Wen Tianxiang's literary creation, especially poetry creation, has two remarkable characteristics, which are divided into two stages: the early stage and the late stage:
Wen Tianxiang's watch
Wen Tianxiang's watch
Early refers to the stage when Ganzhou began to serve Qin Wang and went to Zhou Zhen at night. At that time, Song Ting was in a difficult period, but Wen Tianxiang himself accumulated a soldier who was "hungry" and had a clear love and hate. Therefore, in his mind, there is hope to revive the Southern Song Dynasty and recover the lost land. Poems written in this period are characterized by freshness, vividness, boldness, and particularly rich feelings. They often inspire themselves with full fighting spirit, which makes people feel like drinking mellow grapes and wine. Such as the poem "Go to Que". It can be seen from these poems that Wen Tianxiang's eyes seem to have seen a bright future and hope for revival. Later, Li Tingzhi hinted that Miao Zaicheng killed Wen Tianxiang to avoid worries. Miao Zaicheng didn't want to kill him, but he didn't dare to disobey, so he set a "guarding city" plan to lead Wen Tianxiang out of the city, and then refused. Wen Tianxiang suffered many setbacks, but he was not discouraged. Instead, he greeted the battle with high morale. In the long poem In the Middle of Gaosha Road, he tells the whole story of his dangerous life after he left Zhou Zhen in chronological order in fluent and plain language, which makes people feel as if they were there. There are five words in each sentence of the whole poem, and every other sentence rhymes, which lasts for more than 80 rhymes and rhymes to the end. After reading it, people feel confused and are considered comparable to Du Fu's Northern Expedition. During this period, Wen Tianxiang wrote many poems, most of which are inspirational, which can be said to be the middle of two characteristic periods, that is, the transitional period.
After arriving in Fuan, the situation has changed fundamentally. During this period, the political affairs of the imperial court were still dominated by Chen and others. Although Wen Tianxiang holds an important position, he is marginalized. Therefore, his poetry creation began to show the later characteristics, that is, lamenting the "difficulties and hardships" of life journey, which was not satisfactory. Especially in the second year of Xiangxing (1279), on February 6th, Zhang Hongfan concentrated his forces to break the cliff mountain and forced Wen Tianxiang to go with him. Sitting in another boat, Wen Tianxiang witnessed the horror of the fall of Song Jun, and his heart ached. He hated the failure of the vertical shaft, which led to the collapse of the line, so he wrote a long poem to mourn. This poem, entitled "On February 6th, there was a naval battle, and the state affairs were not smooth. I sat alone in the north boat and mourned for the south, so I wrote a poem about it", which expressed Wen Tianxiang's sad mood at that time and his deep hatred for the consequences caused by Jia Sidao and Chen. The poems written by Wen Tianxiang at this stage are tragic, painful, poignant and elegant.