Who are the four great poets in the history of Chinese poetry?

Shixian

Li Bai (701-762), also known as Taibai, also known as Qinglian Jushi, also known as "Exiled Immortal", was a great romantic poet in the Tang Dynasty. Later generations hailed him as the "Immortal of Poetry", and together with Du Fu, he was called "Li Du". In order to distinguish him from the other two poets Li Shangyin and Du Mu, known as "Little Li Du", Du Fu and Li Bai were also collectively called "Big Li Du". According to the "New Book of Tang" records, Li Bai was the ninth grandson of Emperor Xingsheng (Liang Wuzhao King Li Hao) and the same clan as the kings of Li and Tang Dynasties. He is a cheerful and generous person who loves drinking, writing poetry, and making friends.

Li Bai's achievements in Yuefu, song lines and quatrains are the highest. His song lines completely break all the inherent formats of poetry creation, with nothing to rely on, and various brushwork techniques, reaching a magical realm of unpredictable and swaying at will. Li Bai's quatrains are natural, lively, elegant and unrestrained, and can express endless emotions in concise and clear language. Among the poets of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei and Meng Haoran were good at the Five Jue, and Wang Changling and other Qi Jue wrote very well. Li Bai was the only one who was good at both the Five Jue and the Seven Jue and reached the same extreme level.

Poetry

Du Fu (712-770), also known as Shaoling Yelao, was a great realist poet in the Tang Dynasty. Together with Li Bai, he was known as "Li Du". ", and he himself is called the "Sage of Poetry". Originally from Xiangyang, Hubei Province, he later moved to Gongxian County, Henan Province.

In Du Fu's middle age, because of his melancholy poetic style and concern for the country and the people, Du Fu's poems were called "the history of poetry". His poems are good at ancient style and rhythmic poetry, with various styles. The four words "depressed and frustrated" accurately summarize the style of his own works, and the main style is melancholy. Du Fu lived during the historical period when the Tang Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline. His poems mostly dealt with social unrest, political darkness, and people's suffering. His poems reflected the social contradictions and people's suffering at that time. His poems recorded the transition from prosperity to decline in the Tang Dynasty. The great changes in history express the lofty Confucian spirit of benevolence and a strong sense of urgency, so it is known as the "history of poetry".

Shi Mo

Bai Juyi (772-846), whose courtesy name was Letian, also known as Xiangshan Jushi, and Mr. Zuiyin, was originally from Taiyuan, Shanxi, and moved to Xiagui when his great-grandfather was here. Born in Xinzheng, Henan. He was a great realist poet in the Tang Dynasty and one of the three major poets in the Tang Dynasty. Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen jointly advocated the New Yuefu Movement, known as "Yuan Bai" in the world, and "Liu Bai" together with Liu Yuxi.

Bai Juyi's poetry has a wide range of themes, diverse forms, and simple and popular language. He is known as the "Poetry Demon" and the "Poetry King". He became a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and a doctor of Zuo Zanshan. In 846 AD, Bai Juyi died in Luoyang and was buried in Xiangshan. There is "Bai's Changqing Collection" handed down from generation to generation, and his representative poems include "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", "The Charcoal Seller", "Pipa Play" and so on.

The God of Poetry

Su Shi (January 8, 1037 - August 24, 1101), also named Zizhan, also named Hezhong, also known as Tieguan Taoist and Dongpo layman , known as Su Dongpo and Su Xian in the world, was born in Meishan, Meizhou (now part of Meishan City, Sichuan Province). His ancestral home was Luancheng, Hebei Province. He was a famous writer, calligrapher and painter in the Northern Song Dynasty. Later generations respectfully called him the "God of Poetry".

Su Shi’s views on society and thoughts on life are unabashedly expressed in his literary works, among which poetry is the most vivid and vivid. Among more than 2,700 Su poems, the themes of intervening in social reality and thinking about life are very prominent. Su Shi had an attitude of being "out of touch with the times" towards various unreasonable phenomena in social reality, and always regarded criticizing reality as an important theme of poetry. What's even more valuable is that Su Shi's criticism of society was not limited to the New Deal, nor was it limited to the present. He criticized the long-standing bad policies and bad habits in feudal society, reflecting a deeper critical consciousness.

Poetic Maniac

He Zhizhang (about 659-about 744) was a poet and calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty. His courtesy name was Jizhen. In his later years, he called himself "Siming Kuangke" and "Secretary and Supervisor". He was a native of Yongxing, Yuezhou (now Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang). When he was young, he was famous for his poetry. In the first year of Zhengsheng (695), Wu Zetian became the number one scholar in Yiwei, and was awarded Doctorate of the Four Gates of Guozi and moved to Doctorate of Taichang. Later, he served successively as Minister of Rites, Secretary and Supervisor, and Guest of the Crown Prince.

As an important poet in the early Tang Dynasty, He Zhizhang's poems played a certain guiding role in the healthy development of Tang poetry. It produced a huge effect of "one flower attracting thousands of flowers to bloom" and made outstanding contributions to the development and prosperity of Tang poetry.

Poetic Buddha

Wang Wei (701-761), courtesy name Mojie, also known as Mojie layman, was a native of Puzhou, Hedong (now Yuncheng, Shanxi). Famous poet and painter of Tang Dynasty. Wang Wei studied Zen and understood philosophy, studied Zhuang Daoism, and was proficient in poetry, calligraphy, painting, music, etc. He was famous among Kaiyuan and Tianbao for his poems, which were especially long in five words and mostly eulogized about landscapes and countryside. Together with Meng Haoran, he was known as "Wang Meng". Known as the "Poetry Buddha".

Su Shi once said: "When you taste Mojie's poems, there are paintings in the poems; when you look at Mojie's paintings, there are poems in the paintings" ("Dongpo Zhilin"). Wang Wei is versatile. He brings the essence of painting into the world of poetry. With spiritual language and brilliant brushwork, he depicts for us a series of expressive works that are either romantic, ethereal, or remote. Wang Wei's achievements in poetry are multifaceted. Whether it is frontier fortresses, landscape poems, rhymed poems or quatrains, there are all excellent poems that have been passed down to the public.

Poetry Ghost

Li He (about 791 AD - about 817 AD), whose courtesy name is Changji, is "the founder of Changji style poetry." Fuchang, Henan Province (today's Tang Dynasty) A native of Yiyang County, Luoyang, Henan, he lived in Changgu, Fuchang, later known as Li Changgu. He was a descendant of the Tang clan and the uncle of Li Yuan, the great ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, Li Liang (King Dazheng). Known as the "Poetry Ghost", he was a romantic poet in the mid-Tang Dynasty. Together with Li Bai and Li Shangyin, he was called the Three Lis of the Tang Dynasty. He was a representative of the transition period of poetic style from the mid-Tang Dynasty to the late Tang Dynasty.