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Benevolence, Sensibility and Meditation
----- On the Three Preconditions to Be a Poet
by Qian Zhifu, Dr. of Faculty of Foreign Languages,
Ningbo University, P.R.China

In his Human Poetry, Wang Guowei remarks on the three planes a great man or a great literator shall attain. The first one is the stanza, “cold wind deprived the greenery last night, I mount up stair to the mansion, gazing the utmost homeward journey”. The second one is in the couplet, “no complaint about getting bony as me; it is worthwhile to pay price for thee”. The third is stated in the verse, “I sought him so desperately, turning round all of sudden, and I spotted the very man in dim light incidentally”. In my view, poet and man of letters should be included as to so-mentioned three planes. In addition to the three planes suggested by Wang Guowei, I propose my three preconditions as complementation to them. The details are as follows:
In my opinion, if one aims to be a poet, he must meet three preconditions, benevolence, sensibility, and meditation.
Benevolence is of humanity. Li Yu states that man of letters is a literary servant who amuses the public. Others claims that poet should represent the good consciousness in his times and cherish a true loving heart, and once he own it, he owns the bright world.
It should be pointed out that the benevolence in poet’s mind is not identical with that of mundane people. Although folks are born to be kindhearted just as Confucius puts it, “when man are born, good nature is acquired.” Folks are termed as secular men because they are ready to seek pleasure and fortune and flee from misfortune and responsibility, in sharp contrast with poet as a literary servant. In pursuit of justice and truth and for the sake of great national interest, poets discard their own benefits and profits even sacrifice their life. They never only care selfish happiness, and they never shrink. In great danger they will do the contrary and take risk for the sake of integrity and courage. Lin Zexu, a poet and great patriot once said, “If one needs to die for his nation, he has no excuse to step back, dwelling on fortune or bad luck.”
Naturally, the major concerns of benevolent literary man are to have their works of words hand down, while in the time of great need, they do not hesitate to stand out to sacrifice for their course, so as to realize their holly benevolence with fight and martyrdom. There are so many cases in point as the death of Byron, the British poet, and, Qu Yuan,the ancient Chinese poet. We can learn that a true poet is such a courageous fighter and their death is the best manifestation of a great poet, enough to move heavens and god, to purify customs and better human interrelation. For this reason, Sima qian of the Han Dynasty comments in his works Records of the Historians, he says, “most of the poets who write the Book of 300 Songs bear great zeal and their songs are best teaching texts to educate human to be pure beings”. This is why Confucius to list the Book of 300 Songs as the top one of the Six Classic Texts. The reason why gentle and unsophiscated characteristics, reserved but rich personality last for ages and ages without any decrement, and why Chinese nation is superior to other nations is more or less benefited from the immersion of poetry education learned ever from our childhood. It is the best part of our national culture which we shall cherish and promote it.
The so-called sensibility refers to the fact that any benevolent poet should bear acute sensibility, either to the universe or to the human communities, overtaking any mortal earthlings. Why benevolent poet tends to be sensible? The answer is that they are kindhearted. The trait of poet is mainly of rich sensibility as well as non-ill psychic sickness. The description of “one live out his life span of less one hundred either in worries or sickness” is the true portrait of poet, and he is immersed in some kind of deep worries as “to worry prior to others and enjoy after others”. Poet is inclined to be farsighted when it comes to the trend of social currents, history and ideology. They have innate genius, and they write as the sages with instinctive farsighted insight. Therefore it is commented that poet is prophet, and Shelley termed poet as legislator who are not recognized by secular world.
Lu Ji describes the poet’s sensibility in his “Fu on the Literature” in this way, “to sing for the flying time with rotating seasons, to meditate wildly when he see the nature, to be sorrowful for the falling leaves, and be cheerful when spring comes, be heavily heartfelt in frost days and lofty when facing cloud. ” Liu Xie puts that “to feel the mountain when one ascends and to pour out one’s mind when he faces the sea.” It can be deduced that only the man who is sensible to the surroundings and then touched is liable to be a poet. Many poems are composed in such circumstances, which are proposed in Liu Xie’s review, “the imposing Qi and Wu (the universe is divided into two elementary parts by ancient Chinese: one is Qi, which is of intangible spirit, the other is Wu, which is of tangible matter) are sung and written in poems”. The wonderful poetry is based on the poet’s rich feelings and sensation, otherwise is groundless.
It is natural that only sensation is not enough. Meditation is necessary, and it is mental activity inspired by nature, which is termed by Liu Xie as great contemplation. Of course it cannot be detached from Wu, the tangible nature, so he remarked, “the best thinking is accompanied with Wu. If Shen, the psyche is to be brought forth, morale governs it; When Wu is presented, word of lines counts.” As to how Shen and Wu interact to inspire poetry thought, Wang Changling, one of the great poets in Tan Dynasty, explains in his remarks, which reads, “Poetry thought falls into three categories, one is acquired thought that is obtained from nature, felt in heart, and combined by Shen and Wu; another one is spontaneous thought that when one invests his strenuous mind in vain and exhausted, he got a flashing idea when he mirrors himself in retrospection; the third one is inspired thought that comes cross in his mind when one chews the thoughts and old works of others ” All of the above-mentioned thinking processes of poetry are closely related to the interaction of Wu and Shen.
But this is not enough. Benevolent poet shall have the good competence to distinguish fake and ugliness from sincerity and beautifulness in social life and surroundings. A poet can glorify what is beautiful and condemn what is ugly. He has a clear distinction of love and hatred and cannot be fooled. The tradition to eulogize and satirize dates back to the ancient time of The Book of Songs and lasts for thousands of years. Qu Yuan, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, and Lu You are the few of many poets who dare to laud and to satirize. The tradition to laud and to satirize in the late century demonstrated in the new Chinese poetry to some extent is continued and further developed and achievement is harvested. To our delight, especially in recent years, many satirical poetry and contemporary ballads to disclose and condemn the dark side of the world have cast deep influence on the mass people.
The so-called benevolent meditation refers to the kind-hearted poet should keep mute watch when it comes to his art consciousness. It dose not mean that he shall perform as an onlooker shadowing in a dark corner, and this kind of outlook has a narrow-minded view, while a true viewer is to overlook the world at a certain height, as the god of sun shines to illuminate the universe. The reason why westerners admire Apollo is His omnipresent sunshine. If Dioneseus gives poet the sense of benevolent inspiration, meditation owes to Apollo, a kind of overlooking competence that is rich of reasoning. Moreover, meditation is an intellectual mind of state. Poetry is subtle and gentle, not hasty and harsh and haughty. When poet observes the universe, social phenomenon, and the earthlings, he shall have his own knowledge and experience, and all the truth and facts are obtained from contemplation in stillness. The stillness is emphasized in the saying, “to widely observe the world first before phenomenon is drawn to a conclusion”. Relaxation and tension are considered to be of intellectual and martial importance, but poetry composition is a kind of intellectual work rather than muscular task, better done in still thinking.
Poetry shall have harmonious stanza,beautiful envision and sound image, the aesthetic art elements demand the authority of stillness rather than motion. All the rhythms, the nature of gist, the pleasure, and the moral realm are the best result created through meditation in stillness. So we can know that benevolent thinking is one of the best traditions of Chinese poetry history in thousands of years. Unfortunately, in the late hundred years, except that a few outstanding poets can practise it, most poets are in a rush. That is why the practice should be brought back. No doubt that this stage needs drills of skills as well as policy of philosophy. Taoism in Chinese culture values tranquility, and Buddhism dhyana also gives emphasis on deep mediation. This is why Buddhism world is the boundless world of tranquility. To some extent, Chinese poetry is greatly influenced by Buddhism and Taoism as to the art aspect, so poet highly values contemplation stage of somewhat Buddhism or Taoism. Poetry critics remarked, “learning to write poem is to do dhyaha” The comment, “the rules of Tao exist in sudden acquisition, so is the poetry” shows the poet bears the high esteem for the boundless art realm.
In conclusion, poet shall meet the above-mentioned three preconditions. If they are sound and well-provided, one can make himself poet; if one fails to have or happens to lack them, his poem weighs less, and he is only a poet who lacks cultural background.
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钱志富
文学博士
宁波大学外语学院副教授