广陵集 2020 Diligent Studies in Guangling 2020 第 08 篇 Section 08
七月 雅俗之辩两篇 July: Two Essays on the Debate Between the Refined and the Popular
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上篇 拨开语言的雅与俗 Part One: Unraveling the Refined and the Popular in Language
近日，HSK在送抵武汉的抗疫物资的赠语“山川异域，风月共天”刷爆网络，有人一边感慨着中华文化的博大精深，却一边批评着“武汉加油”的粗俗不堪。大抵人们平日都奉雅言为圭臬，而将市井文字视为粗鄙之人的代名词。追求文字的雅正，这固然是不错的，然而文章的优劣又不可单以语言的雅俗论。雅与俗，各得其宜，各尽其妙。
Recently, the poetic epigraph on epidemic-relief supplies sent by HSK to Wuhan—“Mountains and rivers in separate lands, winds and moon beneath the shared sky”—went viral across the internet. Many marveled at the profound depth of Chinese culture while deriding the slogan “Stay Strong, Wuhan!” as utterly uncouth. In daily life, people generally venerate refined language as an untouchable benchmark while dismissing marketplace idioms as the preserve of vulgar folk. Pursuing elegance in prose is commendable, yet the merit of writing cannot be measured solely by the refined versus the popular. Elegance and colloquialism each find their proper place, and each exhausts its unique wonder.
以诗词为内核的雅言，在表达日益贫乏的当代，正焕发出其新的生命力。一部《红楼梦》诗词算来竟数百篇，其中“一朝春尽红颜老，花落人亡两不知”等句，用极含蓄的手法体现极丰富的感情，莫怪乎鲁迅先生赞它“集古典小说大成”。直到当代，余秋雨的《文化苦旅》可谓是雅言的一大好例了。他在采访中说：“当代中国作家，若他的文笔中有文言的墨水，文章写到紧要关头，便能文白相济，招之即来。”这真是一番好见解。
Refined language, centered upon classical poetry, is radiating fresh vigor in an era of encroaching linguistic impoverishment. Dream of the Red Chamber boasts hundreds of poems and lyrics; verses such as “One morning when spring ends, beauty turns old; flowers fallen and people deceased, unknown to both” express boundless emotion through exquisite subtlety, no wonder Lu Xun hailed it as “the crowning synthesis of classical fiction.” Coming to the contemporary age, Yu Qiuyu’s Cultural Bitter Journey stands as an exemplary model of refined prose. In an interview, he noted: “If a contemporary Chinese writer possesses the ink of classical Chinese in his brush, when the writing reaches a crucial turning point, classical and vernacular blend harmoniously, answering the call with ease.” This is a brilliant insight indeed.
然而在描写生活时，雅言有时就显得格格不入甚至造作。事实上，在抒写情感时，俗语有时更胜雅言。《水浒传》中，像李逵这样“我们都做大官，杀去东京，夺了鸟位子，却不强似在这里鸟乱”的“粗鄙之语”比比皆是，却不妨碍许多人的喜爱，究其原因，便是看似粗鄙的语言下却有着一个一腔热血的黑旋风。蒙田曾云：“语言只是一种工具，通过他我们的意愿和思想就得到交流，它是我们灵魂的解释者。”看来不论雅俗，只要真心真意的情感都是好文字。
Yet in depicting the grit of everyday living, refined prose can at times feel jarring or even contrived. In truth, when giving voice to raw emotion, colloquial language often trumps elegance. In Water Margin, vulgar outbursts like Li Kui’s—“Let us all become grand officials, storm the Eastern Capital, seize that blasted dragon throne, wouldn’t that be better than making a confounded mess here?”—abound throughout the pages, yet never diminish reader affection. The reason is that beneath seemingly crude speech burns the hot blood of the Black Whirlwind. Michel de Montaigne once wrote: “Speech is the only tool by which our will and thoughts are communicated; it is the interpreter of our soul.” It seems that whether refined or vernacular, any text bearing genuine, heartfelt emotion constitutes fine writing.
字面上的雅不指艰涩，而俗也有别于恶俗。它们说到底都是情感表达的一种。朱自清在《论雅俗共赏》中说：“雅俗共赏，并非打倒旧标准，只是要求那些雅士理会到或迁就些俗士的趣味，好让大家打成一片。”于是我们可以放心得出结论了，雅与俗并不应该是我们写作时第一在意的东西。不管是简洁激昂的“武汉加油”，还是悠久隽永的诗词情怀，都属于传递情感的方式。
Elegance on the page does not denote pedantic obscurity, nor is the vernacular synonymous with vulgarity. Both are fundamentally modes of emotional expression. Zhu Ziqing noted in On Mutual Appreciation of the Refined and the Popular: “Mutual appreciation does not mean toppling old standards; it merely asks refined gentlemen to appreciate or accommodate the tastes of common folk, so that all can mingle as one.” Thus we may safely conclude: the refined and the popular should not be our paramount obsession in writing. Whether the terse and stirring “Stay Strong, Wuhan!” or the timeless sentiment of classical poetry, both are valid vessels for communicating human emotion.
写出皇皇巨著《包法利夫人》的福楼拜说：“语言就是一架展延机，永远拉长感情。”我们能对一行诗词、一句加油潸然泪下，从来不在于语言的雕琢有多么精美，而是建立在同为人类大家庭的共情之上。此层情感的刹那相通，早已抵过千言万语，谁还会在乎最初的形式！
Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, wrote: “Language is a rolling machine that constantly stretches emotion.” That we weep over a line of poetry or a simple cheer never hinges on how gorgeously language is polished, but rests upon the empathy shared across the human family. This flash of communion far outweighs ten thousand words; who would quibble over its initial form!
在如今纷繁的网络社会中，似乎许多人都只关注用愈发华丽的文字掩盖愈发贫乏的心灵，这场“武汉加油”的论战恰恰体现出人们对真情实感的漠视。“一笺心语寄风月，何人不共此时情。”相较于希望人们用熟练的语调念出“山川异域，风月同天”，我更希望每一个中国人可以发自肺腑地祝福：
In today’s chaotic digital world, so many seem fixated on using increasingly ornate rhetoric to mask an increasingly hollow spirit; this controversy over “Stay Strong, Wuhan!” precisely reveals a callous disregard for authentic sentiment. “A letter of heart’s whispers entrusted to wind and moon, who does not share this feeling now?” Rather than desiring people to recite with practiced cadence “Mountains and rivers in separate lands, winds and moon beneath the shared sky,” I would far rather every Chinese person bless from the bottom of their heart:
“武汉加油！”
“Stay Strong, Wuhan!”
下篇 雅俗共赏的一声惊雷 Part Two: A Clap of Thunder for Both Refined and Popular Tastes
近日，在某直播平台上，杨坤公开批评喊麦歌曲《惊雷》的低俗，“不是音乐”，而原唱MC六道随即毫不避讳地喊话杨坤：“你没一首歌比惊雷火”，这随即在互联网上引发了沸沸扬扬的讨论。事实上，文化的优劣不可单以雅俗论，而这声“惊雷”在警示着我们：雅俗共赏的要求在当今已经极为紧迫了。
Recently, on a live-streaming platform, pop singer Yang Kun publicly lambasted the viral hanmai track Jinglei (“Surprise Thunder”) for its vulgarity, claiming it was “not music at all.” The original performer, MC Liudao, retorted without hesitation: “None of your songs is hotter than Jinglei!” This ignited a ferocious uproar across the internet. In reality, the quality of culture cannot be gauged simply by refined versus popular; this clap of “Surprise Thunder” warns us that the demand for mutual appreciation between high and low tastes has never been more urgent.
其实早在2018年，诗人食指就大肆抨击余秀华“不是诗人”，掀起雅俗之争，甚至早在民国就有朱自清《论雅俗共赏》的讨论。但唯独这次在社会上引发的争议尤大，这似乎是《娱乐至死》作者波兹曼的预言终于显灵：电视乃至互联网会使我们的文化充满庸俗的感官刺激，最终导致社会的割裂与文化的毁灭。
As early as 2018, the veteran poet Shizhi fiercely denounced Yu Xiuhua as “not a poet,” igniting a debate over refined and vernacular art, and discussions date back as far as Zhu Ziqing’s On Mutual Appreciation of the Refined and the Popular in the Republic of China era. Yet this controversy triggered an unprecedented social furor, as if the prophecy of Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death has finally materialized: television and the internet saturate our culture with vulgar sensory stimulation, ultimately causing societal fracture and cultural ruin.
现代生活以尼采的一句“我们的生活从来不曾如此的世俗化。人人浑身上下撒满了文化的佐料，好让自己成为一道大餐。”为嚆矢，滥觞于所谓雅与俗的大变局，实质上是现代文化日益向大众普及的必然结果，“雅”与“俗”的产生本身并不是所谓的倒退，而反而是进步，两千年前楚地阳春白雪与下里巴人的出现便是如此。
Modern life launched with Nietzsche’s arrow: “Never has our life been so secular. Everyone is sprinkled all over with cultural seasoning so as to turn themselves into a feast.” The watershed between the refined and the popular is in essence the inevitable outcome of modern culture diffusing toward the masses; the emergence of “refined” and “popular” is not a regression, but progress, just as the divergence between the elite Spring Snow and the folk Song of the Rustic Poor arose in the land of Chu two millennia ago.
然而，正如学者沃尔特•李普曼所言，“我们一早便能辨认出为自己定义好的文化，服从于此”，我们会不自觉地服从于自己的身份所对应的文化并拼命维护，从而得到身份的焦虑的缓解，这将导致文化逐渐地圈地自萌，鄙视链层出不穷，最终社会将丧失审美力，杨坤的忧虑便在于此。
However, as Walter Lippmann observed, “We can identify early on the culture defined for us, and submit to it.” We unconsciously defer to the culture that matches our social identity and fiercely defend it to assuage status anxiety; this drives culture into insular echo chambers with endless chains of contempt, ultimately draining society of aesthetic vitality. Herein lay Yang Kun’s apprehension.
李普曼认为，由于边际效应的作用，艺术文化终将分化得日益明显。虽然我们承认个人经历对审美观的不同作用，但我们不应在象牙塔内对高雅文化皓首穷经，灰心丧气，也不应在闹市场对俗文化趋之若鹜——若如此，雅将趋于僻雅，俗则将留于恶俗，这是我们谁都不愿意见到的。这雅与俗的交融需要我们每个人用积极了解借鉴的方式去实现。
Lippmann maintained that due to marginal effects, art and culture will inevitably differentiate with increasing sharpness. While we acknowledge the impact of individual experiences on aesthetic tastes, we must neither waste our lives away in ivory towers dissecting high culture in despair, nor blindly flock to lowbrow culture in the marketplace—for if we do, the refined will degenerate into pedantry, and the popular will sink into crassness, an outcome none of us wish to see. The blending of the refined and the popular requires each of us to actively understand and draw upon both.
朱自清讨论雅俗共赏，重点并不是废除原有的审美标准，而是让不同趣味的人仍能进入交流。四大名著的传播便说明了这一点：《红楼梦》借电视剧走进当代生活，《三国演义》也曾从宋元评话和市井讲述中逐渐走入书斋。文化正是在往返与转化中延续。
In exploring mutual appreciation, Zhu Ziqing’s emphasis was not to dismantle aesthetic standards, but to ensure people of diverse tastes could still converse. The dissemination of the Four Great Classical Novels illustrates this well: Dream of the Red Chamber entered modern living through television adaptations, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms transitioned into the scholar’s studio from Song and Yuan storytelling prompt-books. Culture endures through this very interplay and metamorphosis.
网络上的雅俗争论，问题不只在作品本身，也在于人们习惯用审美划分身份、确认优越。当高雅与通俗各自封闭，交流便只剩下互相否定。《惊雷》引起的争议真正值得反思之处，正在这里：雅得其怡，俗取其妙，而彼此仍应保留理解的可能。
The online dispute over refined and popular tastes stems not solely from the works themselves, but from people using aesthetic preference to demarcate status and claim superiority. When elite and vernacular forms shutter themselves away, dialogue is reduced to mutual negation. The true reflection prompted by the controversy over Jinglei lies right here: let the refined retain its grace, let the popular hold its charm, while preserving the possibility of mutual understanding.