Are you looking for romantic figures from the Wei and Jin Dynasties or ordinary literati?
If it reflects the mainstream of Wei and Jin literary circles, there should be "Three Cao and Seven Sons" and "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Forest"
About "Three Cao and Seven Sons": Three Cao refers to Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Cao Zhi, father and son.
Cao Cao was both a military theorist and a writer. He regarded literature as a prime minister, loved literature, and recruited scribes, laying the foundation for the prosperity of Jian'an literature. It was under his support and advocacy that the Ye Zhong literati group emerged, namely the "Seven Sons of Ye Zhong". His own literary creation was also very outstanding. He initiated the trend of studying Han Yuefu and using old Yuefu inscriptions to write about current affairs. He has an innovative spirit and a clear and elegant writing style. Zhong Rong said in his "Preface to Poems": "It is ancient and sad, and its charm is majestic." It is mentioned in Cao Zhi's "Ancestral Letters with Yang De": "In the past, Zhongxuan was alone in Hannan, Kong Zhang's eagle was soaring in Heshuo, his great talents were famous in Qingtu, Gonggan was flourishing in the corner of the sea, and Delian was prosperous in the Wei Dynasty. At this time, everyone claimed to be holding the pearl of the spiritual snake, and every family claimed to be holding the jade of Jingshan. So my king set up a sky net to cover it. This is the country." Cao Zhi's words are not exaggerated at all. Among the "Seven Sons of Jian'an", Liu Zhen, Ruan Yu, Ying Yu, Chen Lin, Xu Qian, and Wang Can all joined Cao Cao during the Jian'an period. Others, such as the female poet Cai Yan, the calligrapher Liang Hu, the musicians Du Kui and Li Jian, the scholars Handan Chun and Zhong Changtong, and the poet Fan Qin, were also used by Cao Cao. Cao Cao gathered all the talented people from all over the world and provided them with the opportunity to display their literary talents. With full enthusiasm, these literati created many excellent works, and together with Cao and his son, they created the prosperity of "Jian'an Literature".
Cao Pi, the Emperor Wen of Wei, was also very powerful in poetry creation. His "Yan Ge Xing" is the first mature seven-character poem existing in our country, which had a significant impact on the development of song-style poetry in future generations. influence. Shen Deqian, a native of the Qing Dynasty, said: "Zi Huan's poems are full of literary spirit. The change is the tragic habit of his father. He wants it to be graceful and graceful, and to be able to empathize with people's feelings." Cao Pi's new changes are mainly reflected in two aspects: First, the expression of personal emotions . Cao Cao was a hero in troubled times, and most of the emotions he expressed were related to his sense of historical destiny and his ambition to stabilize the world, but Cao Pi worked harder to express his personal emotions. He is sensitive and passionate. At a banquet where all the guests are sitting together, he will suddenly realize that "the joy is extremely sad, and the light is so light that it destroys the heart" ("Shanzai Xing"); He will feel sad because "it is often too late to enjoy happiness" ("Wormwalking on the Wall"); similarly, the natural scenery of warm sun, blooming flowers and gurgling valley water brings him "the moon waxes when it is full, and the flowers are not blooming". "It will become more complicated" ("Fan Xia Blocks the Sun"). His famous work "Miscellaneous Poems" adopts the theme of "Nineteen Ancient Poems". However, his experience of "throwing it away should not be repeated, as a guest is often afraid of others" even surpassed the personal pain of a wanderer in the late Han Dynasty. His experience of the desolate emotions in life is beyond that of other poets of his generation. The second is the use of literati artistic expression techniques and the formation of artistic styles, which are mainly reflected in the craftsmanship of language and the creation of artistic forms. Cao Pi was good at choosing clear words and beautiful sentences, paired with harmonious rhymes, to express his delicate emotions. In terms of artistic form, Cao Pi also had the courage to innovate. Although he only has more than forty poems left, they are available in three-character, four-character, five-character, six-character, seven-character, and mixed-character styles. Among them, the long miscellaneous song line "Artemisia Walking on the Wall" is 75 sentences long, with more than 360 characters, ranging from three to nine characters, and is fully capable of opening and closing vertically and horizontally. Wang Fuzhi said: "With long sentences and long stories, Si is the first founder of the mountain. Bao Zhao and Li Bai took the lead in this sect and became the Yuefu Lion."
When Cao Pi stayed in Yecheng, he often gathered with scribes. Banquets and travels, poetry and wine competitions. Cao Pi recalled the grand occasion in "You and Wu Zhi Shu" and said: "In the past, when we were traveling, we would join our friends when we were walking, and when we stopped, we would meet each other. We never lost each other for a moment. Every time we went to the wine table to drink wine, we would play silk and bamboo together, our ears would be warm with wine, and we would look up and compose poems. , At this time, I suddenly didn't know how to be happy. "Cao Pi sang poems and wine with these literati, creating a precedent for literati gatherings, and it already had the nature of a literati group.
As for Cao Zhi, Cao Zhi's poems are indeed as Zhong Rong said in "Poems": "He has extremely high bones, eloquent words, both elegance and resentment, and a body and texture." He is different from Cao Cao. His ancient simplicity and sadness were different from Cao Pi's Bianjuan gracefulness, but he was able to combine the strengths of his father and brother, achieving the perfect combination of character and literary talent, and became the most outstanding representative of the poetry world at that time.
Cao Zhi was the first literati who wrote five-character poems vigorously. He has more than ninety existing poems, of which more than sixty are five-character poems.
His poems not only embody the "sad but not sad" elegance of "The Book of Songs", but also contain the graceful and profound wonder of "The Songs of Chu"; they not only inherit the writing power of Han Dynasty Yuefu to reflect reality, but also retain the "Ten Ancient Poems" "Nine Poems" has a gentle and tragic mood. All these were condensed into the creation of five-character poems through him, forming his own style and completing the transformation of Yuefu folk songs into literati poems. "This is the cause of an era, but it was only completed through Cao Zhi."
Cao Zhi made outstanding contributions to the development of poetry, and later generations gave him high praise. Zhong Rong's "Poetry" said: "Chen Si's article, for example, human relations have Zhou Kong, scales and feathers have dragons and phoenixes, music has piano and sheng, and female workers have fur." ??Xie Lingyun said: "There is only one stone in the world, and Cao Zijian If you have eight fights, I will win one fight, and all the people in the world will get one fight." Zhang Jie's "Suihantang Poetry" said: "Han Tuizhi's poems and the poems of Cao Zijian and Du Zimei are beyond the reach of later generations." Five-character poems had a great influence on the poetry of later generations. As Hu Yinglin pointed out: Zijian's "Xia Dan Pian" and Taichong's "Ode to History" originated from it; "Yuan Yu Pian" was derived from Jing Chun's "You Xian" It comes from it; "There is a Beautiful Woman in the Southern Country" and other chapters are the ancestors of all the works of the Suizong; "The Master Respects and Loves Guests" and other chapters are the ancestors of the Shihengqun system. >
Cao Zhi’s poetry was highly praised by later generations for the following three main reasons: first, because of his rich literary talent; second, because he had a significant influence on the development of five-character poetry; third, his unfortunate life experience aroused the recognition of later generations of literati . As a typical example of frustrated literati, his rough fate has made countless literati deeply sympathize with him. Liu Xie also had this meaning when he said, "Emperor Wen used his position to exalt his talents, while King Si used his power to embarrass them and gain them." Many poets in ancient times claimed to be talented as kings and assistants, but most of them were in decline and became famous for their poetry. Their fate was similar to that of Cao Zhi, so they had a sense of identification with Cao Zhi.
As for the other seven sons, they refer to: Kong Rong, Chen Lin, Wang Can, Xu Qian, Ruan Yu, Ying Jue, and Liu Zhen. These seven people generally represent the outstanding authors in the Jian'an period except Cao and his son, so the theory of "seven sons" has been generally recognized by later generations. They have made contributions to the development of poetry, fu, and prose. I won’t explain them one by one here, but only give some examples with far-reaching influence for analysis:
Wang Can’s poems are deeply emotional, generous and tragic. Xie Lingyun said of him: "He is from Qinchuan, and he is a descendant of your noble son. When he was exiled in a turbulent apartment, he suffered from self-injury." "Self-injury" is Wang Can's emotional characteristic. The noble prince's origin and the experience of being exiled in turbulent apartments made him He is particularly sentimental and excited about things, worried about the world and sad for himself. This was the starting point for him to write poetry. Although his works contain sympathy for the people and a desire to expand his ambitions, they are all developed from the sentimentality of his personal life experience. Therefore, "sentimental words" (Zhong Rong's "Poetry") have become his main characteristics, but they are inevitably "sad but not strong" (Liu Xizai's "Art and Poetry"). Wang Can's poetry has achieved high achievements. Liu Xiexu called it "the crown of the seven sons" ("Wen Xin Diao Dragon·Talent"); Fang Dongshu commented on it as "desolate and sad, talented and vigorous, and Chen Si's thinking" , just one person" (Volume 2 of "Zhao Mei Zhan Yan"). His poems also had great influence on later generations. Zhong Rong's "Shipin" said that famous poets such as Pan Yue, Zhang Xie, Zhang Hua, Liu Kun, and Lu Chen all originated from him. Even Wei Wen Emperor Cao Pi "had quite a Zhongxuan style" ".
Liu Zhen, he has a heroic character and is wild and uninhibited. His poems are just like the person he is. Liu Xie said: "The public spirit is strong, so the words are strong and the emotion is terrifying." Zhong Rong said of him: "The spirit is strong and the love is strange, and the movement is very exciting. The chaste bones are frosty, and the high morals transcend customs." ( "Poetry" (Part 1). Liu Zhen's poems are pure in their momentum. Whether they are expressing emotions or chanting objects, whether they are describing landscapes or birds, they all show his unparalleled and vigorous spirit. Yuan Haowen said in "On Poetry Quatrains": " Cao Liu sits like a roaring tiger and generates wind, and there is no one in the world. "I admire his heroic spirit.
In the late Cao Wei Dynasty, due to the unstable political situation, literati turned to powerful people in power. Of course, there were also Ruan Ji and Ji Kang who were not afraid of power. Ruan Ji originally had the ambition to help the world, but he was dissatisfied with the rule of the Sima family, so he drank heavily and pretended to be open-minded to escape persecution, and finally died in depression. Ji Kang refused to cooperate with Sima and was brutally killed. Ruan Ji's representative work is the 82 "Poems of Praise of Love". These poems were not written at one time or place, but are records of his political sentiments. These poems express feelings, opinions, and ideals, creating a precedent for political lyric poetry in the history of Chinese literature and exerting a significant influence on later generations. Ruan Ji's "Poems of Love" are full of depression and loneliness. His poems may be about the fleeting time and the impermanence of life.
Or write about trees and flowers turning from prosperous to haggard, which is a metaphor for the recurrence of worldly events. Because everything from nature to human affairs is full of suffering, Ruan Ji's depression is difficult to relieve. Facing a dirty society and a short life, Ruan Ji could not find a real way out, so he had to pretend to be broad-minded. In life, he did many shocking things; in poetry, he also designed a spiritual way out for himself, which is Traveling and living in seclusion. Ruan Ji's "Poetry of Ode to Love" contains many chapters about traveling to immortality and living in seclusion, and some of them are a combination of immortality and seclusion. In his poems, he often praised hermits such as Chao You, Yi Qi, Shaoping, Si Hao, etc., while satirizing Su Qin, Li Si and others who committed suicide due to their greed for wealth and salary. Ruan Ji's praising the seclusion of immortals was just a way to relieve his depression. In fact, he had great ambitions to help the world. The "Book of Jin" originally said that he had the ambition to help the world. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were many things in the world and few celebrities were complete. Because he was not involved in worldly affairs, he often drank to his heart's content. So he wrote about his anger and worldly feelings. At the same time, he also showed his concern for the current situation and his own embrace. The style of Ruan Ji's poems is vague and tortuous, "the words are within the ears and eyes, and the feelings are conveyed to the surface of the eight wilderness", "the purpose is far away, and the return interest is hard to find" (Zhong Rong's "Poetry"), which is mainly due to his era and life experience decided. He sympathized with Cao Wei and was dissatisfied with the Sima family. However, as an official in the dynasty, he was often afraid of disaster, so he was extremely cautious in his behavior. When writing poems, I dare not speak directly, and often use metaphors and symbols to express my feelings and express my feelings. Some may use the past to satirize the present, some may use wandering immortals to satirize the secular world, or some may use beautiful herbs to embody the embrace of the world. Li Shan's "Annotations to Selected Works" analyzed this situation and said: "The successor was an official in trouble, and he was often afraid of being slandered and misfortune, so he chanted poems, so he always complained out of worry. Although he intended to ridicule, he avoided it in many articles. , It’s hard to fathom the emotions for hundreds of generations.” But in terms of the spirit of poetry, Ruan Ji’s “Poetry of Ode to Huai” is still in line with the Jian’an style. For example, Yan Yu’s “Canglang Poetry Comments” said: “After Huang Chu, only Ruan Ji's "Yong Huai" is extremely ancient and has the essence of Jian'an style." As for the style of Ji Kang's poems, Liu Xie's "Wenxin Diaolong" rated it as "Ji Zhi Qingjun" ("Poetry of the Ming Dynasty"). ") and said: "Uncle Ye is a handsome man, so he is happy and cheerful." ("Ti Xing") highlights the close relationship between Ji Kang's poetic style and his personality. Jikang's "Book of Severing Diplomacy with Shan Juyuan" claims that "he has a strong heart and is sick of evil, speaks out without hesitation, and gets angry when things happen", and the same is true for his poems. Zhong Rong's "Shipin" commented on his poems as "Junqie", which has the same meaning.