文/郑小林  编/李金思

Text/ Zheng Xiaolin  Editor/Li Jinsi

日常，一指太阳永恒存在。如《宋史·乐志十四》所言：“乾健坤顺，群生首资。日常月升，四时叶熙”，二犹言平日、平时。明 佚名《刘玄德三顾草庐记》传奇四七：“日常以诗酒为业，琴书自娱。”惊奇，惊讶奇怪。惊因奇，奇生惊，惊出奇，奇又惊，两者互为因果，循环往复，以致无穷。哲学对日常世界发出惊奇之叹，移植到文学创作上就是所谓的“审美惊奇”。人们对于日常的认识，具有普遍性、平凡性、重复性、经验性等诸多特点。而惊奇的产生，具有特殊性、偶然性、爆发性、颠覆性等诸多特点。其二者仿佛是一个硬币的正反两面，既浑然一体，又各有不同。

In Chinese when the character “ri’, meaning “sun”, and the character “chang”, meaning “constancy”, are combined to form a new word “Richang”, it has got two different meanings. On one hand, it naturally means the constancy of the sun, as is said in the 14th chapter of “Music” in The History of the Song Dynasty: if the heaven keeps vigor through movement, then the earth will follow, and so will all the living things in nature. When the sun hangs permanently in the sky,  the moon will rise, and the plants on the earth will flourish.” On the other hand, “richang” can also mean what happens every day, or what is quotidian, as is said anonymously in the 47th chapter of Liu Xuande’s Three Visits to a Hut in the Ming Dynasty, “(he) usually composes poems over wine and entertains himself with music and reading.” In this case, “richang” is close to “ordinary ”, “commonplace”, “unremarkable”, or “quotidian” in English. “Surprise”, by contrast, means astonishment and rarity. One feels astonished because of rarity, and rarity leads to astonishment, so the circle repeats, one being the cause of the other. Surprise at the everyday world in philosophy, when transferred into literature, becomes “aesthetic surprise”. In our understanding, the ordinary is about something universal, ordinary, repeatable, and empirical, whereas surprise comes along with something particular, contingent, and revolutionary. Like the two sides of a coin, commonplace and surprise make a whole while maintaining their differences.     

明代思想家、文学家李贽在《复耿侗老书》中说：“世人厌平常而喜新奇，不知言天下之至新奇，莫过于平常也。日月常而千古常新，布帛菽粟常而寒能暖、饥能饱，又何其奇也！是新奇正在于平常，世人不察，反于平常之外觅新奇，是岂得谓之新奇乎？”李贽之谓平常，其词义一为日常、常时，二为普通、寻常。而新奇，其词义为新颖奇特、新鲜奇妙。他的平常与新奇之说，可视作日常与惊奇之论。对此，他的答案是，平常或日常蕴酿着新奇或惊奇，反过来新奇或惊奇产生于平常或日常。

In “A Letter to Master Geng”, said Li Zhi, a thinker and man of letter in the Ming Dynasty, “we common people prefer the novel to the commonplace, not knowing that the most novel in the world consists in nothing but the ordinary. When the sun and the moon are permanent, the world keeps eternity; ordinary as daily necessities are, like cloth and silk, beans and grain, they can protect us from cold and hunger, so we can’t help wondering how extraordinary they are. Therefore, things are extraordinary only because they are ordinary, but we are so ignorant of this fact that we seek for the extraordinary beyond the ordinary. Can we find the extraordinary?” By “ordinary”, Li Zhi meant “quotidian”, “commonplace”, “usual”, “average”, as well as “common”. “Extraordinary”, by contrast, meant “novel”, “strange”, “new”, and “marvellous”. His idea about the ordinary and the extraordinary echoed the modern theory of ordinariness and surprise. In the regular and the ordinary, seeds of the novel and the extraordinary are ready to sprout, he believed, and in turn, the novel and the extraordinary are born of the ordinary and the commonplace.  

世间一切皆诗，这是南宋学者张戒在《岁寒堂诗话》中提出的观点。他以杜甫的诗歌创作实践为例说：“在山林则山林，在廊庙则廊庙，遇巧则巧，遇拙则拙，遇奇则奇，遇俗则俗，或放或收，或新或旧。一切物，一切事，一切意，无非诗者。故曰‘吟多意有余’（《复愁十二首》），又曰‘诗尽人间兴’（《西阁二首》），诚哉是言。”

In his Suihantang Notes on Poetry, Zhang Jie, a scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, pointed out that everything in the world could make a poem. Take Du Fu’s poems as an example, he explained, “no matter it is in a wooded mountain or in an imperial court, the ingenious or the simple, the rare or the familiar, the free or the reserved, the old or the new, all find expression in poetry. Whatever it is, whatever happens, and whatever is intended, can be a poem. Therefore we cannot agree more with Du Fu when he said that “with inexhaustible meaning, the poem is more than acoustic’ (‘Distress upon Distress’), and ‘poetry covers everything in the world that can be used for poetic effect ‘( ‘Two Xige Lines’).” 

说到诗歌中的点睛之笔，则不得不谈创作中的“奇”，清初文学家贺贻孙在《诗筏》中曾说：“古今必传之诗，虽极平常，必有一段精光闪铄，使人不敢以平常目之。及其奇怪，则亦了不异人意耳。乃知‘奇’、‘平’二字，分拆不得。”又云：“吾尝谓眼前寻常景，家人琐俗事，说得明白，便是惊人之句。盖人所易道，即人所不能道也。”贺贻孙以杜甫《中宵》诗中“飞星过水白，落月动沙虚”两句为例，论证日常与惊奇的关系。中宵，谓黄昏之后。飞星，即流星。此诗杜甫写了中宵之见：流星迅疾飞过，这时在水中泛起一缕白光；初月沉落，恍惚中河边的沙滩似乎隐去，只留下一片空旷的阴影。他说：“如飞星过水，人人曾见，多是错过，不能形容。亏他收拾点缀，遂成奇语。骇其奇者，以为百炼方就，而不知彼实得之无意耳。”中国古代那些著名诗人，落想便幻，触景便幽，因之能从日常中捕捉到惊奇。《中宵》里的“飞星过水白”，与杜甫《人日两篇》诗之一中的“云随白水落”，皆当时实有此境，入诗人想中，无非空幻。“落月动沙虚”，则满眼是幻，不可思议，但非杜甫形容不出。恐怕是他胸中先有“飞星水白”、“落月沙虚”两句，而后炼“过”、“动”二字。便陡然产生了动感，平庸的句子变得神奇了。

We cannot talk about the magic touch in a poem by bypassing the poetic “rarity”. He Yisun, a writer in the early Qing Dynasty, once observed in his Shifa (Poetic Critique), “All masterpieces, ancient or contemporary, can appear to be commonplace , but they contain unexceptionally some dazzling lines well above the common taste. The extraordinary are actually not quite different from what we are thinking about. Now we understand, ‘surprise’ and ‘ordinariness’ are inseparable.” “As I said,” he added, “a sentence is a remarkable if it can make clear what we see as commonplace, like landscape or domestic trivia. It is exactly what is generally believed to be simple and easy to explain that is hard to get across.” To illustrate the relationship between ordinariness and surprise , He took as an example two lines form Du Fu’s “Night”: Shooting starts flew across the sky, leaving a white streak of light on the river; a new moon fell, turning the river sands into a blank expanse of shadow. “Many a time we see meteors shooting over a river, but we take what we see for granted, seldom putting it into words. Luckily we have Du Fu who gave expression to this spectacle and left us these extraordinary lines. Those who marvel at these lines attribute them to repeated practice, but they do not know it is all about inspiration.” Great poets in ancient China conceive with imagination and resort to emotions at the sight of variegated  scenes. No wonder they can capture surprises from the commonplace. Be it “shooting starts flew across the sky, leaving a white streak of light on the river” in “Night” or “clouds follow the receding water” in “Two Poems on the Seventh Day of the First Lunar Month”, the scenery did unfold before their eyes, but when it entered the poet’s world of imagination, it became fanciful: a new moon fell, turning the river sands into a blank expanse of shadow. Everything looked incredibly illusory, but only Du Fu was up to the task of translated the illusory world into words. There came first “the shooting stars and a white streak of light on the river”, and “the new moon and a blank expanse of sands”, and then the poet joined the images with two verbs he had carefully chosen to add a dynamic sense to the scenery. Now a commonplace sentence is given radiance.         

中国古诗中的惊奇有多种表现形式，一或炼字精彩、句法奇拗，二或别开蹊径、艳美绝俗，三或异想天开、匪夷所思，四或比喻巧妙、令人慨叹，五或禅悟虚空、思致微茫，六或潜通灵性、富于哲理，七或贯穿情趣、充盈韵味，八或气象恢宏、纵横捭阖，九或风格高古、警策透辟，十或天然奇绝、清新飘洒。归根到底古人认为，诗奇有语之奇、意之奇、格之奇三种区分。语之奇，就是诗的语言奇。意之奇，就是对于现实或想象的描述与自我感受的表达奇。格之奇，就是诗的格式、体制与风格、格调奇。奇诗须练句，但练句不如练字，练句不如练意，练意不如练格。

Surprise in ancient Chinese poetry comes in many forms: ingenious wording and irregular syntax; original, gorgeous and elegant style; wild imagination and romantic fantasy; master and clever use of metaphor; meditative atmosphere and reflections; lively and philosophic idea; cultured taste and lingering charm; grandeur and overarching vision; classic style with edifying, enlightening message; unaffected exquisiteness with unrestrained purity. In a world, the ancients classified poetic surprise on the basis of wording, idea, and style. By wording, we mean choice of words in a poem; by idea, we mean the description of reality and imagination and expression of the sentimental world; by style, we mean the poetic forms, genre and organization. To write an extraordinary poem, a poet has to practice a lot in writing sentences, but wording, idea, and style carry more weight.   

清代学者王寿昌在《小清华园诗谈》中说：“何为奇？曰：语之奇者，如右丞（王维）之‘仙官欲住九龙潭，毛节朱幡倚石龛。山压天中半天上，洞穿江底出江南。瀑布杉松常带雨，夕阳彩翠忽成岚。借问迎来双白鹤，已曾衡岳送苏耽。’（《送方尊师归嵩山》）。意之奇者，如元微之（稹）之‘霆轰电烻数声频，不奈狂夫不藉身。纵使被雷烧作烬，宁殊埋骨飏为尘。得成蝴蝶寻花树，倘化江鱼掉锦鳞。必若乖龙在诸处，何须惊动自来人。’（《放言》）格之奇者，如少陵（杜甫）之‘城尖径昃旌旆愁，独立缥缈之飞楼。峡坼云霾龙虎卧，江清日抱鼋鼍游。扶桑西枝对断石，弱水东影随长流。杖藜叹世者谁子，泣血迸空回白头。’（《白帝城最高楼》）是也，然奚必耳哉！”

Wang Shouchang, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, has commented on surprise in his Little Qinghuayuan Notes on Poetry. “What is surprise? The answer lies first in the language, as is the case in Wang Wei’s ‘Accompanying Taoist Priest Fang to Songshan Mountain’. “The priest was to arrive at Jiulong Pond with a flag with yak’s tail and a streamer over the stone chambers. The Songshan Mountain sat in the center of the country, rising into the heaven, and at the end of the pond we felt like in the south of Yangtze. The waterfall showered the firs in the green mist that enveloped the valley. I asked the two greeting white cranes if they had said goodbye to Su San in Hengyue’. As to extraordinary idea, we can cite Yuan Zhen’s ‘Uninhibited Words’ as an example. “Thunder roars and lightning flashes, but an uninhibited man needs no shelter. If the thunder burned him to ashes, he would rather let his ashes fly in the wind than bury his bones. If he was reincarnated into a butterfly, he would rest on a blooming tree; if he got reborn in the form of a river fish, he would swim as the best carp. A lovely dragon always hides itself elsewhere, so why do we disturb the unbidden guest?” In terms of extraordinary style, let’s take a look at Du Fu’s ‘The Tallest Tower in Baidicheng’. ‘The steep mountain city, with its zigzag path as well as the flags on the top of the city wall, builds a gloomy mood. Here stands a lonely, gleaming soaring tower. Clouds separate the donga, and the hills rest peacefully like dragons and tigers. Sunshine pours on the limpid, shimmering river,as though turtles were swimming. The branches on the western part of the mulberry tree face the cliffs along the donga, the shadow left by the shallow but rapid river is cast on the running Yangtze River. Who is the man on the stick, reflecting about the world? In great sorrow the grey-haired is lost in his memory.’ It is all a matter of fact, no need to elaborate.”   

诗语奇，在古代诗歌中比比皆是，不胜枚举。清代学者沈德潜在《说诗晬语》中说：“古人不废炼字法，然以意胜而不以字胜，故能平字见奇，常字见险，陈字见新，朴字见色。”传说宋代有一位姓陈的人读杜甫的诗，当读到五言排律《送蔡希曾都尉还陇右因寄高三十五书记》时，有“身轻一鸟？”之句。最后一个字被虫蛀破纸页，而看不到了。他便找几位朋友，共同揣度那该是个什么字。“疾”、“落”、“起”、“下”，大家开动脑筋，陌(莫）衷一是。后来找到了善本，原来猜的都不对，乃“过”字。大家仔细一想，“过”字表现身影象飞鸟一样从眼前飘掠而去，正与下句“枪急万人呼”相应，实在用得好。

Ancient Chinese poems never fail to take us by surprise with their wording. In Scattered Notes on Poetry, Shen Deqian, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, shared his view in this light. “The ancient kept polishing the wording, but it was the idea and the artistic conception rather than the wording that determines whether a poem is successful, so in commonplace wording there is surprise, the frequently used words can produce startling remarks, archaic words can produce something new, and simple and plain words possess charm.” In the Song Dynasty, legend has it, a man surnamed Chen was reading Du Fu’s poems. In the five-character poem “Saying Goodbye to Officer Cai”, however, he found a line of only four characters meaning respectively body, light, one, bird-- the last one was eaten by worms. He asked several of his friends to guess what the character could be. “Fast”, “set”, “rise”, “down”... There were plenty of different answers. Then they found a reliable text that proved they all missed it. It was “pass”: a verb too commonplace to call their attention. After some careful thought, they came to realize that “pass” not only captured the very moment the figure moved quickly like a flitting bird but also went in concert with the line that followed, “his deft and swift marksmanship won loud applause”. There cannot be a better word than “pass” .   

诗意奇，唐代著名边塞诗人岑参的《白雪歌送武判官归京》乃代表作，千古以来一直为人所传诵。天宝十三年（公元754年），岑参再度出塞，一个大雪天送姓武的判官回长安，写了这首诗。全诗18句，可分两部分，第一部分写送人时的雪景，第二部分写雪景中送人。头四句为：“北风卷地白草折，胡天八月即飞雪。忽如一夜春风来，千树万树梨花开。”作者一开始便以雄健的笔力描写西北边境具有鲜明特色的瑰奇壮丽的雪景。北风呼啸，卷地而来。一个“卷”字形象地刻画风势猛烈，连性至坚韧的白草也吹折了，简直是横扫大地。八月，在南方正是金秋季节天高气爽。可是在西北边塞，却已雪花飞舞。一个“即”字，表现出风雪之来出人意表，带有惊异情味。白天可以看到雪花飞舞，夜晚是看不见的。第二天天一亮，诗人起来抬头一望，惊喜地看到漫天皆白、遍地银装，所有树枝上都挂满了雪花。忽然一个奇特的想象跃入诗人心扉：他突然联想到这眼前雪景真好像春到江南。千树万树梨花迎春怒放，人们恍惚觉得这不是塞北，而是江南。顿觉全身温暖，春意盎然，仿佛闻到了梨花的香气，把人们的心带到了春光明媚、山清水秀的江南。一个“忽”字，生动地刻化了诗人惊喜的心情。这两句诗，想象奇特，比喻帖切，形象鲜明，紧扣了人们的心理特点。

Asto extraordinary artistic conception, a frontier-style poem titled “Song ofWhite Snow on Secretary Wu's Return to Capital” is a good example. Written bythe Tang poet Cen Sen, it has gained great popularity over the ages. In 754,the poet took office in the frontier region. On a snowy day, he said goodbye toSecretary Wu. The 18-line poem can be divided into two parts: the snow andthe farewell on a snowy day. As the first four lines runs, “the north windscrapes the ground, the fleabane destroyed, in the borderlands it startssnowing eighth month, as though a gust of spring wind swept past overnight,bringing thousands upon thousands of pear trees into bloom.” The poetstarted the poem with vigorous description of the magnificence of what istypical of the snowy landscape in the northwest. The roaring wind from thenorth scraped so harshly that even grass breaks or is uprooted. In the south itis golden autumn in the eighth lunar month, but at the frontier in the north,it already began to snow. With “already”, the poet expressed his surprise atthe arrival of snow. The whirling snowflakes could be seen in the daytime, butnot at night. Waking up in the early morning, the poet was amazed at the whitesnow covering everything, decorating all the branches. Then a wonderful imagestruck him: the snow covered landscape is like spring in the south of theYangtze River, when the pear trees in full bloom. In a trance, the readershifts from the frontier in the north to the south of Yangtze River,intoxicated in the radiance and charm of a picturesque world. In the line “asthough a gust of spring wind swept past overnight”, the poet marveled at thesudden changes in the landscape. The two lines here impress us with creativeimagination, ingenious metaphors, and vivid images.  

诗格奇，北宋诗人石延年堪称典范。他文风劲健，善诗，甚为同时代的大文豪欧阳修推重。他在《六一诗话》中，先是批评了唐代诗人郑谷：“其诗极有意思，亦多佳句，但其格不甚高。”继而，盛赞自己的诗友石延年：“石曼卿自少以诗酒豪放自得，其气貌伟然，诗格奇峭。”

As to literary style, Shi Yannian, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, is highly acclaimed as a model. Ouyang Xiu, his contemporary, a great writer, had a high regard for his poems that featured magnificence and strength. In his Liuyi Critique on Poetry, Ouyang criticized Zheng Gu, a Tang poet, saying that Zheng’s poems were very interesting and full of beautiful lines but lacking in style. He went on to shower his friend Shi with praise for “being uninhibited both in liquor and in poetry, imposing in manner, and remarkable in style”.

“天若有情天亦老”，出自唐代诗人李贺的《金铜仙人辞汉歌》，早已闻名。宋代很多文人雅士以此句为上联做对子，看谁对得好。石延年对“月如无恨月常圆”，一语即出，惊动四座，众人皆五体投地。北宋政治家、史学家司马光在《温公续诗话》中说：“李长吉歌‘天若有情天亦老，人以为奇绝无对。曼卿对‘月如无恨月长圆’，人以为勍敌。”

“If the heaven had sentiments, it would also grow old”, from “Immortal Jintong Bidding Farewell to Emperor Wu of Han” by Li He, a well-known Tang poet, was a popular phrase among refined scholars for antithesis competition. Shi won rounds of applause with “If the moon did not know regret, it would be always full”. Sima Guang, a statement and historian in the Northern Song Dynasty, once commented on Shi’s antithesis, saying “Li’s ‘if the heaven had sentiments, it would grow old, too” was considered unparalleled, and Shi’s “if the moon did not know regret, it would be always full’ is Li’s equal.”   

然而，奇过则凡，这是清代诗论家朱庭珍在《筱园诗话》中提出的诗学观点。也就是说，诗中的惊奇如果过于脱离了日常，那便成为无根之木、无源之水，不管词句多么华丽亦乃无稽之言，是不足为训的。也就是说，为了达到一种惊奇的效果而堆砌辞藻，反而会产生一种适得其反的效果。这也是中国古代哲学其中的精华之所在。

If something is excessively remarkable, however, it will end up in commonplace, observed Zhu Tingzhen in Xiaoyuan Critique on Poetry in the Qing Dynasty. In other words, if the surprise involved in a poem is divorced too much from our everyday life, it will be rootless and nonsense no matter what flowery words it uses, and it is not to be followed as an example. If we ornated our wording to produce the effect of surprise, things would go opposite. It is the essence of ancient Chinese philosophy.   

他认为：“七律贵有奇句，然须奇而不诡于正，若奇而无理，殊伤雅音，所谓‘奇过则凡’也。”他主张七律要有奇句，但应奇的符合常理，符合人意。否则，便适得其反。“如赵秋谷（清代诗人赵执信）之‘客舍三千两鸡狗，岛人五百一头颅’，不惟显露槎枒，绝无余味，亦嫌求奇太过，无理取闹矣。此外如诗话所传‘金欲两千酬漂母，鞭须六百报平王’（见清·梁章钜《楹联丛话》），‘羲画破天烦妹补，羿弓饶月待妻奔’（见清·袁枚《随园诗话》），皆故为过火语，实无取义，不可为训。石破天惊之句，出人意外者，其意仍须在人意中也。”

“For a seven-character octave”, he believed, “ingenious lines are a mark of distinction, but being ingenious does not mean going contrary to common sense; otherwise there is backfire.” “Take a look at a couplet by Zhao Qiugu (Zhao Zhixin, a Qing poet). ‘Three thousand spongers just served the time, while 500 righteous islanders chose to die martyrs.’ The couplet is not only uneven and gives no pleasant impression but also too eager to create an effect of surprise. It does not make sense. The same is true of ‘King Han Xin repaid the warm-hearted laundress with gold, and Chief Wu Zixu punished King Ping of Chu with flogging (see Liang Zhangju’s Couplet Collections, Qing); and ‘Fu Hsi separated the heaven for his sister to mend, Yi spared the moon so that his wife can fly there and become a goddess’ (see Yuan Mei’s Suiyuan Critiques on Poetry). Both have gone too far to be taken as an example. Admittedly, remarkable lines are unusual, but they still accord with common sense.”   

金末文学家元好问在《论诗三十首》其二十二中说：“奇外无奇更出奇，一波才动万波随。只知诗到苏黄尽，沧海横流却是谁？”该诗论慨叹次韵诗在北宋诗人苏轼、黄庭坚影响下，诗风竞奇斗险风靡整个诗坛，并泛滥成灾。而面对道丧斯文，沧海横流之际，其隐喻自己有志于中流砥柱，力挽狂滥。

Yuan Haowen, a litterateur in late Jin, once commented on a collection of thirty poems. Talking about the 22nd poem, he deplored the widespread competition for novelty in poetry. “It is unanticipated insipidity that strikes, just as billows follow the first wave. We all consider Su Shi and Huang Tingjian crowning poets of Northern Song , but can it be anyone else who left negative influence on their followers in this regard?” Here Yuan showed implicitly his determination to reverse this trend. 

诗歌创作，唯有日常积累，方得一时惊奇。那些从古至今惊世骇俗的奇文瑰句，看似作者信受（手）拈来，实则在储备中选取。信手拈惊奇，非常人可比，储备靠日常，是经年累月的辛苦所致。《老生常谈》中教人一法说：“选古人五七古诗若干首，读万遍或数万遍，熟其音节气味，心解神悟，久久觉得撑肠涨腹，有无数之奇奇怪怪，不可名状。再加一二年酝酿工夫，所谓酝酿者，寝食魂梦，若或遇之。我之形神与古人之气脉息息相关，又觉得所谓撑肠涨腹者，化而为浩浩然，汩汩然，作挟沙走石之势，不可控制，此当落笔候也。”

To achieve the effect of surprise in poetry, we have to keep accumulating. In the history of poetry there is never a lack of ingeniously composed lines which all seem to have arrived effortlessly, but the fact is, they come from the poet’s reserve over years. To a remarkable poet, on the tip of their tongue, there are always remarkable lines which are the fruit of years of effort. Twice-told Truth offers some suggestion. “Make a selection of five-character or seven-character poems and read them over and over again to immerse yourself in these poems, trying to absorb the sound, the flavor, the sentiment, and the idea. Then your stomach is swollen with strange ideas. After one or two years of ferment, that is, hitting upon wonderful ideas during meals or in dream.Then you feel connected with the ancient masters in form and in spirit, and from the windy stomach flow unstoppable streams of words and ideas, carrying away also sands and pebbles. Now it’s time to compose.”  

清代学者延君寿在《老生常谈》中说：“作诗先要能下死工夫，如甘茂（战国秦左丞相）谓城不下当以宜阳之郭为墓，示必死也。工部（杜甫）之‘语不惊人死不休’（《江上值水如海势聊短述》）可证。当以气为主，雷掣电轰，不及掩耳。人称石曼卿（石延年，北宋文学家）诗如如(此处多一个“如”字）饥鹰乍归，迅速不可言。东坡（苏轼）之‘笔所未到气已吞’（《王维吴道子画》）可证。临时还须审视巧拙，然后落笔，一发则中其要害。昌黎（韩愈）之‘盘马弯弓惜不发’（《雉带箭》）可证。脱稿后又当细细推敲，隔日再视，隔数日、隔年余再视，事过情迁，阅之如冷水浇背，陡然一惊，是一团精诚之气，结于纸上，便永远不可磨灭。”

Also in Twice-told Truth, Yan Junshou, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty said, “To write poems, one has to work very hard, like Gan Mao (left prime minister of Qin in the Warring States) who was determined to bury himself in the exterior of Yiyang. Du Fu also said that one should ‘never give up until an amazing poetic masterpiece is gained’ (‘In Awe of the Sea’). Imposing manner is our priority, with thunder and lightning powerful enough to arouse awe. Shi Manqing’s poems are compared to a hungry eagle swooping down. Su Shi showed his admiration for Wang Wei and Wu Daozi that in their painting the imposing manner preceded the pen. Before starting to write, only when one takes everything into consideration can he strike home. Han Yu offered us another example with his ‘a battle steed usually circles around before charging forward and a good archer always holds his breath and draws the bow to its fullest extent before shooting (‘Hunting Arrows’); A draft has to be thought over time and time again. After days, month, or even years, with the passage of time, when we take a look at these lines, we feel chill running down the spine. And then a surprise comes: we find the absolute vigor that freezes on the paper and become permanent.

由此可见古诗中诗歌“惊奇”之难得。古诗中所蕴含的时代背景、风俗习惯以及诗人的社会地位，现代人在赏析的过程中很难完全的代入其中，这造成了有些诗歌在赏析过程中，需要大量的注释和文献的辅助。然而，一些经典诗句仍然可以穿越时代甚至语言的限制，可以被所有人所欣赏，“日常”为创作提供了一种最为普世的语境。中国古诗词的创作并不只是关于文学的艺术，更是包含一种“顺其自然随遇而安”的“无为”哲学思想，创作中哪怕一丁点急功近利的念头都会被无限放大，可见佳作之难得。清代文学家赵翼《诗情》中描写了创作时的情境：“诗情漫索故书堆，饭罢销闲步绿苔。今日不知明月句，听他有句自然来。”诗人在屋中翻书检簿，想勾起心中的诗情，但诗思却迟迟不来，只好到屋外草坪中绿苔上漫步。思绪不知不觉被明月下的景物所吸引，忘了作诗的事情。然而，诗句却不期而至，自然而来。这说明了创作的偶然和不确定性。“日常与惊奇”看似是古诗中互文对比的一种手法，然而从更深层次上来说，中国古代对哲学的阐述并不像西方善用长篇的论述和推理，更注重对日常生活的事、理、情的描写；显然诗歌更符合中国人委婉的表达方式。所以“日常与惊奇”对于诗人们来说，更是一种表达自己哲学理念的有效方式。

“Surprise” in ancient poems is therefore hard to come by. The historical background, the custom, as well as the poet’s social status, might not be fully understood by readers in modern times, so detailed notes and extensive literature become necessary. Some classical lines can nevertheless transcend the limitations of time and even language to reach out to everybody. The “commonplace” offer the poet a most universal context. Chinese ancient poetry is about literature and art, but more importantly, it centers on the philosophical thinking of “non-action”, in other words, “letting nature take its course and accommodating to different circumstances”. Even the smallest eagerness for quick success and instant benefits can look large. Zhao Yi, a litterateur in the Qing Dynasty, described for us the composition of poems. “Paging through the books in his room, the poet waited for inspiration but failed, so he had no choice but to take a walk on the moss-covered yard after dinner. Without knowing, he was drawn to the scene bathed in the moonlight, forgetting all about the poem to write. There and then arrived the poetic lines”. Zhao Yi here talks about the contingency and uncertainty in poetic creation. “Commonplace” and “surprise” , it seems, are only a poetic device called antithesis. But on a deeper level, unlike the Western counterparts who were good at long discourses on philosophy, Chinese ancients laid emphasis on the description of things, ideas, and sentiments in everyday life - obviously, poetry is a better choice for the Chinese way of implication. In this sense, “commonplace and surprise” is more of an effective approach for poets to express and convey their philosophic idea.  

该文选自《侨福读库》第五辑中的“日常与惊奇”

This article is selected from the fifth series of PVGI: Everyday Wonder

第五辑不久将上市与大家见面

The series will be listed soon

请大家保持期待

Please keep looking forward to it