Dear Muse,

My fiancee just threw me a curveball, asking me why traditional Chinese poetry still matters today. OK. I am a baseball player. Let's see if I can hit it out of the park. (Actually, I am keeping my fingers crossed.)

In traditional Chinese poetry, each and every monosyllabic character is a moving part, which yearns for being in Great Harmony with its counterparts. In Great Harmony, individual characters earn all due respect when serving the common good. Well, in the West, it took millennia to have the 18th-Century economist Adam Smith echo Great Harmony without knowing it ("Individual ambition serves the common good").

Great Harmony is where the Chinese heritage is rooted, on account of which the tree of traditional poetry was in full bloom. Was. Why the past tense? Because it is no longer the case, unfortunately. That doesn't mean traditional poetry has to be sacrified on the altar of modernity, though. 

Today's Japanese are still very much in the Tang mood, challenging the Tang descendants with their Kanshi in a friendly way. I personally felt compelled to answer their poetic call, which I did, even though I am just 50% Chinese. I take comfort in believing that the Great Tang, like ancient Athens and Rome, has transcended all man-made barriers. It should, anyway.

By the way, can we imagine a Tang devoid of poetry? We may not be living in the Great Tang, but we have the obligation, I would argue, to keep the Great Tang dream alive by paying tribute to traditional Chinese poetry.

To those who think that it is a fool's errand writing traditional Chinese poetry, I have this to say: Tang poetry has inspired modernism in American literature. I might talk more about it in the future. Stay tuned.

To be fair, I expect myself to practice what I preach. So, let me have a poem of mine inscribed on a kite. My fiancee and I will fly it, taking advantage of the easterly winds with which spring rhymes. Please consider it as our airmail for you. 

Yours truly, always,

Lingyang Jiang

格律詩

希臘史詩、波斯雅韻、以至十四行詩都是格律詩。中國出現格律詩，比希臘還要晚許許多多。我們不必以此薄彼，以彼薄此。不過，單音字漢語的確獨一無二，別有其抑揚頓挫的音節魅力。（瞿秋白不同意現代漢語是單音語，但是他的例證如“桌子”等實難以偏蓋全。) 

格律詩不輕易向譯手就範。同樣地，格律詩也不輕易向白話化寫手就範。還有的是、中外格律詩都要求讀者有一定程度的古典修養。至於在欣賞唐詩方面，我們也不難發現、自己國學根基越深厚就越能跟唐人的氣息相通。這里，國學包括史識。無他，一者，律詩名作多含典故，二者，對了解作品時代背景有助。

舉例吧，我們讀王維，也聽人家讀王維，彼此交流心得時，可能都齊聲讚嘆他“詩中有畫，畫中有詩”啦，很有禪味啦，等等。全不錯。可是，當我們一旦挖得深一些，便不難知道王維曾經在安史之亂中“失節”過，亂後得以全身罷了。(另雲他忍辱負重，伺機匡扶唐室。筆者不認同此類“洗底”之說。）這是他為什麼在所謂“中興”年間卻偏於低調、似隱非隱，其作亦如此深含低回不已的韻味。安史之亂前，王維是頗為意氣風發的。人生的跌宕起伏，在摩詰居士的詩作中反映無遺。我們讀周作人、胡蘭成，大概也有同感吧。

寫格律詩雖雲似若“帶着枷鎖跳舞”，不過也不乏迴轉餘地，不乏發揮空間，事在人為而已；否則何來令今人讚嘆不已的諸多古典範作呢？