声(shēng)律(lǜ)启(qǐ)蒙(mēng)
Preface
The book was published by Anhui People’s Publishing House in Sept. 2015 This book is dedicated to none-Chinese speakers who wish to acquire some ability in understanding and appreciating Chinese poetry, ancient Chinese poetry in particular. The Chinese portion of this book is dedicated to those non-native speakers of Chinese who have reached certain proficiency in reading comprehension. This seems to be an impossible task, yet the writer wishes to give it a try. It would be a pity if the beauty of Chinese poetry could not be apprehended by people who do not speak Chinese, and who take up three fourth of the world population. Some Chinese experts in the study of comparative poetics say that in poetry China is much stronger than the west. The peaks in the development of Chinese poetry, their concurrent illuminating giants and their monumental pieces have nurtured the mind of the Chinese people and helped shaped their nature. This book, as a matter of fact, is a paraphrase of “ABC of Sound Meters in Chinese Poetry”, which used to be a children’s primer, and has been now listed as one of the texts for educating primary school students in China studies by the Ministry of Education since September 2012, and has also been recommended by the Headquarters of Confucius School as a text for its foreign students. “ABC of Sound Meters in Chinese Poetry”, in Chinese it is called “Shēng Lǜ Qǐ Méng” and written as 《声律启蒙》, the author is Ché Wànyù (车万育，1632-1705) of the Qīng Dynasty. He had two adult names, one is Shuángtíng (双亭)，the other is Yúsān (与三). He was born at Shàoyáng County of Húnán. Having scored high in the national examinations, he was appointed a supervisory councilor in the central government. He was known for is integrity and candid manner of speaking. The book had been very popular among children, it not only provides forms of rhyme, it also gives numerous examples of poetic lines, and the content of which is in astronomy, geography, flowers, forest, birds, animals, human figures and utensils.
Before we go into details of the book, I wish to give you a general picture of Chinese poetry, for there are other features aside from rhyming.
Types of poetry:
All poems before the Táng Dynasty are “Old Style Poetry”, in Chinese it is called “gǔ tǐ shī” and is written as “古体诗”, which is divided into two groups, one group is five-character a line poems and the other is seven-character a line poems. For both of them there is no limitation of the number of characters.
All poems composed in and since the Táng Dynasty are “Modern Style Poetry”, in Chinese it is called “jīn tǐ shī” and is written as “今体诗”, which is divided into two groups, one group is “regulated poems”, it is called in Chinese “lǜ shī” and written as “律诗”， and the other is “Four Line Poems” in Chinese it is called “jūe jù” and written as “绝句”. The “regulated poems” are divided into five-character a line and seven-character a line poems; both are eight-line long. “Four Line Poems” are divided into five-character a line and seven-character a line poems as well.
Ways of Rhyming
A few words on the feature of Chinese language are necessary. The basic unit in Chinese is characters, we call it “hàn zì” and its written form is “汉字”. The characters are of monosyllabic. That is to say each character has only one syllable. What is more is that vowels always appear after a consonant. Characters are almost all open syllables. The unique intonations of level, rising, departing and entering tones for all characters in pronunciation give musical effects to the language. Like foreign poetry, Chinese poems can have alliterations, yet they are mostly assonances or vowel rhymes as in “The Book of Songs”. The way of rhyming in Chinese poetry is mostly “foot rhyme”. To facilitate poets in composition, people grouped together characters with the same pronunciation; these groups are known today as “104 Rhyming Systems” (“ping shuǐ yùn or 平水韵”). Because within each group there can be so many characters, it enables the poet to use one rhyme from the beginning to the end. There are thirty groups in flat (or level) tone, and they are mostly used in “modern style poetry”, the others are all in “rising”, “departing” and “entering” tones.
Mr. Ché’s book mainly deals with rhyming groups in the flat tone.
Level and Oblique Tones
There are strict requirements on level and oblique tones in “modern style poetry”. Basic tonal requirements are attached at the end of this writing for those who wish to know more about this feature.
Antithesis
Generally speaking, in ‘regulated poems” the third line and the fourth line should be an antithesis, that is to say, the meaning of words in the fourth line should be in the same category with that in the third, and the part of speech in the two lines should be the same and in the same order. For instance, “coming” in the third line should go parallel with “going” in the fourth line, “wind” in one line should correspond to “rain” in the other; “being long” should be paired with “being short”.
The same applies to line five and line six. There are no strict requirements on the first and the last two lines in antithesis.
Having said all these, let’s go into specific rhyming forms. This book is in two parts. Each part includes fifteen groups. In each group, the writer of this paraphrase (to be referred to as “the writer” hereinafter.) gives out characters and their pronunciations according to “104 Rhyming Systems” as a resource paragraph. Each group is represented by a heading character; such a character is of a level tone. The sample lines the author gave all rhymes with this character. In each group, the sample lines are given in three sections. The lines in sections I and II are arranged in the following format:
Line 1: □ □ □, □ □ □, □ □ □ □ □。
Three characters, three characters, five characters.
Line 2: □ □ □ □ □, □ □ □ □ □。
Five characters, five characters.
Line 3: □ □ □, □ □ □, □ □ □ □ □。
Three characters, three characters, five characters.
Line 4: □ □ □ □ □, □ □ □ □ □。
Five characters, five characters.
Line 5: □ □ □ □ □ □ □, □ □ □ □ □ □ □。
Seven characters, seven characters.
Line 6: □ □ □ □, □ □ □ □ □ □ □,
Four characters, seven characters.
Line 7: □ □ □ □, □ □ □ □ □ □ □。
Four characters, seven characters.
The only difference in the third section is that lines 6 and 7 are each composed of four characters plus six characters, not seven character.
To explain the example lines, the writer provides how each line sounds in “pīn yīn” (phonetic transcription). The writer then gives a literal translation of the line and points out where it rhymes and what are the antithesis. If there are stories in the line, the writer tries to describe them briefly. The writer hopes by going through such a procedure, it would help readers to comprehend the lines, and further to get a taste of Chinese poetry.
(Part I)
(上卷)
一东:First, the character at the end of a line that pronounces with the sound of “dōng” and its groups, such as 东(dōng)同(tōng)童(tōng)僮(tōng)铜(tōng)桐(tōng)峒(tōng)筒(tǒng)瞳(tóng)中(zhōng)衷(zhōng)忠(zhōng)盅(zhōng)虫(chóng)冲(chōng)终(zhōng)忡(chōng)崇(chóng)嵩(sōng)菘(sōng)戎(róng)绒(róng)弓(gōng)躬(gōng)宫(gōng)穹(qióng)融(róng)雄(xióng)熊(xióng)穷(qióng)冯(féng)风(fēng)枫(fēng)疯(fēng)丰(fēng)充(chōng)隆(lóng)窿(lóng)空(kōng)公(gōng)功(gōng)工(gōng)攻(gōng)蒙(méng)蒙(měng)朦(méng)瞢(méng)笼(lóng)胧(lóng)栊(lóng)咙(lóng)聋(lóng)珑(lóng)砻(lóng)泷(lóng)蓬(péng)篷(péng)洪(hóng)荭(hóng)红(hóng)虹(hóng)鸿(hóng)丛(cóng)翁(wēng)嗡(wēng)匆(cōng)葱(cōng)聪(cōng)骢(cōng)通(tōng)棕(zōng)烘(hōng)崆(kōng).
云对雨，雪对风。晚照对晴空。
Yún duì yǔ ，xuě duì fēng 。wǎn zhào duì qíng kōng 。
(Literal translation of the Line: clouds vs. rain, snow vs. wind; dusk vs. a clear sky.) The sixth character pronounces as “fēng” and the last character pronounces as “kōng”. There are apparently four pairs in the line: cloud and rain are all nouns; so are snow and wind. In Chinese when we say “dusk”, it uses “evening” as an adjective for “sun-set”. “Evening” is paired with “clear” and “sun-set” is paired with “sky”.
来鸿对去燕，宿鸟对鸣虫。
Lái hóng duì qù yàn ，sù niǎo duì míng chóng 。
(Literal translation of the line: An incoming swan goose vs. a departing swallow; returned birds vs. chirping insects.) The last character pronounces as “chóng”. Please also note: “coming” is paired with “going”. The other three pairs are “swan geese” and “swallows”, “returned” with “chirping” and ‘birds” with “insects.”
三尺剑，六钧弓。岭北对江东。
Sān chǐ jiàn ，liù jun gōng 。lǐng běi duì jiāng dōng 。
(Literal translation of the line: three foot long sword, a full bow to be pulled open by a strength of 90 killos, the northern side of the ridges and the eastern side of the river.) The sixth and the last characters pronounce as “gōng” and “dōng” respectively. There are four pairs: “three foot” with “six ‘jūn’—15 kilos”, “north” with “east”, the “sword” with the “bow”, “ridges” with “river.” The “sword” is related to the sword of the founder of the Hàn Dynasty—Liú Bāng (刘邦256 B.C.-195B.C.), who used to boast he won the national power with his “three foot” long sword; the “bow” is related to that of Yán Gāo (颜高), who showed his bow to others when the troops of Duke Dìng of the State of Lǔ were attacking the State of Qí during the Spring and Autumn period. “Jūn” is a weighing unit in the ancient times, one “jūn” equals to fifteen kilos.
The sword and the bow.
