We should be more careful about the knowledge that makes people feel comfortable, refreshing and carefree. True knowledge will always impact people’s cognitive boundaries, which will make people feel headache, difficult to understand, crude and boring.
These two days, a poem named Du Fu’s "Old Age" was "faked".
This poem appeared on many online platforms, and was named as "the most beautiful and sweetest ancient poetry" and spread widely. Then some experts and netizens stood up and pointed out that this poem had nothing to do with Du Fu.
The content of the poem is like this: "You and I are sitting in the courtyard in our twilight years, listening to the rain in clouds and clouds, and watching the moon in the stars." Flowers bloom and fall in memory of Jiangnan. When you talk, I draw the past. I hope that there will be years to look back and grow old with affection. "
You don’t need special professional knowledge, just rely on an intuition to judge that this poem is too fake. Of course, if you are more professional, you can look at the style and meter. How can this poem have anything to do with meter?
In fact, it is very common for later generations to create and pretend to be ancient people in the history of literature. There are also many contemporary poems. Before that, a poem named Li Shangyin’s "Sending Mother Home" was debunked, which had a greater impact and entered many publications.
Objectively speaking, this phenomenon is difficult to completely avoid. The reasons for the appearance of false poems are complicated, which may be intentional falsification, unintentional misinformation, or mistakes in editing and publishing. Therefore, the examination of the authenticity of works is a theme that will almost always exist in literary research, and even there will never be an answer. Whether "Seven Steps Poetry" was written by Cao Zhi and whether "Recalling Qin E" was written by Li Bai is still being discussed.
However, the appearance of this pseudo-poem "twilight" still has some epoch-making significance. In the past, the works in front of the name should at least be more "like", similar in style and appearance, so as to have the effect of confusing fish with pearls. But "twilight" is nothing like it, it is a world of difference, but it is still used to swindle around. It can only be said that some people still have some barriers to ancient poetry, and some so-called national studies and marketing numbers are really worrying.
If you carefully touch the poem "twilight", you will find that although it is fake, it is still very comfortable because of its high sugar content. Poems are easy to understand, without uncommon allusions; Emotional expression is very straightforward, and it is very good for the spleen and stomach of contemporary people. This is probably the reason why this poem is widely spread. Although it is not "Du Fu", it is really good to read.
We should be careful about this kind of knowledge with high sugar content when we receive knowledge today. Knowledge dissemination in the context of the Internet often means low threshold and high penetration, and knowledge will not follow strict academic norms and will be presented to us after full verification. Our knowledge acquisition is likely to be completed on the premise of being catered to and pleased.
As a liberal arts student, this kind of pseudo-poetry certainly can’t fool me. But I also like to watch some so-called short videos about science and technology, military affairs, the universe and international politics. Are there any such oolong in these videos like "Old Age"? To tell the truth, I’m afraid I have no ability to tell.
As users of the internet, we should form some defensive psychological expectations: we should be more careful about the knowledge that makes people feel comfortable, cool and carefree. True knowledge will always impact people’s cognitive boundaries, which will make people feel headache, difficult to understand, crude and boring. We don’t have to regard the short-term stimulus that is easily obtained as a kind of knowledge.
Just like real Du Fu’s poems, there is nothing to understand. It’s hard to read "Painting incense burners against pillows, hills covered with powder, hidden in sadness" and "Sleeping in Cangjiang, shocking the old age, and going to work in the morning several times". But great poems and real knowledge have always come from meditation and tempering, and they are not so easy to get.
When we treat knowledge, we should have this awe, treat knowledge acquisition as an expansion or even subversion of the spiritual world, and be prepared to bear a "pain" of being reborn. Those "learning" that make people feel happy may as well be regarded as a kind of entertainment.
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News Special Commentator Yi Zhi