Qigong Yunyu Ji: An Annotated Edition

Author: Qi Gong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: This small booklet is a collection of some linguistic records left over the years, from when I began learning to write lines with the rhythm of "" in my teens until this year. Why call it "partial"? Because my youthful writings were too naive to be preserved, and many were self-edited; the ones I organized and copied before the turmoil were also destroyed in the fire. After my late wife's passing, my humble belongings and inner turmoil were turned over several times, and traces of my own thoughts and those of my friends were lost in many instances. In recent years, my writing assignments have suddenly increased, and impromptu verses composed on the spot or at banquets were often left without records. These words can be generously called "poetry." Yet, more appropriately, they should be considered "nonsense." Our ancestors were broadly referred to as "the Hu people" in ancient times, so the descendants of the Hu people speaking naturally qualify as nonsense. Even if we specially dignify it as poetry, it remains poetry of nonsense. I never part with the "rhyme" in these nonsensical words. My understanding of rhyme does not refer to the rigid framework of Lu Fayan's "We a few people have set the rules," nor the later rhyming dictionaries' prescribed rhyme classes. Rather, it is the "rhyme" of "matching tones" as spoken by Beijingers, or simply the "smoothness" of the lines when read aloud and the pleasantness when heard.