The Artistic Style of Tang Poetry and Song Poetry

Looking up at Tang poetry is like a huge mountain peak, from which poets in the Song Dynasty can find endless treasures and gain rich enlightenment. However, this peak also caused heavy psychological pressure to the Song people, who had to find another way out of the shadow of Tang poetry. Song people's initial attitude towards Tang poetry was learning and imitating. From the early Song Dynasty to the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, people successively chose Bai Juyi, Jia Dao, Li Shangyin, Han Yu, Li Bai and Du Fu as models, which reflected the worship psychology of Tang poetry. After establishing the confidence to create a new poetic style, the Song people tried to get rid of the barriers of Tang poetry. However, after the peak, it is difficult to continue. The innovation of Song poetry is very difficult. Taking the theme as an example, the social life of Tang poetry is almost exhausted, and it is difficult for Song people to find undeveloped new fields. What they can do is to continue to dig deep into the mines mined by the Tang people. The successful development of the theme of Song poetry is inclined to daily life. Trivial details became the material for Song people to write poems. For example, Su Shi once sang farm tools such as waterwheels and horses, and Huang Tingjian sang poems about tea. Some life contents were also written in the Tang Dynasty, but the choice angle of Song poetry tends to be secular. For example, Song people's farewell poems mostly describe personal friendship and their own feelings, and Song people's landscape poems mostly praise the bustling Jinshan West Lake. Therefore, the lyric hero images displayed in Song poetry are more ordinary people, who are no longer heroes in the world, nor are they nobles. This feature makes Song poetry have the advantage of approachability, but it lacks the exotic feelings and splendor derived from the romantic spirit of Tang poetry. Any innovation in Song poetry is based on Tang poetry. The dismal management of Song people aims to open up a new realm beyond the aesthetic realm of Tang poetry. Compared with Tang poetry, many poets in the Song Dynasty have new styles. For example, the plainness of Mei, the delicacy of Wang Anshi, the fluency of Su Shi, the thinness and simplicity of Huang Tingjian and the liveliness of Yang Wanli can all be regarded as the result of the unfamiliarity of Tang poetry style. However, there is a holistic style pursuit in the poetry circle of Song Dynasty, that is, plain is beautiful. Su Shi and Huang Tingjian have always been regarded as typical representatives of the characteristics of the Song Dynasty. Su Shi paid more attention to Tao Yuanming's poems, while Huang Tingjian paid more attention to Du's later poems. Su Shi and Huang's poetic ideals seem to be different, but in fact they all lead to the same goal. Su Shi worships Tao, focusing on the quality and reality of Tao poetry, but only reality "(see Su Xuan's Collection of Poems and Poems of He Zi Tao Yuanming, Houcheng Collection, Volume II); Huang Tingjian highly praised Du Fu, which was mainly manifested in Du Fu's later poems "Plain and High Mountain and Deep Water" (Collected Works of Mr. Huang, Volume 19, Recovering Wang Guan II). It can be seen that what they pursue is "plain", which is a mature style beyond carving brilliance and a perfect aesthetic realm. The aesthetic style of Tang poetry is characterized by rich beauty, while the aesthetic pursuit of Song poetry is dull, which is obviously a profound change in Tang poetry. This is also the ultimate goal of the Song Dynasty poets' innovation and change. Tang poetry and Song ci are two paradigms in the history of May 4th poetry. Poetry after the Song Dynasty, although still developing, failed to surpass the style of Tang and Song poetry on the whole.