinese culture is closely related to classical Chinese

The previous section talked about cultural heritage, which refers to those that have survived today; as for culture, it is many times richer than heritage, because it also includes those that have not survived today.This rich culture, or from the custom, the splendid culture, we can call it the Chinese culture.It is also possible to call the culture of the Han nationality, but it is not exact, because a nation is often the product of the mixture of many different nationalities, especially the Han nationality.The history of ethnic mixing is not to gather together, but to integrate one of them into one.As the center, it depends on having superior conditions.This includes many aspects, such as people, land, wealth, military strength, etc., which can be collectively or briefly called "culture".Within a cultural system, there may be more than one language; but it is better to have one, because it is conducive to harmony and tenacity.For three thousand years, we have used one language—Chinese. The culture is internally harmonious and the structure is tough. This culture is what we call the Chinese culture here.The title of this section mentions "power". The Chinese culture is indeed powerful, which is manifested in the danger of failure many times but has not failed.There are not enough documents in the ancient period, so we don't need to mention it. "The Analects of Confucius Xianwen" Confucius said: "Wei Guanzhong, I was sent to the left." It can be seen that in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Central Plains area was not very consolidated.But this danger was overcome, and what was achieved was the unification of Qin.After the Han and Wei dynasties, there was more than one great danger. The Yuan and Qing dynasties lost all their land, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Liao and Jin dynasties lost part of their land. But these dangers were overcome time and time again, and those who gained the dominant position were still Restoration and continued prosperity of Chinese culture.There are naturally more than one reasons for not failing after many dangers, but we can always think that the most powerful one is that Chinese culture has the upper hand.Examples can be found in many cases, but only a few stand out.One is Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, who admired the culture of the Central Plains, so much so that he moved his capital to Luoyang, changed the country's surname (from Tuoba to Yuan) by government decree, and forced his subjects to change from Hu to Han.One is Jin Zhangzong, who not only loves the poems, books, rituals and music of Chinese culture, but also plays with his calligraphy and painting and other cultural relics.One is Nalan Chengde, a wealthy son, who served as a guard in the Kangxi Dynasty. Of course he is proficient in Manchu and is good at martial arts, but he prefers the melodious voice of "Yangliu'an Xiaofengwanyue". Pushed to be the first in the Qing Dynasty.This Chinese culture, in terms of sporadic and scattered, of course everything is included, as big as Tongque Terrace and Huaqing Palace, as small as Dongpo meat and embroidery needles. And take this.But of all things, indeed of all things, is written language and its content, because, as has been said, such a splendid culture cannot exist without written language.The vast majority of this written language is classical Chinese.If we casually look back at history, we can find out how powerful classical Chinese is in this respect.For example, the statues of Longmen in Luoyang were made by the nobles of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but as a note, they use classical Chinese instead of Xianbei.Another example is that the emperors in the early Qing Dynasty were of course familiar with Manchu, but the imperial edicts of Kangxi and Yongzheng were mostly written in Chinese; Qianlong was even more Sinicized, and used classical Chinese to inscribe poems and quatrains everywhere.All these situations show that in the long history, our ancestors survived safely with the help of splendid culture, and the formation of this splendid culture is due to classical Chinese.

4.1.3 Classical Chinese is a good communication tool and a bond of unity. After the unification of the Qin Dynasty, the territory of our country expanded a lot. As a result, there were more people and the differences in dialects increased.People from different regions cannot do without communication, and communication cannot be without a common language.We don't know much about this common language, the spoken language; what we can see is the written language, and it is the written language that is presumed to pass unimpeded, which is the so-called classical Chinese.Classical Chinese, as a tool for communicating feelings, can not be restricted by region and time. It has been mentioned in Chapter 3 above and will not be repeated.Here I want to talk about its other role, which is to connect people from different regions and at different times, making them feel that they belong to the same family, thus contributing to the unity of the country and nation.Examples of this can be seen everywhere.In general, for two or three thousand years, with the Central Plains as the center, our countless predecessors have experienced different dynasties and various living environments. They have different status, different sufferings and joys, and different thoughts, but they all feel that they are members of China. , Willing to unite and work hard for the extension and prosperity of China.How did such thoughts and feelings develop?Obviously because of being born within a cultural system; a cultural system is one whose expression, and even its important elements, is of course the use of a common language.This kind of atmosphere where the books are in the same text and the cars are on the same track can be seen even when it shouldn't be coordinated.For example, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Yu Xin was a native of the Southern Dynasties. He was exiled to the Northern Dynasties ruled by foreign races.To give a more recent example, Yuan Haowen was a descendant of the Tuoba family in the Northern Wei Dynasty and was an official in the Jin Dynasty. However, looking at his works, poems, essays, poems, and compilation of "Zhongzhou Collection", there is no aura of foreignness at all. Later generations read his poems and did not regard him as an outsider.The long-term maintenance of this kind of unity of thoughts and feelings is closely related to the common use of classical Chinese.

4.1.4 Classical Chinese used to be a good tool for expression The above three sections discuss the merits of classical Chinese, all from the perspective of the overall culture.In this section, I want to change the angle and talk about the good things it has done to people directly.People have past and present.Let me talk about the past first.Classical Chinese is separated from spoken language, and many people can't use it, so they can only speak and write.For this group of people, classical Chinese is used as a tool for expressing their expressions. Judging from the literature we can see, it is indeed outstanding.The situation in this aspect is also difficult to describe in a word, because: first, there are too many examples; second, the subtleties of expression are mostly understandable but unspeakable.Here's a little bit of what comes to mind.Let me talk about expressing thoughts first, and the like, the content is so profound and subtle, it is really difficult to write clearly, but it is still written clearly.Not only is it clear, but it can also highlight the essentials and analyze it in detail. This is in classical Chinese.Let’s talk about narrative, such as “Zuo Zhuan” and “Historical Records”, which describe the course of events and the activities of characters, often give people the impression that they are more real and vivid than the real ones, and this is also in classical Chinese.There are also lyric, so there are more tricks, and the form of prose can be used, and the form of rhyme can also be used.In rhyme, it can be written as a fu, but it is often better to write it as a poem.Rhyme is a text that seeks beauty with intent, and the ingenious way of expression and expression contained in it is often mentioned in literary theories, poetic talks, etc. of past dynasties, but it cannot be introduced here because there are too many materials.In fact, it is prose, and the clever way of expressing ideas can be seen everywhere. For example, in "Zhuangzi Xiaoyaoyou" and "Historical Records Funny Biographies" that many people have read, Chunyu Kun discusses drinking capacity. And fly, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky... The water hits three thousand miles, and the one who swings upwards ninety thousand miles; the one who goes to breathe in June. The wild horses, the dust, and the breath of living things blow each other. The sky is blue, but is it righteous and evil? It is far away and nothing is extremely evil? It looks down, and if it is true, then it is over." The latter described the situation of drinking at night, saying, "Sit at dusk and sit together, men and women sit at the same table, Shoes and shoes are intertwined, cups and plates are messed up, the candles in the hall are extinguished, the host sees off the guests with his clothes on, the clothes are untied, and Xiang Ze is smelled." They all describe a scene that is not easy to think of, and even less easy to describe with few words.That's it, for two or three thousand years, classical Chinese has used its treasure house of endless expression techniques to express everything they want to express for countless people who can write. Do your best." (He Yu's "Chunzhu Jiwen")

4.1.5 Classical Chinese has provided a large number of works worthy of appreciation for today's people There are many works in classical Chinese that are worth admiring, as already mentioned in Section 3.2.7.Appreciation is of course not limited by time and space. As long as you are proficient in classical Chinese, you can choose your favorite works to recite for artistic enjoyment.This can no longer be said.I would like to add a little bit of meaning here, which is that we use modern Chinese expressions to express our ideas, so why bother to read classical Chinese works.The acceptance of cultural heritage has already been said before, and here we narrow the scope and only talk about appreciation.To appreciate classical Chinese works, one must first learn classical Chinese, which is not an easy task.Learning is not easy, and it is beneficial to learn it. This is why in recent years, some people advocate learning, while others oppose it.I think, seeking truth from facts, the feasible solution must be in the opposite direction, which is not to force learning (this will not work), nor to force not to learn (it is not cost-effective).On the positive side, it encourages those who have conditions to learn, and allows those who do not have conditions not to learn.The so-called conditions are the ability to spare time, professional needs, interest in reading ancient literature, love of Chinese literature, and so on.If you have the conditions and don't use it, you shouldn't; use it, learn it, and appreciate it, and you will gain a lot.Everyone knows about the value of artistic enjoyment or artistic edification, so you don’t need to talk about it; what should be said is why we must seek artistic enjoyment from our country’s classical literature.There can be many reasons, but I think the main ones are: first, it is so close. For example, it is much more convenient and kinder to appreciate Li Bai and Du Fu than Bairon and Shelley.Second, there is a wealth of spiritual food in the treasure house, which is inexhaustible.Third, because classical Chinese and modern Chinese have similarities in their differences, it is allowed to learn while appreciating, or to say that appreciating and learning are combined; "Historical Records", "Selected Works", Li Du's poems, Su Xin's Ci, etc. are really a pity.In order to avoid regret, it is best to try to appreciate; and if you really have the ability to appreciate, you can swim in the ocean of classical literature to obtain endless artistic enjoyment.The acquisition of this enjoyment should obviously be attributed mainly to classical Chinese.

4.2 There have been classical Chinese Classical Chinese is divorced from spoken language, and can only serve the upper class, and what is written is still consistent, and must be mixed with the dross of the old era, so it must be faultless. 4.2.1 Encouraging the Separation of Wen and Bai One mistake is to divert the spoken and written languages, and, because of the stubbornness of classical Chinese, the distance between the two gradually widens, so that there is no hope of merging.Confluence is not separation.Here I want to explain that it is possible to be consistent regardless of family separation, but it is not necessarily consistent in fact. The question of "consistency" is complex.In theory, we can say that consistency is necessary, but we can also say that it is not necessary, because if it is necessary, we must first assume that spoken language is concise and orderly, but spoken language is often not like this. Obviously, for the sake of concise and orderly written language, You have to settle for inconsistency.However, no matter in theory or in practice, it is not impossible for the spoken language to be concise and orderly, so it is sometimes possible to write the written language according to the spoken language (the dialogues in novels and dramas are intended to be facsimile, and concise and orderly is not required, which is another matter) .But it may not be the same as reality; looking at the reality since the "May Fourth Movement", written language is often more or less far from spoken language (those who are intentionally twitching are literary diseases, which are not counted).However, this is a "vernacular" or "language style" text after all, and you can still understand it if you just listen to it but don't read it.Inconsistent but understandable, because it belongs to the same lexical and syntactic system as spoken language, it is just a little work on the basis of spoken language, which is the purification of spoken language, or it is consistent with the purified spoken language.The agreement with the purified spoken language is one-to-one agreement, and the result of processing can also be said to be agreement, basically the same.The unanimity of the text regardless of family is a large number of basic unanimity plus a small amount of one-to-one unanimity.The advantage of this consistency is that you can only listen but not read.Classical Chinese does not have such advantages, because it does not use the same lexical and syntactic system as spoken Chinese.The harm of inconsistency between writing and writing has been said a lot in the articles advocating the literary revolution during the "May 4th" period.Here we can generally say that one set can be used for spoken language and written language, and one should be used, but using two sets is naturally uneconomical and will bring many unnecessary troubles.

4.2.2 The big mistake is being divorced from the masses Classical Chinese is separate from spoken language and forms its own set, which is difficult to learn. Therefore, there must be a small number of people who can learn to read, and of course even fewer can write.Regarding the difficulty of learning classical Chinese, there are not many records in the old days, because the documents that have been handed down are all written by people who have learned it.However, we can find many clues when we look through the election records of the official history of each dynasty.There are various forms of public schools, but very few of them are able to obtain titles such as scholar and Mingjing, and it is presumed that most of them have given up halfway.The situation in modern times is something that some elderly people can still see. The low ones have schools, and the high ones have academies. How many are there?This can be revealed from books such as "Xiao Lin Guang Ji", which is about reading and writing, and often making jokes.The vast majority of people don't learn it, and a few people learn it but can't learn it, so this written language can only live among a very small number of literati. Think about it, how great the loss is.The situation has been like this for more than two thousand years. Classical Chinese has almost no relationship with the broad masses of the people. If the masses don't learn it, don't use it, of course they don't know how to value it.Naturally, in the old days, most people were out of school, and the responsibility for inappropriateness rested entirely with classical Chinese.However, if it is not separated from the spoken language, it will not be so difficult to learn, and many more people can use it.Utilization includes two aspects.On the one hand is "reading".We all admit that there are a large number of classical Chinese works worth appreciating, but if you look at the literate masses other than modern literati, most of them read "Historical Records" and "Anthology" instead of "Historical Records" and "Anthology". It is easy to learn and easy to understand, but classical Chinese is difficult to learn.Let's talk about "writing" on the other hand.Because the general trend is that in addition to popular literature, expressions must be expressed in classical Chinese, and the general public has no choice but to use a pen.In short, although classical Chinese is also a tool for communicating feelings, its scope of communication is limited, and it is fluid but not smooth.This shortcoming comes from classical Chinese itself, and the responsibility must of course be borne by classical Chinese. 4.2.3 Obstacles to the growth of vernacular works After the formation of classical Chinese, it has monopolized the position of written language, and it is difficult for vernacular works to stand out and compete for a place.There are mainly four reasons.First, people open their eyes to see classical Chinese, and what they write with a pen is classical Chinese. After a long time, they will think without thinking that written language is like this, and anything else is not written language.Second, classical Chinese is popular among the upper-class people, and it is different from street talk. This "farewell" includes many contents, but what people see is often elegant and indecent.Elegant and elegant, this has a coercive force, so that most people have no choice but to pick up a pen.Third, classical Chinese attracts most educated people. As a result, the number of people who are willing to write in vernacular is not only small, but often lacks knowledge, so the possibility of writing good works is relatively small.Fourth, even if some of them are written, they will not be appreciated due to the atmosphere of elegance and elegance, so it is difficult to get a chance to preserve them.Documents over the past two thousand years can clearly illustrate the above situations.Before the reunification of the Sui Dynasty, there seemed to be only two types of vernacular works. One was rumors and proverbs, which were written in vernacular because they wanted to pass on customs; Rare as a star phoenix.Since the Tang Dynasty, Bianwen has appeared, which is the product of monks' vulgar teaching, that is to say, it is an imported product, and local literati probably don't pay attention to it, but the masses like it, so there is a market.The other is quotations, which record the wits of Zen monks, and should also be counted as imported goods.In short, it was the masses of the people who responded internally and attacked from the outside.In the Song Dynasty, the former imported goods changed and developed, and became novels in the story-based system. In addition to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the achievements were not small.Still in the form of story books, there are "Jingben Popular Novels", "Sanyan", "Erpai", etc., and those that have been expanded to Zhanghui style, etc. It can be said that the influence is not small.However, it cannot be said that it is already on an equal footing with classical Chinese, because it is "vulgar literature", and vulgarity is of course looked down upon by Daya.For example: First, genuine literati do not do it.Yu Yue is probably the only exception. He has revised it, but that is revision, not composition.The second is not only not to do it, but also afraid of tarnishing the elegance, so I dare not touch it.For example, many people who talk about the meaning and law of ancient Chinese have earnestly warned that they are not allowed to enter novels and quotations.The third is a deeper level. Even the writers themselves admit that they are vulgar and indecent. Therefore, although many works have been handed down to the world, the authors dare not show their faces, so that future generations who study literary history have to study hard. "Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua" and so on are like this.Therefore, we can imagine that if there was no suppression of classical Chinese, the number of vernacular works would not be so small, and the achievements would be much higher.Can be more but less, should be high and low, this responsibility should also be borne by classical Chinese. 4.2.4 There is dross in thinking Language is the expression of thoughts and feelings.Thoughts and feelings have value, that is to say, they can be divided into good and bad, high and low.The amount of classical Chinese is large, and the thoughts and feelings expressed are from the old era, so it is impossible that there is no bad or low-level, that is, the so-called dross.It is easy to judge that there are dross, but it is not so easy to identify which ones are.For example, we take out "Mencius" and read it from the beginning to distinguish the essence from the dross. The results of two people's distinctions must be different, and there must be some ambiguous ones, which are not suitable for positive or negative.To take the example that everyone is familiar with, "the people are the most precious" is positive, and "the hardworking man governs people" is negative, and it is estimated that no one will object to it; different people have different opinions.There must be standards for good and bad, high and low.Standards have timing issues.We comment, of course, we should use our present; but we often say "we should look at it historically".The present and the history can be reconciled. For example, Yue Fei’s fight against gold can be measured with both rulers;This kind of problem is very troublesome, and we cannot wait for the river to clear the content of classical Chinese when we evaluate it here.The feasible way is to focus on the big picture and take what everyone will accept.This can be called humanism, that is, for the survival, happiness, and progress of the broad masses of the people, those that help are good, and those that hinder are bad.Selected in this way, and then look at the content of classical Chinese, we will find that there are quite a lot of dross.The account of dross can be calculated carefully.However, it is too cumbersome whether it is household by household or classification after statistics; here we have to take a glimpse.I think you can find a good illustration of the problem in the official history, which is the "Ben Ji" at the top and the "Biography of Women" at the end.This Ji is about the emperor, and the history is often that no matter how fatuous and brutal a villain he is, he is always born with colorful auspicious clouds, and after he ascends the throne, his actions are always wise and benevolent.Of course, Lie Nu, who is at the bottom, is also doing well, so why not?It's just that she listens to the man's instructions everywhere, and when the man wants her to show her loyalty, she will resolutely die for the man.In addition to the official history, of course, you can see texts that promote superstition, extol oppression, and enjoy pleasure everywhere, both explicit and covert.In short, there is a lot of dross.Of course, we have to admit that the makers of this dross are the old unreasonable society, not classical Chinese.But we also have to admit that the reason why dross can be passed down is because classical Chinese plays the role of storage.To use an analogy, although classical Chinese did not participate in robbery and theft, it stowed the stolen goods, so even if the crime is not serious, it still has to bear the responsibility. 4.2.5 Some works are flashy Language expresses thoughts and feelings. If thoughts and feelings are flashy, language will naturally follow flashy.In this way, the language should not be responsible for the flashiness of the work.However, as far as classical Chinese is concerned, this view is not entirely correct, because many expressions in classical Chinese have the tendency and ability to encourage or lead to flashy.For example, someone ridiculed the bluff of writing an article, saying that the beginning is: "The one who holds the husband and the world is the universe between the two, and the one between Yao and Shun is the second generation of Tang and Yu." There is a couplet in Li Shangyin's "Three Poems of Bicheng" that reads: "There are many books in Langyuan. Crane, if there is no tree in the female bed, there will be no luan.” They are all powerful but have limited meaning, which is difficult to write in vernacular because they lack such rhetoric and accent.Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, classical Chinese has paid attention to beauty and rhythm, so it tends to be flashy, or at least easy to be used by flashy content.The examples in this regard are fragmentary and too numerous to list; I want to start from the aspect of "body" and talk about some big households as examples.The earlier ones are many articles from the Southern and Northern Dynasties, with beautiful rhetoric and sonorous rhyme (four-six couplets), but the content is always romantic, just as Li Er of the Sui Dynasty described: "There are so many articles that do not appear like the moon dew; the accumulated cases are full of boxes. , only in the shape of the wind and cloud." ("Sui Shu · Li Er Biography") This is a typical flashy; and it is prominent flashy, because it is powerful and spreads all over the body.In the future, there will be quite a few that will be integrated into one.For example, "responsive poetry" is a proposition of the emperor, and it is required to finish it on time, so the rhetoric should be rich and dignified, and the content should be ever-changing without departing from its original purpose.There are also "Lyue Fu" and "Test Post Poems", which are examination subjects. Because they have to be presented to the examiner, they must also pay attention to the dictionary and do their best to sing praises.In addition, it should also be included in the category of praises, such as "Zhu Wen" and "Qing Ci", which were written for the enjoyment of the gods. Almost everyone in the Song and Ming dynasties wrote them. "He Biao" and "Shou Xu" are also articles of this type, but they only praise living people of high status or age.There are also polite letters of the same nature, generally named "Qi", according to the unwritten law, they must use parallel style, piled up with gorgeous and elegant diction; as for the content, even the recipients do not believe it.I sometimes think that since the Song Dynasty, some "historical theories" of many literati seem to fall into this category, because the content is empty, and even strong words are just playing with the tone of others, using big words to scare people, such as Lu Zuqian's "Donglai Boyi" " is typical.Finally, there is another kind of "eight-legged essay" that combines all shortcomings.This has been an examination subject for hundreds of years. The form has strict regulations, and the content is to write about experience and express words on behalf of sages.In the eyes of scholars in the past, it was very noble, because it was a stepping stone to enter the officialdom; it was also difficult, because it had to show skills in layers of restrictions, so as to cater to the taste of the examiners.Looking at it now, it is the same as eulogy, strong words, parallel style, and ancient Chinese accent, but the content is equal to zero, so it should be regarded as the worst article.This kind of bad article is suitable as a negative teaching material, but now it is not easy to find one or two articles to read.So I don't avoid trivial matters here, and copy an article as an example.The article was written by Qian Zhixuan in the Ming Dynasty, and the title is "Don't suffer from no position, so you can stand without trouble, don't know yourself, and seek to know it" (from "The Analects of Confucius Liren", and the titles of the eight-legged essays are all from "Four Books").To illustrate its structure, punctuation is added here, and the names of the parts are given in parentheses. The thesis is based on the feeling of fame and position, if you want to think about it, you can do it. (The above breaks the title) Husband suffers from no place, and he knows nothing about suffering. It is not a loss.Responsibility and knowable facts due to suffering, the gentleman is not changing his ears with one another. (Continued from the above question) And if people want to show themselves to the world, they must think about how much the world blames me and how difficult it is for me to serve the world.Those who are responsible for the husband's heavy responsibility are all that I must not shirk, and those who are difficult to do are all that the world will not forgive.If the weight is not enough to pay each other, then it is only a matter of appearance, and it is only a frustration. (Starting from the above) The husband's name and position are both, and the way of a gentleman is to be practiced and to be passed on. However, my way is considered meritorious because of my fame and position, and my name and position are based on my way. (Above leading title) Therefore, the great Confucianism is poor and obscure, so that it gathers the eyes and ears of the whole world, and the crowd pours into it, but it has not begun to be suspected of shaking things. (The above is compared with the above, and the comparison with the bottom is opposite) It is the country party court in the decline of the world, even with the poems and books of three generations, in response to the request, it is unavoidable to feel the guilt of bowing. (Compare the above with the lower, and compare the above with the dual) But what's the problem if you don't have a position! Suffering so stand Yan ear.People and the country have affairs and then there are officials. Those who want to win are ministers who respect and serve, not ministers who are officials.Regardless of the unforgettable favor and the fear of losing the foundation of uprightness and uprightness, in this difficult time, the success is not better than the details, but will the heavy responsibility be overturned?Trying to be in a time of burden, the king regrets the lightness of the administration, and the minister laments the mistake of recommending the virtuous, can the shame still be redeemed?Thinking about it in the morning and night, or turning over the ear of the bow and Jing. (The above is compared with the upper, and the lower is compared with the middle) But what's the trouble if you don't know!Ask for what you can know.In public opinion, there is honor and there is also disgrace, and the one who honors me is the one who humiliates me.No matter you are lonely and easy to be deceived, you are afraid of the shame of being overheard, even if you do what you do carefully, you will not please everyone, and the sages will still abandon it?On the day when the design loses its reputation, parents lose their reputation, and friends hurt their comrades, how can you still be safe?If you think about it in the morning and night, you should turn your attention to the excessive ears. (The comparison between the above and the middle is the opposite, and the comparison between the middle and the upper is the opposite.) All things have their own meanings, those who are outside are fame, and those who are in me are virtues. (The above small comparison above is opposite to the small comparison below) Strangers stop this effort and use it as fear, but misuse it as resentment. (The above small comparison is the opposite, and the small comparison is opposite) Fame is oppressed and resentment is born. Anyone who wants to use the right to take exams and elections to compete with favoritism, the hypocrisy of Confucianism, and the talents who suffer from its disadvantages. (The above is compared to the above, and the latter is compared to the opposite.) The fear is deep and the morality is strong. He will use the way of gaining friends from the upper class to encourage the Tibetan cultivation of the lower students. (The above is compared to the bottom, and the latter is compared to the dual) Where should the patient live! (Concluded above) An article like this cannot be written without classical Chinese.There are a large number of such articles in the classical Chinese library (fortunately, it is difficult to circulate for a long time), I think, even those who are particularly fond of classical Chinese can't help but sigh? 4.2.6 Some works are word games Wordplay is of course flashy, so there is no strict boundary between the kinds mentioned in this section and those in the previous section.Roughly, it is divided like this: Those who do it as a serious matter enter the previous section, and those who mainly want to show their craftsmanship enter this section.Some people may disagree with the word game, because many people think that "how can you spend a lifetime if you don't do something useless" (Preface to the third manuscript of Xiang Tingji's "Yi Yun Ci").Of course, after work, do some activities that you are interested in, as long as it is not harmful to others, it is harmless.However, all kinds of word games in classical Chinese are produced after pastime, so you should think about it, if you have affection and don't take the road of games, the effect of expression will always be much better, right?Therefore, from the perspective of spending a lot of energy and achieving limited results, this is casting a big net and catching some small fish, that is, it is not worth it.Because it's not worth it, it should be counted as a waste, even if it's not a big waste. The common word games all belong to the scope of rhyme, and there are quite a lot of tricks.It is said that the ancestor is the "Xuan Ji Tu" written by Su Hui, the wife of Qin Dou Tao before the Southern and Northern Dynasties ("Summary of Siku Quanshu General Catalog·Summary of Huiwen Leiju" is said to have Cao Zhi's "Mirror Inscription" before it).Now there is a biography (see Song Sang Shichang's "Huiwen Leiju"), with a square picture, 29 lines of characters vertically and horizontally, and a total of 841 characters. It is said that starting from a certain character, it is read sequentially and reversely. They are all poems, and there are hundreds of poems in total.If you read it sequentially from the upper right corner, and turn around the outer circle, it is "Ren Zhi Huai De Sheng Yu Tang... Heart worries increase, Mu Huai is tragic", a total of 16 sentences; reverse reading is "Sorrowful Huai Mu Zeng worry... ...Tang Yu Shengde Huai Zhiren" is also sixteen sentences.Of course it is not easy to put together a sentence like this, but it is ridiculous to say that this is poetry, because it is blunt and awkward, with neither poetic sound nor poetic flavor.But many literati in later generations found it interesting. For example, Su Shi liked to engage in this stuff. "Palindrome Leiju" not only collected his palindrome poems, but also his palindrome words.Take one of each as an example. (1) Palindrome poem: The spring machine is full of palindromic brocade, and the tears of pink are swaying the remnants of Jingtong. People send love letters from far away, with small characters, Liusi low in the sun and the courtyard empty in the evening.Reverse reading: The empty courtyard is low in the evening, and the willows are low in the evening, and the love in small letters is sent to people far away.Tongjing reveals the remnants of tears and tears, and Jinwen returns to weaving the machine full of spring. (2) Palindromic words ("Bodhisattva Man"): Falling flowers are leisurely in the yard, and the spring clothes are thin, and the thin shirts are in spring, and the flowers are falling.Chi Ri hates Yiyi, Yiyi hates Ri Chi.Dream back to Ying Tong Nong, play Tong Tong Ying back to dream.If you post it, you will be ashamed to ask, and if you are ashamed, you will post it. There are other patterns that are close to palindrome, such as "Jade Lianhuan" and "Removal Lianhuan". "Tibetan Touchai Character Poems" and so on.There is also a kind called "Poetry Clock", which the literati of later generations like to play. It is a competition between several people and it is completed within a time limit.There are two commonly used forms, both of which are to write two unrelated words, which are required to be used in a couplet of a poem.Ming used the name "embedded characters", such as "wing" and "ting", which can be written in a couplet, "Wish to be a lovebird in the sky, and sing flowers in the backyard across the river"; secretly use the name "Fenyong", For example, the words "ruler" and "bee" can be written in a couplet, "Measuring clothes under the lamp for five nights, brewing honey in the room for three springs".The former is like writing a poem with limited characters, while the latter is close to a riddle. Composing poems with limited characters was regarded as a solemn matter in the old days, and there are two forms.One type is mostly used in examinations, such as test post poems, you can mark "Defeng" under the title, which means that this poem should use a Dongyun ("Feng" belongs to a Dongyun), and one of the If the word rhymes with "wind".Another form is harmony poetry, which is to read other people's poems, express appreciation, and compose a poem as it is.Tang people and poems are not limited to the meter of the original poem.Since the Song Dynasty, it has almost always been "secondary rhyme" (or "step rhyme"), that is, not only the form of the original poem, but also the rhyme of the original poem.Some rhyming characters are easy to use, such as "feng" and "zhong"; some are not easy to use, such as "snake" and "ya".So some people intentionally use strange words (such as "船" and "睡", which are not only not commonly used, but also cannot be used alone), to ask for harmony and to find joy in the torture of others.Writing poems is restricted to characters, and the result is naturally that you have to accommodate words with affection, so it is reasonable to say that it is a game rather than writing. Most of the word games in rhyme have something to do with antithesis.This divergent branch is the so-called "smart pair" in the "Couple", which is to make a couplet that is difficult to match (such as "Sancai Tiandiren", "Miaorener" [traditional "er"], "Nijia girl" etc.), ask for the second line, and it is qualified to be neat and natural.Using duality to torture people is also seen in the five-character rhythmic "joint sentences".The fiftieth chapter "Jijing couplets" once wrote about this situation, that is, when one person writes two sentences, the first sentence must be the counterpart of the second sentence of the previous person, and the second sentence is the upper couplet, which is left for the next person to be the counterpart, so Let everyone tide over the difficulties.Playing tricks on the dual, there is also the so-called "borrowing the pair".Great poets such as Du Fu often like to "trick" in this way, such as the well-known "wine debts are common, but life is rare in seventy years", which is to borrow the length of "Xun (eight feet)" and "Chang (sixteen feet)" The meaning is the antithesis of "seventy", but the actual meaning of "not unusual" is not compatible. There is also the so-called "collection of sentences" in rhymes.It is said that it was founded by Wang Anshi, and his collection contains a volume of "Jiju Poems" and "Jiju Songs".The commonly used form is "Ji Tang", which is to take a sentence from each of the four poems of the Tang Dynasty to synthesize a quatrain, or to take a sentence from each of the eight people's poems to synthesize a quatrain (the author of each sentence in a poem should preferably not be a quatrain). repeat).Of course, it is difficult to collect verses, because the two couplets in the middle have to be antithetical.But playing word games is like performing acrobatics, which is to show skill in difficult situations.It's hard to say, because: first, the stomach should be full of Tang poems; second, it should be coincidental, so that the viewer feels that the whole body is seamless.Many literati like to obtain this kind of cleverness from difficulties, such as Tang Xianzu, who used collection sentences in his last poems.Take the "Dream" as an example: Chunwang Xiaoyao goes out of the painting hall (Zhang Shuo), and the leisurely plums cover the willows (Luo Yin). Can we know where Liu Ruan meets people (Xu Hun)?Looking back east from a heartbroken (Wei Zhuang).There are fewer collections of sentences into words than poems.Zhu Yizun, a master of poetry in the Qing Dynasty, liked this thing very much. There is a volume in "Booshuting Collection" called "Fan Jin Collection", which is a collection of sentences as words.Take one of them as an example: "Partridge Sky" (Mirror Lake Boat): The beauty of the southern country is named Mochou (Wei Zhuang), and she is shaking her head with gold and emerald jade (Wu Yuanheng).Spread the wind mat to find the fun of the piano (Pi Rixiu), and fold flower branches for wine (Bai Juyi).The sun is already dusk (Master Lang [this is part of the poem, the same as the next sentence]), the water is flowing (Bai Juyi), and the pavilion is sailing under the moonlight (Zhang Hu).The peach blossom face is thin and hard to hide tears (Han Xie), and the heart of Tongshu is lonely and easy to fall (Cao Ye). After reading the poems with a collection of sentences like this, we will feel that it is indeed a coincidence.But can it be a portrayal of true affection?I am afraid that when the two are not available at the same time, most of them keep the words and give up the affection.In this way, it is no wonder that when we read it, we often feel like looking at flowers through a fog.