The basic principle of realism is to reproduce life according to the actual style of life, express the author's thoughts and feelings through a true, concrete and vivid description of life, and reflect the essence or some aspects of social life.
From "Hungry people sing about their food and laborers sing about their affairs" in The Book of Songs, to "mixed sorrow and joy, because of things" in Yuefu folk songs in Han Dynasty, to "writing current affairs by borrowing ancient times" in Cao Cao's Yuefu in Jian 'an era, to "writing famous articles when innovating Yuefu in Tang Dynasty" and to "writing according to the times" advocated by Bai Juyi's new Yuefu movement.
The Book of Songs is the glorious starting point of China literature and the source of China's realistic poetry tradition. The Book of Songs is full of realistic spirit, first of all, it is a two-week folk song with national style, followed by satirical poems by Xiaoya and Daya literati. Their main characteristics in content are to face up to reality, describe reality, expose reality and criticize reality; The main artistic features are concise style, concise language, clever metaphor, real, natural and vivid characters, intimate life pictures and so on. The main features of The Book of Songs in content and art are also the main features of China's realistic poetry tradition. After the Book of Songs, the folk songs of the two Han Yuefu Dynasties, the poems of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the literature of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties all inherited and carried forward the realistic tradition of the Book of Songs, and some outstanding realistic poets and works appeared.
During the Jian 'an period at the end of Han Dynasty, literati began to write some realistic poems, such as Lin Yulang by Xin Yannian, Walking in Autumn by Cao Cao and some works by RoyceWong, Chen Lin, Cao Zhi and Cai Yan. But they failed to fully carry forward the tradition of realism.
After Jian 'an, realism gradually turned into a low tide. Between Jin and Song Dynasties, "Zhuang Lao retired, beautiful scenery". After Liang and Chen, the palace was very noisy and even more divorced from reality.
It was not until the early Tang Dynasty that Chen Ziang advocated the character of Han and Wei Dynasties and opposed Qi Liang's "adopting beauty to contend for complexity" that realistic poetry improved slightly. Chen Ziang showed a strong spirit of innovation in literature. He put forward his own aesthetic ideal by summarizing the theory of Jian 'an style, and put forward the idea of poetic style innovation by aligning the artistic criticism of Liang's poems, emphasizing the "style" and "prosperity" of poetry. Chen Ziang's poetry creation completely got rid of the influence of Qi and Liang's poetic style, and persisted in practicing his own literary ideas. In his poems, he devoted himself to abandoning gorgeous rhetoric and dual forms, focusing on reflecting rich and profound real life, expressing warm thoughts and feelings, and creating a vigorous and simple artistic style. These eulogies by Du Fu and Han Yu highly affirmed his contribution to the development of Tang poetry.
In the late Tang Dynasty, Du Fu was a great poet in that chaotic era. He closely followed the pulse of the times, faced the calm reality, objectively and truly described the difficult face of the times, painstakingly expressed his great feelings of worrying about the country and the people, and wrote a magnificent chapter of the times with a giant pen. In the art of poetry, he insisted on learning from many teachers and made efforts to explore. In his creation, he collected the achievements of predecessors and set an immortal example for later poetry. In the development of China's realistic poetry, Du Fu played an important role in connecting the past with the future, and he pushed realism to a new, higher and more mature stage. In his eternal Three Officials and Three Farewells, Du Fu reflected the special social situation at that time with his complex feelings of worrying about the country and the people and his unique "poetic history". In those Yuefu narrative poems that reflect reality, Du Fu did not follow the old road of following the ancient theme of Yuefu since Jian 'an, but invented his own theme in the spirit of "starting with something" in Han Yuefu, which pointed out a creative road leading to reality and people's life for later poets. In order to fully reflect the reality, Du Fu used all the poetic styles at that time, creatively played the functions of various poetic styles, and set an example for various poetic styles. As far as the Seven Laws are concerned, Du Fu used to praise or entertain the people, but he used it to reflect the sufferings of people's livelihood and state affairs and became a weapon of irony.
After the "An Shi Rebellion", with the rapid changes of society, the literature of this period has also undergone significant changes. Due to the theoretical advocacy and creative practice of Bai Juyi and others, Yuefu poems consciously carry forward the tradition of appealing to both refined and popular tastes, pay attention to reflecting social realistic themes, and give full play to the function of political allegorical poems, thus forming a creative peak, which is called the "New Yuefu Movement" in the history of literature, and Bai Juyi is the most outstanding representative of this movement. Bai Juyi advocates that poetry should actively intervene in social reality, "for the monarch, for the people, for things, not for writing." "Articles are combined with the times, and songs and poems are combined with each other." He particularly emphasized that poetry should be enthusiastic about people's livelihood and sufferings and truthfully reflect political abuses. According to this principle, he paid special attention to the artistic tradition of "appealing to both refined and popular tastes" in poetry, and clearly denied the tendency of poetry creation since the Six Dynasties.
Guan Hanqing's plays in the Yuan Dynasty profoundly exposed the darkness of the society in the Yuan Dynasty and were a mirror of the cruel national oppression and class oppression in the Yuan Dynasty. Guan Hanqing's masterpiece Dou Eyuan describes a weak and helpless widow who was persecuted by a corrupt official, falsely accused of "taking medicine to death" and beheaded. Dou E's unjust case is of typical significance. With a high sense of social responsibility, the writer put forward the common problem of "officials have no intention to correct the law and make the people speechless" in feudal society, and strongly accused the feudal system of being the enemy of the people and the residual people of being arrogant and domineering.