Resonant Fragments

 By  Chen Wang / Jonathan Stalling
04/01/2025
cwang@fullerton.edu

Abstract

This project transforms the traditional Chinese poetic form of jueju (four-line regulated verse) into a creative writing method in English. While English is not a tonal language, many of its monosyllabic words have clear stress and rhythm patterns that can be roughly compared to the “level” (ping) and “oblique” (ze) tones in classical Chinese. By categorizing these words based on their rhythmic qualities and combining them with templates for parallel structure and rhyme, learners can experiment with composing five- or seven-character jueju in English. This method not only helps develop a stronger awareness of language rhythm, but also encourages deeper engagement with Chinese aesthetic ideas of balance, pattern, and symbolic thinking.

The project introduces an “Intent Seed” system, which invites users to draw inspiration from sensory experiences (such as smell, sound, image, touch), environmental observations (such as plants, weather, landscape), spatial interaction (natural, physical, or virtual environments), and bodily rhythms (like breath and heartbeat). The writing process is guided by the “Seven JUEs”—a poetic method based on seven steps: Awaken (觉), Discern (抉), Sever (绝), Structure (决), Excavate (掘), Emboys (角), and Depart (诀). Each English jueju becomes a way of engaging with both the world and the self. More than a language exercise, this is a practice of cultural perception, poetic rhythm, and embodied expression.

本项目将中国传统的五言绝句转化为一种适用于英文写作的诗歌生成方法。虽然英语不是声调语言，但英文中的许多单音节词有明显的重音和节奏特征，可以类比为古汉语中的“平”和“仄”。通过将这些词进行节奏分类，并结合对仗和押韵的结构模板，学习者可以在英语中尝试创作符合中国格律的五言或七言绝句。这种方法不仅有助于提升语言节奏的感知力，也能引导学习者更深入地理解中国文化中关于节奏、平衡与象征的审美思维。 

项目设计了“意图种子”系统，引导用户从感官体验（如气味、声音、图像、触感等）、自然观察（如植物、天气、地形），环境互动（自然界、物理空间、虚拟场域）以及身体节奏（如呼吸和心跳）中提取写作灵感。随后，通过“七诀法”——觉（感知）、抉（选择）、绝（凝练）、决（表达）、掘（延伸）、角（对比）、诀（收束）——一步步构建节奏、意象和结构，使每一首英文绝句都成为一次与世界与自我对话的过程。这不只是语言训练，更是一种结合感知、文化与自我表达的写作体验。

Research Questions

How can the tonal and rhythmic logics of Chinese jueju be adapted for English composition?

Is it possible to construct a rhythm-based classification of English monosyllables comparable to the ping/ze system?

How can multisensory input be used to generate poetic structure and meaning?

研究问题（Research Questions）

如何将古典绝句的节奏、对仗与美学结构转译为英语诗歌写作方法？

英语语言是否存在与“平仄”对应的节奏分类体系？

如何通过多感官输入机制与数字媒介引导诗意生成？

Theoretical Framework

Classical Chinese poetics: tonal balance, parallelism, image-leap logic

Prosodic linguistics: English stress-based rhythm, poetic cadence

Digital poetics: embodied composition, poetic interface, counter-algorithmic methods

理论框架（Theoretical Framework）

中国诗学：平仄系统、意象跳跃、天人合一

语言节奏理论：prosodic contour, stress rhythm in English

数字写作与感知实践（embodied poetics, counter-algorithmic logic）

Language is not a line for transmitting meaning, but a dimensional structure for generating perception. The Semantic Cubes below are visual metaphors for the modular nature of linguistic construction and semantic multiplicity. By treating each cube as a semantic cube, we approach language not as a flat line but as a dimensional object.

Each cube represents:

1: Structural ontology of language – Language as analyzable, recombinable units.

2: Polysemantic potential – A single sound or symbol may carry multiple meanings.

3: Nonlinear generation logic – Language unfolds through ambiguity, suggestion, and perceptual shifts, not just sequence.

Methodology & System Design

1: Intent Seed input: sensory, emotional, cognitive prompts

2: The Seven JUEs: Sense, Select, Distill, Express, Expand, Contrast, Resolve

3: Poetic Assembly: ping/ze grid, monosyllabic wordbank, rhyme-matching, line structure

方法论与系统设计（Methodology & System Design）

1: “意图种子”输入：从感官、情绪、哲思出发

2: “七诀法”生成流程：觉（感知）、抉（选择）、绝（凝练）、决（定格）、掘（拓展）、角（代入）、诀（收束）

3: 平仄韵律模版：英语单音节词节奏分类（类平 / 类仄）+ 对仗结构 + 押韵网格

Intent Seed Input System ｜ 诗性输入机制：意图种子

A minimal, sensory or emotional prompt that activates perception. Unlike prompts in conventional writing systems, the Seed is not a theme or instruction but a "semantic gravity point"—a poetic impulse embedded in breath, sound, gesture, or environmental input.

Once a Seed is activated, the system draws on:

：）Seven JUEs framework (Awaken → Depart)

：）Ping-Ze (平仄）rhythm templates (based on vowel duration, voiced/unvoiced consonants)

：）Classical poetic structures: 起承转合 (qi-cheng-zhuan-he), 对仗 (duizhang), metaphor chains

：）Cultural logic: 意在言外 (meaning beyond words), 天人合一 (harmony of nature and self)

The result is a micro-narrative poem that resists linear explanation and foregrounds resonance, ambiguity, and presence.

Methodology: The Seven JUEs ｜ 方法论：七诀法

The “Seven JUEs” derive from the polyphonic nature of the syllable jue in Chinese. Each stage represents a perceptual, cognitive, and poetic phase in the process of composition.

“七诀法”由“绝”字的一音多义衍生而来，是一种基于感知、认知与节奏的生成模型。每个“诀”对应写诗中的一个阶段，也是一种思维方式。

JUE as a Polysemantic Sound-Concept Structure

This model deliberately draws upon the polyphonic nature of the syllable “JUE” in Mandarin Chinese, where a single sound carries multiple meanings, each corresponding to a cognitive, emotional, and aesthetic phase in the poetic process. Each stage of the Seven JUEs thus enacts a layer of aesthetic reasoning, perceptual refinement, and cultural logic—a poetic method embedded within the soundscape of the language itself.

JUE（绝）在中文中具有一音多义的特点，其发音一致却对应多个汉字（觉、抉、绝、决、掘、角、诀），每个字不仅是行为动作的表征，更承载着不同的诗学哲思与感知方式。这一结构体现了一种语言—哲学—认知的共振机制：声音不仅是语义传递的媒介，更是认知转化与情感激活的触发器。

This interface invites users to compose English jueju through interaction with their surroundings, environmental conditions, and inner states such as breath, emotion, and attention. Rather than functioning merely as a visual overlay, the Augmented Reality (AR) layer becomes a poetic field of perception—a responsive space that activates the Intent Seed through gesture, movement, location, and multisensory cues.

AR transforms poetic practice into an embodied, spatial, and situated experience. It allows the Intent Seed + Rhythm + Cultural Logic framework to unfold in context—within the rhythms of the body, the texture of the landscape, and the temporal atmosphere—rather than as a detached digital process. The poem becomes a living interaction between person, place, and pattern.

该界面邀请使用者通过与周围环境、实时数据以及自身内在状态（如呼吸、情绪、注意力）的互动，创作英文绝句。增强现实（AR）在此不仅作为视觉呈现的媒介，更构建出一个**“诗性感知场”**：它通过手势、位置、感官触发等方式唤醒“意图种子”，使写作从经验出发，而非从屏幕开始。

AR 让诗的生成过程具备了身体性、空间性与情境性。它使“意图种子 + 节奏结构 + 文化逻辑”的框架不再局限于界面操作，而是活在具体的时间、环境与感知之中。一首诗不再只是语言的产物，而成为人与场域之间持续生成的关系。

Case Studies

Show generated English jueju poems, seed input examples, sensory writing pathways

Work in progress...

Jueju:

Mist curls     stone blinks           dusk leans low  

Wind slips    through bone     where rivers flow  

Fingers        pause                 before the hush  

What            left me                           didn’t go

Example of Intent Seeds:

"What does the wind forget when it passes you by?"

Structure:

起 Qi: Atmospheric setting (mist, stone, dusk)

承 Cheng: Movement and diffusion (wind, bone, river)

转 Zhuan: Human body appears (fingers, hush)

合 He: Philosophical turn (absence vs presence)

（Ping = ○，Ze = ●）

Line 1:

Mist (●) – ends in /t/ (unvoiced) → Ze

Curls (○) – ends in /z/ (voiced) → Ping

Stone (○) – ends in /n/ (voiced) → Ping

Blinks (●) – ends in /s/ (unvoiced) → Ze

Dusk (●) – ends in /k/ (unvoiced) → Ze

Low (○) – ends in /w/ (vowel) → Ping

Pattern: ● ○ ○ ● ● ○

Tonal rhythm: Ze-Ping alternation + final resolution in Ping. A strong beginning line.

Line 2:

Wind (○) – ends in /d/ (voiced) → Ping

Slips (●) – ends in /s/ (unvoiced) → Ze

Bone (○) – ends in /n/ (voiced) → Ping

Where (○) – ends in vowel /ɛə/ → Ping

Rivers (○) – ends in /z/ (voiced) → Ping

Flow (○) – ends in vowel /oʊ/ → Ping

Pattern: ○ ● ○ ○ ○ ○

Tonal rhythm: more Ping-dominant, matching cheng 承 line's emotional extension.

Line 3:

Fingers (○) – ends in /z/ → Ping

Pause (○) – ends in /z/ → Ping

Before (○) – ends in vowel → Ping

Hush (●) – ends in /ʃ/ (unvoiced) → Ze

Pattern: ○ ○ ○ ●

Tonal rhythm: a moment of stillness, then clipped closure.

Line 4:

What (●) – ends in /t/ → Ze

Left (●) – ends in /t/ → Ze

Me (○) – ends in vowel → Ping

Didn’t (●) – ends in /t/ → Ze

Go (○) – ends in vowel → Ping

Pattern: ● ● ○ ● ○

Tonal rhythm: irregular but expressive, captures semantic instability.

Example 2

Example of Intent Seeds: "What would your breath write, if it could leave ink?"

Jueju:

Glass chills       ink slips         mouth forms shade  

Soft pulse      names light     but won't stay made  

Pages fold           before                            a word  

Your breath           already                        prayed

Structure:

Qi: Writing material (glass, ink, mouth)

Cheng: Breath names transient light

Zhuan: Poem preempted

He: Final line as inner ritual

Example 3

Intent Seed: "You forgot a sound. It didn't forget you."

Jueju:

Wall leans       bell breaks       fog climbs in slow  

A name             once said         still tries to grow  

Steps                   echo              through no reply  

The sound                 already                   knows

Structure:

Qi: Architectural + acoustic entry

Cheng: Linguistic residue

Zhuan: Abandoned interaction

He: Voice as independent agent

Semantic categories with words

Discussion

1: Pedagogical potential of intuition and rhythm-based composition： Explores how poetry writing grounded in rhythm, intuition, and sensory cues can foster creative thinking, language fluency, and cultural awareness in diverse learning environments.

2: Language as a vessel of thought: structure and aesthetic resonance： Investigates how different language systems—Chinese and English—carry not only words but modes of thought, and how poetic structure becomes a space of resonance between contrasting aesthetic logics.

3: Cultural encoding and algorithmic resistance in poetic form： Analyzes how classical poetic forms embed cultural memory and symbolic systems, offering an alternative to algorithmically optimized, linear language generation. Poetic composition becomes a form of cultural resistance, reintroducing ambiguity, rhythm, and intention into digital writing.

讨论与反思

1: 直觉与节奏驱动的创作方式的教学潜力：探讨以节奏、直觉与感官触发为核心的创作方式，如何在自然语言教学与跨文化创作中激发创造力、提升语感，并深化学习者对文化语境的体认。

2: 语言作为思维的容器 – 结构迁移与美学共振： 探讨语言如何不仅承载语义，更承载思维方式；在中英语言结构对比中，诗歌结构成为两种美学逻辑之间生成共鸣的文化接口。

3: 诗体中的文化编码与对算法逻辑的抵抗： 分析古典诗体如何通过格律与象征性语义系统，嵌入文化记忆，为当下以效率与预测为导向的算法写作提供一种“反生成”的可能性。写诗不仅是语言实践，更是一种文化层面的节奏回归与意义重建。

Conclusion & Future Work

1: Toward a digital platform for embodied poetic generation

2: Applications in creative writing pedagogy, language learning, artistic expression and cultural translation

结论与展望（Conclusion & Future Work）

1: 从“写诗”走向多模态“感知式具身创作系统”

2: 建立数字交互平台 / 教学工具包 / 跨语种生成引擎/数字灵性表达

By  Chen Wang / Jonathan Stalling

“In a world of automated clarity, jueju teaches us to live in poetic ambiguity—to write as we breathe, to feel meaning before we explain it, and to let rhythm and absence carry thought where logic cannot.”