Zhong Rong's Poems of Shanghai Ancient Books

Shi Pin is the first book on poetry after Wen Xin Diao Long. Zhong Rong, a native of Yingchuan, was born when he died, but joined the army as an official. In 5 13, he wrote poems in Nanjing. It is no accident that "Shi Pin" and "Wen Xin Diao Long" will be published one after another at the same time but in different periods. Both of these works have a tendency to oppose formalism in their writing style at that time. Although Shi Pin appeared after Wen Xin Diao Long, it was the first work to comment on poetry, so it was of great significance to the later development of poetry and had a great influence on poetry criticism. Ideas, methods or forms that have greatly inspired and influenced many people.

Poetry is not a comment on all poems. The evaluation scope of Shi Pin is mainly five-character poems. A total of 122 people were evaluated in the book, and these 122 people were divided into three categories, top grade, middle grade and inferior grade. Zhong Rong expressed his views on poetry in Shi Pin: first, poetry should not emphasize Fu unilaterally, but combine Fu with Bi Xing; Secondly, poetry is not hungry, and it can unilaterally emphasize the inner or the outer. We should put the inner and the outer at the same level and pay equal attention to both. In these two aspects, Zhong Rong and Liu Xie actually have almost the same views, but on the one hand, they are slightly different from Bi Xing.

Zhong Rong believes that poetry can't be written with allusions. In his view, using allusions in poetry means not thinking for yourself or copying, because these allusions can be found directly without thinking for yourself. He also focused on criticizing the tendency of plagiarism in poetry writing at the end of Song Dynasty due to the influence of some people. At this point, Liu Xie does not think that poetry should not use allusions like Zhong Rong. He believes that poetry can use allusions, but to use allusions, it is necessary to use them accurately and appropriately.

Zhong Rong opposes four tones and eight diseases. This poetic rhythm of four tones and eight diseases was advocated by Shen Yue and others, but it was resolutely opposed by Zhong Rong. Because the restriction of four tones and eight diseases is too difficult for poetry, even Shen Yue, who put forward four tones and eight diseases, can't fully abide by it, so Zhong Rong severely criticized them.