試論孫光憲的四首〈楊柳枝〉

Summary of “A Trial Discussion of Sun Kuang-hsien’s (900?-968) Four ‘Yang liu chih’ (Poplar and Willow Branch) Poems”

前人對孫光憲〈楊柳枝〉四詞，評論優劣，頗不齊一。然皆認識不周所致。本文分析其時〈楊柳枝〉之習慣寫法，掌握其擬人興感要點，以第三詞為鑰，試啟假設之門；復考究孫氏生平，探索其內心世界，以與四詞比照，自其表象，深入肌理，更輔以其他作品如〈浣溪沙〉，為之襯托，終於突顯四詞為連章之作，實係孫氏個人身世心情之托詠，其所擬者，乃孫氏本人，與舊作慣擬美人名士者迥不相同，此點係本文之創發，前人皆未見及。孫氏詞作，言情之外，更及詠史、弔古、寫景、詠物、邊塞、人物各方面，其範圍之廣，實冠《花間》諸家。復能在立意上推陳出新、化腐為奇，四詞之外，他作多有之，學者宜深索細品也。

The assessments of former scholars toward the quality of Sun Kuang-hsien's four tz'u poems, “Yang liu chih, “have been rather varied, Yet this is all the result of their differences in recognition. This essay analyzes the practiced writing technique employed during the writing of the “Yang liu chih” poems, and takes hold of the essential points by which they use imagery to convey human sentiments. Taking the third poem as its key, it attempts to open the door to further conjecture. It next makes an examination into Sun's life, searching into the interior realm of his mind, so as to provide a point for reflecting upon the four poems, and to try move beyond their surface images and penetrate into the depths at their internal order. It further brings in some of his other works, such as “Huan hsi sha,” so as to provide a bit of contrast through which the four poems are ultimately brought into sharp relief and revealed to constitute a work in the form of connected sections (lien-chang). They in fact turn out to be a poetic expression of the life and sentiments of the author, what they personify is none other than Sun himself. In this they are completely different from his previous works, in which he was accustomed to personifying beautiful women and famous men. This last point is the original finding of this essay, no previous scholars have taken notice of it. Aside from those among Sun's tz'u poems that give expression to sentiments, there are also many which touch upon such diverse areas as odes upon historical events, eulogies of antiquity, depictions of scenery, odes upon objects, border posts, and human characters. In terms of his breadth of scope, Sun truly ranks at the top of all the Hua-chien poets. He was further able to set forth ideas by making new use of what is old and transforming the hackneyed into the marvelous, this is the case not only with the four poems, but with many of his other works as well. Students of poetry should examine them in depth and evaluate them carefully.