Then, Song Qi of the Song Dynasty further pointed out in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty: "Fu is good at telling current events, and his method is profound, so he mourns many words, which is called' the history of poetry'". The name of "history of poetry" here is probably because Du Fu entered poetry with current events.
From a macro point of view, it is indeed the "historical" side of Du Fu's poems to put the facts into his poems and face the social reality directly.
This is particularly evident in his new topic Yuefu and Ancient Poetry.
Du Fu's new Yuefu developed the fine tradition of "feeling sad and happy, starting from things" in the Han Dynasty, and established a new Yuefu "named after things, with nothing to rely on". Why is it called "New Yuefu" or "New Yuefu"? This is because, in ancient Yuefu, the topic stipulated the writing content. Du Fu, on the other hand, is an independent new subject and writes new content. This practice was inherited by Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi, and the "New Yuefu Movement" began. Remember the Yuefu poem written by Li Bai mentioned earlier? Most of Li Bai's Yuefu poems are lyrical, and Yuefu's poetic style is narrative. It can be said that these two have their own innovations in ancient Yuefu. Speaking back to Du Fu's Yuefu poems, he followed the topic selection intention of the ancient Yuefu in the Han and Wei Dynasties, and wrote current events by "doing", but he created new topics by himself, such as "car shop". (There is no such topic in Yuefu)
This poem was written during Du Fu's exile in Chang 'an (mentioned above), satirizing the disaster brought to the people by the belligerence of the border war launched by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. The title of the poem is not an old Yuefu title such as "military vehicle shop", but a self-created title, which directly criticizes current politics. In writing, at first, it was a chronicle describing tragic farewell. Since "we remember that others were sent to the north to guard the river at the age of fifteen", he complained in a husband's tone. As a narrator, the poet stood on the side of the people's suffering: thousands of villages were deserted because of the war; Because of war, the land has not been cultivated for a long time; Because of the war, people do not know how to pay taxes; Because of the war, people in agricultural society are afraid to have boys (men represent the labor force).
In this poem, I said in the tone of a recruiter: "I dare not say hate", but I read every word without resentment. The same is true of Two Roads, which satirizes the younger brother Yang and younger sister. The poet seems to be just a correspondent-truthfully recording what he saw: the beauty, gorgeous clothes and exquisite diet, and the momentum of his brother. There is no irony, but the description is attacked by language; There is no emotion, but there is a sigh between sentences.
Another example is "Chanting 500 words from Beijing to Fengxian" (this is an ancient poem), hereinafter referred to as "500 words".
Writing background of "Five Hundred Words": Du Fu got a small officer in charge of weapons in Chang 'an, but settled in Fengxian, a small county town in Weinan, which is 240 li away from Chang 'an (about 120 km). As a "long drift", Du Fu has no financial resources to settle down in the workplace.
From Chang 'an to Fengxian, he saw all kinds of unreasonable phenomena. Even if he is miserable enough, this poem is still intertwined with loyalty to the monarch's thoughts and concern for the people's sufferings. This kind of concern for the country and the people seems to be innate, so he said in his poem that he is "sunflower depends on the sun, and its physical properties are hard to take away" and wrote the immortal famous sentence "The wine and meat in Zhumen stink, and the bones on the road freeze to death".
In fact, Chedian, Two Ways and Five Hundred Words were all written before the Anshi Rebellion. Living in a prosperous time, Du Fu, a sensitive poet, has smelled all kinds of crises and seems to be coming in a sudden collapse.
Then "Sad Chen Tao" and "Sad Qing Ban" wrote two confrontations with the rebels, and Tang Jun suffered heavy losses; "I like to see the official army arrive at the thief's territory in 20 rhymes" and "Trilogy of Receiving Beijing" reflect the victory of the Tang Dynasty; During the war, "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells" tearfully wrote down the sufferings brought by the war to the people-young men, old women who volunteered to cook for soldiers, and Tongguan officials who worked hard to build fortifications; The bride who left her husband on the second day of marriage, the veteran who had been homeless and taken away, listened to his wife's instructions and had to go on the road. These people are just representatives of the suffering people in Qian Qian.
Just like the poem mentioned above, Du Fu is only realistic and does not clearly reveal his comments, but readers can generally feel his intentions. The reasons are: firstly, he can put himself in the people's shoes; Secondly, he himself is a member of this evil man, and his fate is the experience of ordinary people. He just wrote a good poem and truthfully described what he saw and felt.
Microscopically, the realism of Du Fu's poems is not only reflected in his "big book" which truly and profoundly reflects reality, but also fully reflected in his family poems, autobiographical poems and travel poems.
In family poems, most of them describe some life scenes and feelings, such as poor couples, hungry and cold children, missing relatives and friends, such as moonlit night, Qiang village, Shuhuai and so on. These three poems mainly describe the reunion and parting with his wife.
Another example is "Remembering Brothers on a Moonlit Night": "Wanderers listen to drums and geese sing autumn. The dew turns to frost tonight, and the moonlight at home is bright! Brothers are scattered, and no one can ask about life and death. However, if there is something wrong with the letters in peacetime, what can I expect in wartime? " . Another example is "Yi": "Fifty white Weng, the north and the south escape the world. Scattered cloth wrapped in dead bones, running around is not warm. This is a waste of time, and it is a waste of time. Gankun Wan Li, no shelter. When my wife came back to me, I looked back and lamented ... "Poetry is about family chores, which is easy to understand.
These poems are not only Du Fu's family poems about family details and daily life, but also reflect Du Fu's writing style of "small family" and "big family".
Speaking of Du Fu's autobiographical poems, in fact, his poems are all about his tortuous life experiences, and he wrote retrospective novels at every important stage of his life. Such as "Twenty-two Rhymes for Wei Zuocheng and Zhang Zuocheng" and "Zhuang You", which describe personal experiences in detail, are mature and standardized autobiographical poems.
Those poems that describe the past in a recalling tone, such as "Memories of Time Past", also have autobiographical elements. Arranging his poems according to the writing years is Du Fu's chronicle and his personal history. Because of his special position, his personal history is also the history of the times.
In addition to writing about his own experience, he also wrote "Dan Qing presented General Cao Ba", "Seeing Gong Sundaniang's Disciple's Sword Technique" and "On Meeting Li Guinian in the River". These three poems are brought out by three artists' half-life experience: Although the Anshi Rebellion is over, the sequelae are still great. In fact, isn't he tired by the times? Write these three, you are also sending your own block base.
Du Fu's realistic skills are also outstanding in the description of natural landscapes, which is reflected in his poems. In the description of natural landscape, there are times and his own figure, which makes the landscape flowers and trees full of the poet's state of mind of worrying about the country and the people, which is obviously different from ordinary landscape poems, such as "One Night Abroad": "A breeze rippled on the grass bank, passed through the night and blew to my motionless tall mast. The endless plains are dotted with drooping stars. The moon runs with the river. I hope my art can bring me fame and liberate my sick old age from the office! . Flying around, flying around, what am I like, just a sandpiper in the vast world! " .
Du Fu seldom stays in one place for a long time, and his footprints are all shown in his poems. This shows the other side of his era: despite the destruction of the country by war, the scenery of Datang is quite magnificent. For example, "Plain clothes": "I heard the lonely note of the horn coming from the darkness, and the moon was in the sky, but no one shared it with me"; Song on the edge of the Sujiang River: "Between thin clouds and rocks, the solitary moon waves over."
The "history of poetry" is poetry first, and then history. People prefer reading Du Fu's poems to reading history, because these poems are full of emotional images, including the joys and sorrows of ordinary people, and show a broader, more concrete and more touching social picture than history.
Du Fu took poetry as his history, from the time he was 40 when he wrote "Car Shop" to the end of his life when he wrote "Meet Li Guinian and Go Down the River". More than 20 years' writing of the History of Poetry and the ups and downs of the Tang Dynasty before and after the An Shi Rebellion are reflected in many aspects in his works, and Du Fu has become the spokesman of the people. Although his political ideal of "obeying the monarch and then making the customs pure" has no chance to be realized, writing "History of Poetry" has realized his value from another angle.