Among the poets in Jian 'an, Cao Pi's banquet poems are numerous and precise, so Jiang Yan's Miscellaneous Poems summarizes Cao Pi's poems with the word "banquet", while Chen Ruoming's Selected Ancient Poems in Caijiantang takes Cao Pi's banquet poems as "Jian 'an Ge Zheng". The History of China Literature, edited by Yuan Xingpei, focuses on Cao Pi's Poems of Banquet: "Mo Shan Shui is more meticulous" and "has a certain position in the history of China's landscape poetry". The description of scenery in Cao Pi's poems is not only exquisite, but also the scenery is designed for feelings, which is born from the scenery and blends with each other. This has greatly surpassed the expression of metaphor or image in the poems of Han Yuefu and literati at the end of Han Dynasty, and reached the height of creating a harmonious artistic conception. A long autumn night of miscellaneous poems is full of feelings about the scenery and homesickness for the wanderers of their loved ones, which are completely integrated into this song "The autumn night is long and the north wind is fierce" and ". Ge Yanxing's bleak autumn wind is even more "a school of wonders" (Hu Yinglin's Poetry, Volume III), while Wang Zhongling's History of China's Medieval Poetry praised this poem as "the theme of thinking about women has never been so sad and harmonious, so this poem has made achievements beyond the previous generation. "
Most of Cao Pi's poems are graceful and slender, sentimental, "melancholy and sad, thinking of hometown." Both (Miscellaneous Poems) and "Sorrow and Self-pity" (Mulberry on the Stranger) are shallow and low-key, delicate and dense, so Zhong Xing's Ancient Poetry Return Volume 7 is called Ya Fu Xi Xiu, and Shen Deqian's Ancient Poetry Source Volume 5 is also called Convenient and Graceful. Moreover, Cao Pi's poems are more subtle and euphemistic by using the method of setting images to see righteousness and expressing feelings with scenes. For example, the first three sentences of Ge Yanxing's bleak autumn wind are sad and shocking. This sentence "bleak autumn wind" and "falling wood and frost" set up a typical environment and a lyrical atmosphere for the following pregnant people; The "flying geese in the south" know their return by migratory birds, which reflects the resentment of the wanderers who don't return. The three sentences in "I miss you" are written from the opposite side, which is about my husband's homesickness. Although he doesn't talk about himself, he has made his mind clear, killing two birds with one stone and bringing out the best in each other. The five sentences in "Cheap Concubine" express one's feelings directly, write empty rooms and cry, but forget about it, short songs and long-lasting feelings, and depression is hard to express. It's really heartbreaking and sad. The last four sentences use "the bright moon shines on the bed" to say that the full moon is more bitter without people and more painful to leave. It is impossible to stay up all night with "it's still early", and expressing my sadness is another kind of hate. It is really "can turn and hide", which is its advantage. When you turn it, it becomes the same, and when you hide it, it will never end. ""Yan is inferior, and the midgut is cut? When the voice wants to stop, the feelings naturally flow, and when the emotions are looking for each other, they say nothing. Later generations can't imitate this style, often mixed with thick and straight words, which is also a decadent state. " (Chen Ruoming's Selected Ancient Poems of Caijitang, Volume 5) So delicate and touching, implicit and euphemistic, with endless charm, profound psychological description and emotional expression, among Jian 'an poets, only Cao Zhisheng is unattainable.
As far as poetic style is concerned, Cao Pi is the most complete poet in Jian 'an, including three, four, five, six, seven words, miscellaneous words, Yuefu and apprentice poems. Followed by Cao Zhi, but Cao Zhi has no seven words. Cao Pi's four-character poems are 10, less than Cao Zhi's and more than Cao Cao's, and they are "graceful" (Volume 5 of Selected Ancient Poems by Cai Jitang by Chen Ruoming), which has made considerable contributions to the revival of four-character poems. Cao Pi has 23 five-character poems, accounting for 53% of his poems, second only to Cao Zhi, which are "profound, unique and superior to poetry" (ibid.), which also contributed to the development and maturity of five-character poems. There are no six-character metrical poems in Han Yuefu, only three by Kong Rong and four by Cao Pi, which still have a certain pioneering significance and have a far-reaching influence on later six-character metrical poems, including Wang Anshi's six-character Mid-Levels and Ma Zhiyuan's Tianjingsha. Cao Pi's two poems Ge Yanxing are the first of China's seven-character poems, so Xiao Zixian said, "Wei Wen's beautiful seal is a seven-character poem. Who will come first? " (Biography of Books and Documents in Nanqi). Cao Pi's long article "Artemisia Sativa" has 75 sentences and 364 words, and the sentence pattern is also free and flexible. Therefore, Wang Fuzhi's "Jiang Zhai Shi Hua" said that "a long sentence is the ancestor of the mountain. Bao Zhao and Li Bailing, this style, became the lion elephant of Yuefu. " Among Jian 'an poets, Cao Pi is the most rich in artistic form exploration and innovation.
(B) Fu prose
Cao Pi wrote a lot of fu, and now there are nearly 30 pieces that can be seen, although most of them may not be complete. Bian Lan's Ode to the Prince wrote: "I overheard Dianlun and Ode to the Prince, and every sentence was terrible. I meditated all over my mind, and I forgot my taste after listening to it, and I was tireless in reading it." In contrast, Cao Pi's poems were obviously not so highly praised at that time.
Fu style in Jian 'an period is in the alternation of old and new, and it is developing towards poetic direction. As one of the representative figures of Jian 'an literature, Cao Pi innovated the Fu style from his poems, especially the New Poem about Things. For example, in the famous Liu Fu, Xiao Xuyun said, "During the five years of Jian 'an, I fought against Yuan Shao in Guandu, and it was only after I left. So far, five years, the left and right servants have all died. It hurts, but it's a blessing. "The first half of Fu wrote willow trees, and then wrote:" In the second seven years, I planted willow trees in the atrium. At first, it was several inches high, but now it is 90% arched. The sun and the moon have passed, and suddenly you want to sign. Yesterday, I traveled here, but now I suddenly took shape. I feel nostalgic for the relics, I am depressed and I am injured. " There is a deep and strong sense of passing between the lines. The word "emotional injury" in the preface deserves attention. Of course, as the aesthetic object of Cao Pi, it is a concrete natural thing-willow, but it is not an isolated and self-sufficient thing, but a perceptual thing with a human reference system, where chanting and lyricism are integrated. This writing seems unremarkable today, but it was a new exploration and creation at that time. Besides Liu Fu, Cao Pi's Fu Ying and Feeling Fu also belong to this kind of feeling and lyricism.
The rise and prosperity of landscape painting is also related to Cao Pi's advocacy. In this respect, Cao Pi has many works, such as Poems on the Sea, Poems on Expropriation, Poems on Floating Huai River, Poems on Facing Vortex, Poems on Jichuan River, etc., among which the brushwork on scenery is particularly excellent and refreshing. In addition to singing about things and writing scenery, Cao Pi also wrote many direct lyric poems, which are also full of the spirit of innovation and exploration. Here can be divided into two situations: one is to express one's feelings about real life, such as feelings of separation, longing for eternity, mourning for death, mourning for oneself, and explaining English Fu. The other uses the first-person narrator to express feelings for others, especially women, such as "Fu from the House" and "Fu from the Woman". These poems are very human, emotional and touching.
Generally speaking, Cao Pi's Fu broke through the traditional framework of Han Fu, greatly strengthened the lyricism of Fu, greatly expanded the theme of Fu, and made great contributions to the existence and development of Fu.
Third, Cao Pi's literary theory
As the first literary critic in the history of literary theory criticism in China, Cao Pi's literary theory criticism thought has a very important historical significance and academic status, which has had a great impact on the development of literature and literary theory criticism. Cao Pi's literary theory criticism is scattered in his letters and papers, and the most concentrated expression of his literary theory viewpoint is Dian Lun Papers, which is the beginning of a special paper in the history of China's literary criticism, with 20 articles, and now only one is left. "Thesis" mainly expounds the comments and writing problems of the article. The "articles" mentioned here include not only pure literary works such as poems and fu, but also well-conceived reasoning and applied prose. In this article, Cao Pi raised several important literary theoretical issues, namely, the value of literature, the temperament of writers and the style of works, stylistic issues, and the attitude of literary critics, and expressed his own unique views on these issues. "Gavin, the great cause of the country, an immortal event." It is his theory that makes people have a new understanding of the position, function and characteristics of literature in Jian 'an period. He also put forward "poetry should be beautiful" for the first time, and emphasized that literature should have beautiful artistic forms, which marked the development of China ancient literature to Jian 'an period, and entered the conscious era, becoming a turning point in the history of China ancient literature. Under the advocacy of Cao Pi, literature began to gain an independent position and compete with academic works, thus ending the era when literature was a vassal of Confucian classics and playing a positive role in the history of China literature. With this achievement, no one can deny Cao Pi's position in the history of China literature.
As the political leader of Wei Dynasty, Cao Pi created a relatively relaxed environment for the development of Jian 'an literature. His own literary content, form innovation, literary theory exploration and good personal relationship with literati groups such as "Seven Scholars of Jian 'an" all played a very important role in Jian 'an literature. Now some scholars believe that Cao Pi is the real leader of Jian 'an literature. Compared with his father, Cao Cao, who is busy with politics, and his brother, Cao Zhi, who is limited by his political position, Cao Pi has a suitable opportunity-three points in the world, a suitable identity-a political leader, an objective attitude-and literary consciousness, so it is not an exaggeration to say that he played a leading role in most of the development of Jian 'an literature. Cao Pi's literary achievements shine a unique light in the history of China literature.