Share your experience in reading Tang poetry and Song poetry.

After being a Chinese teacher for decades, I feel more and more necessary to let our primary and secondary school students read classical poems as much as possible. However, I'm afraid my idea is purely out of my personal preference for poetry. Therefore, even the students I teach, I dare not encourage them too enthusiastically in this respect. But I read the newspaper recently, and there is a piece of news to support me. It is reported that the "Reading Famous Songs of Tang and Song Dynasties" held in Beijing Concert Hall during the Spring Festival caused a great sensation. 10 performances were full, and even the seats were added. At present, a cultural activity called "Reading China's Classical Poems" has become the focus of attention of domestic and foreign media and people in the national cultural and educational circles, and it is being gradually popularized among teenagers all over the country. This really inspired me.

People's enthusiasm for classical poetry is understandable. People who are more and more utilitarian and impetuous in modern urban life need the nourishment and edification of China traditional culture, and classical poetry is the essence of China traditional culture. China is a country of poetry. As early as more than two thousand years ago, when many nationalities in the world were still ignorant, China had a complete collection of poems such as The Book of Songs and a great poet like Qu Yuan. Over the past two thousand years, we have accumulated a poetic heritage that we can be proud of, and the poems of Tang and Song Dynasties, especially those famous works that have been washed for thousands of years, are the "best" in the poetic heritage, and it is absolutely no exaggeration to say that they are "exquisite". As a modern teenager in China, it is an irreparable regret if we can't appreciate the beauty of Tang poetry and Song poetry.

Of course, today's teenagers are under great pressure to go to school and have too much homework, so they don't have enough time and leisure to read books unrelated to exams. But I think poetry is very short, and it doesn't take much time to read some after school; Moreover, it is also very pleasant to stretch and recite one or two beautiful poems slowly during the interval of intense study, which can just relax the nervous nerves and adjust the tired body and mind. In my opinion, the key is to cultivate the interest in reading poetry. As long as you are interested, time can always be squeezed out.

To cultivate interest in poetry, we must first approach it with our heart and interpret it with our heart. Those excellent poems that have been told through the ages often contain the emotional experience of ancient poets and are universal beyond time and space. Even if there is a gap between the times, it will not be an obstacle to our appreciation. Besides, most of those really good poems are clear. Although they were written in a language more than a thousand years ago, they are still full of charm for today's readers. For example, the following song "Wandering Sons" is familiar to everyone:

The mother used the needle and thread in her hand to make clothes for her long-distance son.

Before leaving, I had a stitch for fear that my son would come back late and his clothes would be damaged.

But how much love an inch of grass has is three times!

There are no obscure words and allusions in the whole poem, which is easier to understand than the lyrics of many new poems and popular songs today. Its sincere feelings are all from the heart. Even people who have never been far away from their relatives and hometown can't help but be moved by it, and can't help but feel the attachment to maternal love from the bottom of their hearts. Not to mention people who have had this kind of life experience. I remember when I was fifteen or sixteen, I left the countryside to study in Shanghai. Although the road is not far, I always feel homesick when I am young. Unfortunately, before I graduated from junior high school, I suddenly suffered the pain of losing my mother. I read this poem over and over again sadly, and I felt a soul shock that I had never had before. I actually wrote such a poem: "The sewing thread is still there today, so I can't bear to open the box to check the old clothes." More than half a century has passed, and I can still clearly recall the great impact that this song Ode to a Wanderer brought to me at that time.

Poetry is rhythmic and rhythmic. In ancient times, poetry could be sung with music. Although the singing method at that time has been lost now, it is difficult to appreciate its unique charm if you don't understand its rhythm and rhythm when reading poetry. Mr. Shou Lao's long-distance swaying tone and infatuated manner in "Three Tans on the Moon" may be considered ridiculous, but in fact, what is needed when reading poetry is this poetic experience and full emotional input. People call reading poems "reciting poems", and reciting poems is a rhythmic reading with a long tone. I don't mean to advocate reciting, but I think if we really want to turn reading poetry into a spiritual enjoyment, we should at least learn to recite it in Mandarin. I have heard Sun Daolin recite poems. Although it is not a song, it also reads the charm of poetry. In order to learn this kind of recitation, apart from experiencing the accident of poetry, the key lies in handling the rhythm of poetry. Specifically, we should pay attention to the pause and the prolongation of some sounds in the poem. Generally speaking, if there are two-digit words in a sentence that are flat (roughly equivalent to flat tone and rising tone in Mandarin), the tone of the words should be lengthened when reading (if the rhyming words are flat, they should also be lengthened), thus forming a long and short cadence rhythm.

The influence of reading classical poetry is not explicit, but subtle. The poet himself may not feel this influence, but when he reads more poems and accumulates more, people will feel a unique temperament and an extraordinary "bookish spirit" from his good talk and elegant manners. Su Shi has a poetic cloud: "Rough life is wrapped in cloth, and Dantian has a poetic soul." Indeed, a person who has read a lot of poems and been influenced by traditional culture can't hide the beauty of his inner temperament even if he wears homespun clothes.

Of course, after all, the authors of Tang poetry and Song poetry are all literati in feudal times, and their works inevitably reveal negative thoughts such as impermanence of life, eating, drinking, sighing for the old and being self-deprecating, narcissism, etc. There's nothing to be afraid of. On the contrary, it can exercise our analytical and discriminating abilities.