論黃山谷詩的襲變

On the Adaptive Creation of Huang Shan-gu’s Poetry

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

江西詩派論山谷作詩之法，謂有奪胎法及換骨法。但都無法指出如何謂之奪胎、如何謂之換骨；所舉例子，有渾淆的、有附會的，都無從驗證其所以為作詩之法。此外，山谷本人點石成金之説，亦只在答洪駒父之書牘中偶一提及，實在也沒有提出個甚麼方法，徒增崇拜者的虛美而已。今論黃山谷詩的襲變，意欲指出山谷詩襲取前人詩句之法。簡言之，是用前人的概念為基礎，而更作出新的境界，使讀者在舊有的概念上，有深一層的思考。這種作法，名之為「襲變」。本論文意欲探討山谷作詩之法，及欣賞山谷詩之法，至於山谷詩襲變之類型、意義、價值、影響等俱無涉。

According to the Jiangxi school of poets, Huang Shan-gu composed his poetry by ‘casting’ and ‘remoulding’. The precise meaning of these two terms were however not clearly explained. Illustrations quoted were either confusing or strained, and anyhow incapable of demonstrating how they could be defined as composition methods for poetry.

In his letter to Hong Jufu, the poet had once talked about the vitalization of an ordinary piece of work. However, he had not sought to formulate any methodology for poetry composition, making therefore the adoration of his admirers somewhat unfounded.

Contemporary discussions on the “adaptive creation” found in the works of the poet only intend to highlight his way of adapting compositions by predecessors. Simply put, this “method” consists in deriving new, refreshed horizon from concepts depicted in the predecessors’ poetry, so as to induce further thoughts by the readers.

This paper aims at identifying the way Huang Shan-gu composed his poetry, and how his works should be appreciated. It however makes no attempt to discuss the types, meaning, value and effect of his adaptive creation method.