論散文的抑揚頓挫

The Rhythm of Chinese Essays

10.30114/CGJHSS.201110.0003

丁邦新(Pang-Hsin Ting)

詩歌的節奏 ； 散文的節奏 ； the Rhythm in Verse Writing ； the Rhythm of Essays

長庚人文社會學報

4卷2期（2011 / 10 / 01）

281 - 292

繁體中文

讀中國文學史的時候，我一直有幾個難以索解的問題：第一、為什麼中國詩歌體裁演變的趨向是：唐詩→宋詞→元曲？而不是唐曲→宋詞→元詩？第二、詞調裡何以有“祝英台近，減字木蘭花，攤破浣溪沙”這一類改變字數的詞？第三、元曲裡為何要加襯字？這幾個問題的癥結在於改變詩歌的節奏，越是近代就越走向散文的節奏，所以新詩跟散文的節奏幾乎不可分。什麼是散文的節奏呢？本文先從繞口令談起，再觀察順口溜和民間謠諺，試圖了解這些民間文學的節奏。再從節奏論散文的抑揚頓挫。認為造成散文抑揚頓挫的原因有以下幾點：(1) 聲調高低升降的搭配，特別注意平聲跟入聲的運用，平聲可以延長；入聲表示短促或停頓。(2) 字數的多少顯示節奏的長短，(3) 同樣的文字及同樣的句型造成節奏的重複。(4) 偶爾也有疊韻的安排。跟詩歌節奏不同的是：除疊字以外，沒有看到雙聲的運用，也沒有看到規律性的押韻。

When I studied the history of Chinese literature, I was always puzzled by the following questions. 1. Why was it that Chinese poetry developed its compositional style from shi 詩 to ci 詞 and to qu 曲, and not the other way around? 2. What was the reason that writers of the ci poetry occasionally changed the compositional pattern by adding or omitting a few characters? 3. What was the function of the chenzi (襯字),or added characters, in the qu (曲) compositions of the Yuan dynasty? The answers to these questions pointed to one single reason, namely, to change the rhythm in verse writing. In modern times, the rhythmic pattern of the new style poetry (新詩) has gradually coalesced with that of prose writing. And, in some cases, it is even difficult to find the differences between a poem and an essay. Then what is the rhythm of Chinese essays? This paper aims to examine cases in other genres such as tongue twisters (繞口令), easy pronounced phrases (順口溜),common sayings (諺語), and children songs (童謠), and then the genre of literary essays. Based on my findings, I would argue that prose writing derives its rhythmic effects from: 1. arrangement of characters with different tones to create variations in rhythm, i.e. pingsheng (平聲) characters representing the level tone and the rusheng (入聲) the short and abrupt tone; 2. alternating number of characters to introduce rhythmic groupings of various lengths; 3. use of identical sentence patterns and words to highlight a rhythmic repetition; and 4. occasionally employing rhyme words to show emphasis. The major distinction between prose and poetry in Chinese is that the formernever uses alliteration or regular rhyming.

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