The literature of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was "an era of literary self-consciousness" in the history of Chinese literature, which brought about the prosperity of literature. Its main manifestations are the following five points:
First, the The emphasis on literature and the development of literary concepts. The emphasis on literature was first manifested in the fact that the upper class of society during this period, including many emperors, were generally enthusiastic about literary creation, which affected the entire society and led to a large increase in literary works. Accompanied by With the prosperity of literary creation, literary criticism has also achieved unprecedented achievements, and literary criticism and literary theory works have continued to appear.
Second, the activity of literary groups. During the Jian'an period, many people gathered around the Cao family and his son. A group of literati formed the first important literary group in history. Since then, there have been "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Grove", "Twenty-Four Friends", "Eight Friends of Jingling", etc. The activity of literary groups has further stimulated It led to the prosperity of literature.
Third, it was an important development in literary themes. During this period, Tao Yuanming created pastoral poetry, and Xie Lingyun and Xie Tiao completed the transformation from metaphysical poetry to landscape poetry. Consciously The use of frontier life as an important theme of poetry also began in the Southern Dynasties. As for the "palace style poetry" that emerged in the Liang Dynasty, centered on Xiao Gang's literary group, it established the palace style poetry in the history of Chinese literature that cannot be simply denied. Title. In short, all natural and social phenomena that can "wander in sorrow" and "sway the soul" were included as objects of literary expression by literati in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Fourth, the development of literary form Constant evolution and change. The prosperity period of five-character poetry in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the emergence period of seven-character poetry, the peak period of lyrical poetry, the mature period of parallel prose, and the pioneering period of novels and metrical poems. It can be said that the development process of several basic forms of ancient Chinese literature , this is a critical period.
Fifth, the combination of literature and philosophy. The literature of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties focused on inner experience and thinking about the value of life, expressing the author's deeper psychological activities. This makes literature Getting rid of the tradition of simply and matter-of-factly reflecting real life and social phenomena, the connotation of literature has become richer and deeper.