The second part mainly introduces the life of the poet Mei and her poetry creation. Mei's career was bumpy, and she failed the exam many times because she was suppressed by the examiner. She didn't accept the letter of appointment until she was fifty years old and became someone else's employee. I'm brilliant and ambitious, but I can't do it in my career. The author deeply regrets this. These are the people who introduced Mei Sheng and Yu Qi. Then it was written by Mei Qi. Yu Sheng began to practice poetry since he was a child, and his poems surprised his elders. When I grew up, I learned the theory of benevolence and righteousness in the Six Classics. "It's just an article, simple and pure", because I can't cater to it, so I can't get the attention of the world. Therefore, the world only knows Shi Mei, not Mei Wen. Here, the author takes Mei Wen as a foil, which reflects that Shi Mei is valued and loved by the world. At that time, no matter a wise man or a fool, whenever he talked about poetry, he would ask Mei for advice, and Mei was willing to express his frustration with poetry, so he wrote more poems in his life. The world knows Mei Gong's name, but no one wants to recommend it to the emperor. The author deeply regrets this. Wang, then prime minister, once praised "there has been no such thing for 200 years!" It can be seen that he knew Shi Mei very well, but even he didn't recommend Yu Sheng to the emperor. The author laments that Yu Sheng's talent is useless to the world. You can't sing praises for the court, you can't sacrifice to the ancestral temple, you can only write some hymns of "insect fish sorrow". The world only knows that it likes his poems, but it doesn't know that poets will grow old if they are poor for a long time. The author deeply sympathizes with the poet's predicament and the lack of talent, and at the same time expresses sincere feelings about the situation that the world does not cherish talent.
The third part of the article mainly expounds the compilation process of Mei's poems. Mei Yu Sheng wrote many poems, but he didn't cherish or pay attention to the collection. His wife's nephew is worried that these poems will be lost. He collected the poems he wrote after he moved from Luoyang to Xing Wu and compiled them into ten volumes. The author himself has always liked Yu Sheng's poems, so he collected this collection of poems and wrote a preface for it. Fifteen years later, Yu Sheng died in Beijing. The author went to pay respects and asked his family for poems, and got more than 1000 manuscripts. After adding up his previous poems, he selected more than 600 good poems and compiled them into 15 volumes. This is the writing process of Mei's poems. This is an indispensable part of the preface of a poem. As for the achievements and characteristics of Mei's poems, Ouyang Xiu has discussed them many times in Shu Mei's Manuscripts and Liu Yi's Poems. Here, I just want to say one thing: "Yu Sheng's poetics is too detailed, so I won't go into details." It means that there are many characteristics of Mei poetry, so I don't need to go into details, let readers imagine and taste it themselves.
The full text revolves around the viewpoint of "poetry is poor before writing" The first paragraph refutes the view that "poets are rarely poor", so as to establish the argument that "poetry is poor and backward". Mei's two life experiences, experiences and his poems are all illustrated by concrete facts: "Being poor means thinking about change". Although the third paragraph does not explicitly say "poverty and backwardness", it still implies this meaning. It is because of "being poor and old for a long time" that Yu Sheng "died of illness in the capital", and it is also because of Shi Mei's works that the author can "taste Yu Sheng's poems, but he can't put them down" and compiled a collection of poems for him. Ouyang Xiu's viewpoint of "poetry is poor before writing" put forward in this paper is undoubtedly one of his outstanding contributions to the theory of poetry creation in China. This fully embodies the subtlety of the author's conception and the skill of the article structure. When expressing the poet's working hours, the author mainly adopts the way of side contrast, rather than focusing on positive expression. For example, Mei Wen's "simplicity, simplicity and purity" is used to embody * * *, and then people ask him for poems and praise from celebrities to set off his poems. Such flexible and diverse expressions make the article lively and not rigid.
As a preface to a collection of poems. This paper embodies the essential elements of the "preface" style: First, it should explain the basic situation of the book. The third and fourth paragraphs of the article accomplish this task. The second is to introduce the author's thoughts and creations, and to comment on the main features of his works. This is the main content and task of the preface, so the second paragraph of this article uses more pens. Third, there should be a leading idea of preface, which should be closely related to books and their authors, thus forming the soul of the whole preface and even the whole book. The thought of "being poor before working" expounded at the beginning of the article has played the role of this soul. Ouyang Xiu's preface has always been highly respected, mainly because the author put forward the creative idea of "thinking about change when you are poor". Wu Chucai and others said in China's View of Ancient Literature: "The word' poor and backward' is an original statement of Ou Gong and an eternal theory." Ouyang Xiu's theory of "thinking about change if you are poor" comes down in one continuous line with Sima Qian's theory of "angry works" and Han Yu's theory of "speaking out if you are not fair", and * * * plays a universal theoretical role in literary creation.
The language of "doing it in anger" originated from Sima Qian's Biographies of Historical Records of Taishigong. He thinks that Zhouyi, Spring and Autumn Annals, Lisao, Mandarin, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Lu Lan and The Book of Songs are "mostly done for the anger of sages", which is a criticism of Qu Yuan. Li Zhi explained this idea concisely in the preface to the water margin loyalty and righteousness: "The sages of the ancient times did not do it without anger." Do not be angry, shivering and moaning, no matter what you think! "Water Margin" is also angry. Pu Songling also called his work Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio a book about loneliness and anger. It can be seen that "work with gas" is the traditional thought of China's literary theory.
The saying that "injustice makes a sound" comes from Han Yu's Preface to Send Meng Dongye: "Everything is unfair and makes a sound ... and so do people's words. Those who talk only when they want to talk, their songs are also thoughtful, and their crying is also pregnant. " Han Yu's "if you can't be fair, you will be heard" is a further development of Sima Qian's "anger" and has a great influence on later generations. Why did he say in Volume 3, Preface to Poems, Notes on Water and Heaven: "Everything is elegant and thinks it is peaceful. If it is in the author's intention, then it is unfair from the beginning! If you make peace, why do you want to be stung and ridiculed? Why do you want to be happy, watch, group and complain? " Wang Guowei's "Words on Earth" also said: "An ancient poem says,' Who can think without singing, and who can starve without eating?' Poets, things can't be dull and sound. So' happy words are hard to work, sad words are easy to be clever'. "Visible," injustice is singing "is also an important thought of China's traditional literary theory.
The first paragraph of Ouyang Xiu's Preface to Mei Poetry mainly expounds the creative thought of "working after poverty" from three aspects: First, he thinks that "poets handed down from ancient times have more words from the poor". "Poverty" here refers to a bumpy career and a hard life. It is true that ups and downs make a poet, and it is difficult to make a poet. The second is to emphasize "the spirit of depression and anger" for poetry. Because of "poverty", I can feel the truth, think deeply and have intense feelings, which is the necessary motivation and source of literary creation. The third is to affirm that "the poorer you are, the harder you work." The workers are nice and beautiful. This reminds people of Mencius' saying: "Heaven will send a great task to Sri Lanka, first suffering its ambition", and "Trap its heart, calm its worries and then do it". Put the above three levels together, that is, the profundity of "poverty", the intensity of "stagnation" and the intensity of "superior anger", so it can become a good poem of "multi-work". This is in line with the basic principles of epistemology, practice and creationism.
From the key point of view, the theory of "working with anger" emphasizes that creation needs strong passion, while the theory of "speaking with injustice" emphasizes that this passion comes from inner injustice, while the theory of "working after poverty" emphasizes that this passion and this injustice come from poverty and stagnation of life. In fact, these three theories are consistent in spirit. The two complement each other and exert each other. Together, they constructed a systematic theory about the origin of literary creation. What is the motivation and source of literary creation, especially poetry creation? These three theories all focus on the internal accumulation and emotion of the creative subject. It is inevitable that you can have it in your chest and in your pen. But these three factors do not exclude the original meaning of objective reality: how did "anger" come about? Where does "injustice" come from? In particular, Ouyang Xiu's emphasis on "poverty" closely links "anger" and "injustice" with the reality of social life. Therefore, China's theory on the origin of traditional literary creation, which is centered on the three theories of "leaving anger", "speaking out against injustice" and "working after poverty", is a comprehensive and comprehensive theory, which should be fully affirmed and carried forward.