The earliest extant collection of poems in China is the "Book of Songs" edited by Confucius. It consists of three parts: "wind", "ya" and "song". "Feng" is a folk song from various pre-Qin countries, and "ya" and "song" are the lyrics of songs for sacrifices or ceremonies in suburban temples of the imperial court. They were popular at that time. It is a song that can be sung with joy. Perhaps due to the difficulty of notating music at the time (or the lack of music notation), the musical parts of these songs were gradually washed away by the long river of history, and in the end only the musicless "lyrics" remained.

In order to retrieve the other of the twin brothers of words and music, history has generously given mankind two completely different methods.

The first is to use the "analytical method" to independently develop music theory: starting from the smallest element of music "sound" (vibration of different frequencies), and then "scales", "phrases", and "movements" , accompanied by concepts such as "beat", "strength" and "mode". This kind of music theory has nothing to do with words, it is another "language" entirely. It can produce a separate "instrumental piece" to express hazy emotions with personal characteristics within a certain range; it can also be combined with lyrics to temporarily recreate the harmonious beauty of the original twin brother and sister. "Analysis" pursues individualization and personal freedom.

The other is to use the "synthetic method" to harmoniously integrate text and music. This method is based on the musical connotation of Chinese characters: Chinese has "four tones" (it is said that there is also a "pentatonic" reading), which basically corresponds to the "pentatonic scale" of ancient music. "Sentence reading" and the stress on the first word of Chinese single- and double-syllable words constitute the concepts of "beat" and "strength"; the sentences and segments of "lyrics" themselves correspond to "musical phrases" and "movement". This method is not as diverse in form as the previous one, but it integrates text and music: as long as the "lyrics" are written in this way, it already comes with "music", and there is no need to Worried that the "music score" will be lost. "Comprehensive law" pursues universal principles, not individual freedom.

According to the "analytic method" to develop music theory, there is not much difference between China and the West, except that Chinese melody is more beautiful while the West has a stronger sense of three-dimensionality; according to the "synthetic method" to develop the unity of text and music, this is mainly reflected in From the early Tang Dynasty to the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the metricalization of poetry and the development of "Ciology" in the Song Dynasty; since Western language words do not have four tones of pronunciation, although "metrical poetry" in Western poetry also has very strict rules and patterns, Its sense of music is still inferior to that of Chinese metrical poetry.

There is a big difference between reading the lyrics of a song and listening to the song; similarly, there is a big difference between reading a poem that is not metrical and reading a poem that is metrical. Feelings will be different. Although we can live without knowing how to sing, when we want to sing, especially when we want to sing on stage, we need to learn how to sing; we can live without knowing how to write poetry, but when we want to write poetry, especially when we want to publish it publicly, We just need to try to write like a poem. When we write poetry instead of other literary styles, we actually admit that poetry is different from other literary styles, and the characteristics of poetry come from the special requirements of poetry for meter. When we give up these requirements, The "poetry" written loses the basic characteristics of poetry.

As more and more authors write poems, many of them hope that they have some basic knowledge about poetry methods and techniques in order to improve their poetry writing skills. In order to meet this requirement of readers, we have specially opened this column to introduce some of the most basic and practical common sense of poetry rhythm to readers who are interested in writing poetry through some short articles. The content we introduce is currently limited to some relatively simple orders in five- and seven-character metrical poems and Cipai.

For people who have not written poetry according to the rules for a long time, it is difficult to completely comply with the rhythm of poetry all of a sudden. If you adopt the method of "using its spirit": after understanding the basic rules, try to work in the right direction, step by step, no matter how slow it is, as long as you persist in doing it bit by bit, you will definitely make yourself better in a short time. There is a clear improvement in his poetry.