(East-West Question) Ye Jiaying: What role does Chinese poetry play in the mutual learning of civilizations?
China News Agency, Tianjin, March 8th: Ye Jiaying: What role does Chinese poetry play in the mutual learning of civilizations?
China News Agency reporter Zhang Daozheng
"Poetry expresses one's will, and song expresses forever", a Chinese poem that has lasted for thousands of years, and has a special significance in the cultural kinship of the Chinese nation.
Chinese characters have the unique characteristics of single monophonic and monophonic four tones, which makes the poems have a unique beauty of text and sound, and their use of dictionaries and rhymes is complex and far-reaching.
Where is the beauty of Chinese poetry?
How can its dissemination break through the cultural gap and promote mutual learning among civilizations?
Ye Jiaying, a 98-year-old master of Chinese classical poetry and director of the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture at Nankai University, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East and West Questions" to interpret this.
Ye Jiaying, a master of Chinese classical poetry and director of the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture of Nankai University.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Daozheng
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service reporter: What are the characteristics of Chinese poetry? Where does its beauty lie?
Ye Jiaying:
As one of the oldest and most basic forms of literature in the world, poetry is a kind of beautiful writing, which includes form, sound, meaning and other aspects. Emotion and rich imagery are its important characteristics.
What is the beauty of Chinese poetry?
The beauty of Chinese poetry is first reflected in the Chinese language and characters. The characteristics of single monophonic and flat four tones make poetry unique in terms of text and sound.
Of course, that's not all.
The poets and poets' inner feelings and the realm of life reflected in the poems are the most unique beauty in Chinese poetry.
From the very beginning, Chinese classical poetry has the most basic feature of its ability to give people direct inspiration. Poetry must be "moved in the middle and formed in words", that is, seeing the external scenes and things that move the heart, and then use Poetry expresses.
Zhong Rong once said in "Poetry": "To make the poor and the poor easy to live in, and to live in a secluded place is nothing more than poetry." When the poor and the poor are difficult or lonely and frustrated, there is nothing more comforting and encouraging than poetry. .
It can be said that Chinese classical poetry embodies the unique concept, interest, bearing, and charm of Chinese culture. It is the blood of the Chinese nation and the spiritual home of all Chinese sons and daughters.
As long as you have feelings, feelings, and cultivation, you will be able to read the sincere, moving, and endless life contained in the poems.
In April 2018, the 8th "Begonia Elegant Collection" Poetry Conference was held at the Jialing Academy of Nankai University. Famous scholars and scholars from the fields of poetry, art and culture at home and abroad went to the Jialing Academy.
Ye Jiaying attended the event, enjoying flowers and chanting poems with everyone.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Daozheng
China News Service reporter: In the "map" of Chinese culture, where is the position of Chinese poetry and what role does it play?
Ye Jiaying:
Chinese classical poetry has a very unique and lofty position in Chinese traditional culture. It condenses the essence of Chinese culture and shows the spiritual outlook of the Chinese people for thousands of years.
In the Chinese cultural tradition, the most precious value and meaning of poetry lies in the constant conveyance of the eternally inspired life from the author to the reader.
My love and study of classical poetry is not due to the pursuit of academic knowledge, but because of the inspiration and call of life contained in classical poetry.
Benefiting from ancient poetry, (even though) I have experienced many hardships and misfortunes in my life, I can always remain optimistic and calm.
Now there are some young people who do not have enough cultural accumulation, can't understand the content of poems, and can't tell which poem is a good poem.
It is naturally a pity to guard the rich treasures of Chinese culture without knowing anything.
Making up for these regrets has been a major wish of mine over the years, and it is also one of the main reasons why I choose to return to my country to teach, and pay special attention to the role of emotion in poetry when I teach poetry.
Although I am also lacking in knowledge, knowledge and ability, I am afraid that I will end up with the blame of working hard and getting less credit, but it is just the place of love that I cannot help myself.
But I would like to tell everything I know and tell the young people, otherwise I will be sorry for the ancients and the newcomers.
In October 2015, Ye Jiaying gave a speech at a lecture at Nankai University.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Daozheng
China News Service reporter: How can Chinese poetry be spread globally?
Ye Jiaying:
As mentioned above, the unique rhythm beauty of Chinese poetry and the unique emotion of the author is an indescribable beauty of rhythm.
Therefore, when the language and words change, the feeling of poetry and the emotion it contains may completely change.
Of course, there are also excellent translations of Chinese poems in English. I have heard that the Tang poem "Returning the pearls with my tears/ that we didn't want to meet you when you are not married" is translated into "I return you the pearls with my tears/ that we didn't get married". 't meet in earlier years'.
This kind of translation with a good combination of voice and emotion requires the translator to have the feelings and talents of a poet, and it is difficult to achieve this level.
For a lecturer like me who does not have a good foundation in English, improvisation cannot do a good job in translation.
Therefore, in the English class, I only express my understanding of poetry to the students, and tell the true and essential beauty of the poet, just as I treat Chinese readers and Chinese students.
Fortunately, I was probably born to be a teacher. Although the English grammar is not completely correct, the pronunciation is not necessarily standard, and the daily lesson preparation requires a stupid method such as looking up a dictionary. The students are still very interested in my teaching. Positivity is high.
I think it has a great relationship with me conveying my personal sincere moving and understanding of poetry, or in other words, I really interpret the emotion and will of poetry with my life.
Of course, my recitation of poems in class also attracted students to indulge in traditional Chinese culture.
Chinese poetry contains a long-standing cultural tradition. Only the more and richer you understand Chinese classical culture, the better and more you can appreciate the meaning of poetry.
Taking the use of allusions as an example, only by truly understanding the meaning of the allusions used can we better appreciate the good intentions of poets and lyricists in using allusions.
Foreign sinologists face many difficulties in this regard.
In fact, real sinologists study Chinese poetry very diligently and seriously.
My student at UBC, Jerry D. Schmidt, worked on Han Tuizhi for his master's thesis and Wanli Yang for his doctoral thesis.
After graduation, he stayed at UBC to teach.
After I retired, he took my class, teaching Chinese classical poetry.
He attaches great importance to the accumulation of traditional Chinese cultural knowledge, and will check Chinese classical books and materials very clearly and in detail, and the books are filled with annotations.
Thanks to his practical and rigorous academic attitude, he was able to better understand Chinese classical poetry.
In October 2015, the University of Alberta in Tianjin awarded Ye Jiaying an honorary doctorate in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the research, teaching and Sino-Western exchanges of Chinese classical literature.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Daozheng
I first met Professor Hightower (Head of East Asia Department at Harvard University) in the summer of 1966 and worked together for decades.
I have personally felt the importance of transnational cooperation for the spread of Chinese culture to the outside world.
Of course, transnational cooperation requires both parties to have a fairly high academic level.
When we first met, Mr. Hai was studying Tao Yuanming's poems.
He has an excellent vision and realizes that there are many things that Western culture does not understand about Chinese tradition. He needs to cooperate with people who are proficient in traditional Chinese culture to open up the path of cultural exchange between China and the West.
Therefore, he cordially invited me to work with him.
I told Mr. Hai Taowei about my understanding of classical poetry, so that he could understand Chinese poetry more deeply and clearly, and he also helped translate many of my works.
Such transnational cooperation is indeed beneficial to the better dissemination of Chinese poetry to the Western world.
In addition, when disseminating Chinese culture, you must first ask yourself if you really love Chinese culture, if you know the beauty of Chinese culture, and if you can let them show in yourself.
In a word, it is to spread Chinese culture with words and deeds and practice.
China News Service reporter: How do you view the role of Chinese poetry in cultural exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations?
Ye Jiaying:
About ten years ago, the Institute of Intercultural Communication of Nankai University published my "Chinese-English Reference to Jialing's Poems" and asked me to write a preface.
It discusses the process of writing the book and the concept of cooperating with Professor Hai Taowei of Harvard University in researching and translating Chinese poetry.
This experience of working closely with first-class sinologists in the first-class universities in the United States has made me feel about cultural exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations.
In 2013, Ye Jiaying, a professor of Nankai University and a famous scholar, published two new works, "A Selection of Lectures on Jialing's Poems" and "The Chinese and English References to Jialing's Poems", which were jointly edited into Nankai together with "Ye Jiaying Talks on Ci" and "An Appreciation and Analysis of Poetry by Famous Poetry in the Tang and Song Dynasties". Intercultural Communication Research Series.
Photo by China News Agency issued by Ma Chao
As early as 1953, Mr. Hai published an article entitled "The Significance of Chinese Literature in World Literature" in Comparative Literature, a journal published by Duke University in the United States.
In particular, it is mentioned that the history of classical Chinese literature is longer than that of Latin literature, and ancient classical Chinese, even after the emergence of vernacular, is still an important literary language. The two coexist without conflict, unlike Latin There is a great difference between ancient and modern literature.
Chinese literature occupies an important position in world literature because of its long history and wide range of aspects.
To study Chinese literature, one needs a thorough understanding of Chinese literature.
As for the usefulness of studying Chinese classical poetry, I personally think that it can evoke an immortal soul that is good at inspiration, rich in association, lively and open, and more full of foresight.
This function has also been discussed in Western reception aesthetics.
According to the relationship between author and reader in Western reception aesthetics, the function of the author is to endow the work with a potential that the reader can discover, and the function of the reader is to make this potential come into play.
Moreover, when the reader explores the potential in the text, he can also have a kind of "creativity that deviates from the original intention", so the reader's reading is actually a process of re-creation.
And this process is often a process of evolution and transformation of the readers themselves.
If we look at Chinese classical poetry in the context of world literature, we will find that the characteristic of Chinese classical poetry is indeed the function of this kind of inspiration. , which is a precious tradition of Chinese poetry.
Someone asked, "Will Chinese classical poetry perish?" I thought not.
I believe that there is indeed a spiritual thing in the universe.
Human life is of course short, but the life of poetry is endless.
If I were to sum up which beauty of Chinese poetry I most hope to spread to the Western world, it would be the Chinese spirit in poetry.
The emotion, will and character of the Chinese people flowing between the lines are what I most hope to convey to Western readers.
(over)
Interviewee Profile:
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Daozheng
Ye Jiaying, female, No. Jialing, is an expert in the study of Chinese classical literature.
Born in Beijing in July 1924 to a scholarly family, he graduated from the Department of Chinese Literature of Fu Jen Catholic University in 1945.
He is currently the director of the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture of Nankai University, a doctoral tutor, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.
He was a professor at National Taiwan University, visiting professor at Harvard University, University of Michigan and Columbia University, and a professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
In March 2016, he won the 2015-2016 "Influence World Chinese Award" Lifetime Achievement Award.
In September 2019, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Education and Teaching of Nankai University.
In February 2021, he was named "2020 Person Who Moved China".
She takes her beloved Chinese classical poetry research as her lifelong career, and is determined to inherit the Chinese classical poetry culture.
He has authored dozens of books in Chinese and English, and has a wide range of influences in Chinese classical literature and poetry lovers.