At the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Tao Yuanming lived in an era of political corruption, social unrest and sharp contradictions within the ruling class, which led to the Book of Changes Left in the Song Dynasty. The decadent gate system controls the upper class of the whole society, and it is extremely difficult for ordinary people from poor families to develop their careers. This had a great influence on Tao Yuanming's life path and literary creation. On the one hand, he lived in a feudal official family, was influenced by Confucianism since childhood, and also had ideal pursuits. "The teacher's teachings, more than the cloud fall. Forty and ignorance are not enough to be afraid. " ("Murong") "The sun and the moon abandon people and cannot win." I can see that he still wants to do something. It seems that his career cannot be completely forced by life. On the other hand, his ideal was stifled by the rule of the gate, hated by the extravagance and extravagance of aristocratic families, and humiliated by the bureaucratic pandering. Although forced to make a living, he stepped onto the official position several times, but in the end he resolutely retired and devoted himself to self-sufficiency, because "he can't bend over to the children in the village for five buckets of rice." "Life belongs to the Tao, and food and clothing are solid. Do not camp, but seek self-protection. " "Teachers have a legacy and don't worry about poverty. I hope it is difficult to catch, and I want to be diligent. " These poems truly reflect the changes in his thoughts. Tao Yuanming's seclusion makes his life different from that of ordinary literati, and he has more contact with working people. The farmer's life of "rising in the morning and hoeing on the moon" made him realize the hardships of life. "The Tian family is not bitter, and Fu has no choice but to resign" and "It's a long way to meet in Sang Ma", all of which made him feel full of life. Therefore, at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, when metaphysics flourished and Buddhism and Taoism prevailed, Tao Yuanming's self-sufficient farming life and a large number of pastoral poems he wrote were essentially different from the life and works of literati at that time, and they were "too heavy and tasteless". Therefore, Tao Yuanming and his works had a wide and far-reaching influence on later generations.
Because of Tao Yuanming's reclusive experience and a large number of pastoral poems, Zhong Rong called him a "reclusive poet" in his poems and regarded him as a "reclusive poet school". His poetic style aroused people's admiration, which became a trend in later generations. Du Fu's poem "What a pity": "Relaxation should be wine, nothing more than poetry. This meaning is hidden, and I will be born after I am born. " Bai Juyi wrote in a poem entitled Xunyang Building: "I have always loved Tao Pengze, and I think how lofty and mysterious I am." A Qing poet said in "Talking about Poetry": "Tao's poems are high-spirited and have a deep and unpretentious nature. Wang Wei, the ancestor of the Tang Dynasty, has his innocence, Meng Haoran has his leisure, Chu Guangxi has his simplicity, Wei has his conflicts, and Liu Zongyuan has his rigor. They all learn from Yan Tao and are close to each other. " As for Li Bai's sentimental landscape, the "Hundred Poems for Wine" and Su Shi's one-by-one style show the profound influence of Tao Yuanming on later literati. However, before the May 4th Movement, most critics only saw Tao Yuanming's "picking chrysanthemums under the hedge, leisurely seeing Nanshan", "toasting" and "pouring wine when cooked", and regarded him as an elegant and quiet pastoral poet, but simply summarized his poetic style as "plain", which was a criticism of Tao Yuanming and his poetic style. Tao's poems are rich in ideas, either praising the hardships of farming, or praising the neighborhood friendship, or expressing the feelings of current affairs, or expressing the contradictory feelings of time passing by and poor political achievements, or using the ancient times to satirize the present to express dissatisfaction with reality. As Mr. Lu Xun said, "Mr. Tao Qian, who was praised by critics as' picking chrysanthemums under the east fence and seeing Nanshan leisurely', has been elegant for too long in the eyes of future generations. However, in the complete works, he is sometimes very modern, saying,' I would like to walk on silk, with enough elements to cope with, restrain myself from grief, and abandon the empty Committee before going to bed'. Unexpectedly, I want to turn myself into a "Oh, my love" shoe. Although some people later said that we failed to attack the end because we stopped at etiquette, those presumptuous confessions were bold. It is a poem, in addition to the "leisurely view of Nanshan" praised by critics, there are also "subtle topics, rivers run into the sea". Xingtian's style of "dancing for unity and staying for strength" proves that he is not outside the clouds all day and all night. He is a man with lofty aspirations and a leisurely view of Nanshan. If there is a trade-off, it is not a complete person. If it is suppressed, it is more realistic. " (Untitled Grass) added: "Even in the past, there were no so-called' pastoral poets' and' poets in the mountains', and their poems were completely above politics and detached from the world. ..... If you have a poem, you can know that you haven't forgotten the world. "("Wei and Jin demeanor and the relationship between articles and medicinal liquor ") also said:" Although I was busy at the moment, I was in the mountains and had Wei Que in my heart. If you can neither help nor help, your heart will be very sad. "(Helping literature, helping leisure literature) Mr. Lu Xun's exposition hit the nail on the head, pointing out the misunderstanding of Tao Yuanming by critics in previous dynasties and restoring the true colors of his poems. In fact, as a great poet, his works can't have nothing to do with the society in which he lives. It can be said that Tao Yuanming never forgets current events. After the poem "Syria Wine" was written in Jin Dynasty, it recorded the historical events of Emperor Wu's abolishing the emperor and killing the king by means of hidden songs. "Nine Ancient Poems" also satirizes the present through the ancient times, indicating the views on current affairs. Three Poems of Form and Spirit put forward different views on the philosophy of immortality of form and spirit in Buddhism at that time. Although his life was bumpy and difficult, he experienced a series of blows such as the loss of his mother, father, sister, fire and famine, but he was still "like a dead tree, quiet inside", concerned about the life society and reflected the times he lived in with poems. There are blood and tears in his poems, and there are spewing volcanoes. His poetry is a mirror, reflecting the social life at the turn of the Jin and Song Dynasties, and it is also a deep elegy for himself and his time.
Tao Yuanming's life experience determines the content of his poems and also restricts his creative style. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the wind of glitz and glitz flourished in the literary world, and aestheticism, which advocated elegance and pursued form, was rampant, even to the point of "using hundreds of words to compete for beauty". Tao Yuanming has an idyllic farming life experience that ordinary literati have never had, and has many contacts with working people. The farming life of sunrise and sunset is simple and natural. It can be said that life gave Tao Yuanming great love, which made him form his own unique style based on freshness, naturalness and vagueness in the era when metaphysics prevailed and aestheticism dominated the whole literary world. Jiang Yingke said: "Tao Yuanming is extraordinary. He has a unique family background. He is not from the Six Dynasties, so poetry is not from the Six Dynasties. " The special life experience is the main reason for the formation of Tao Yuanming's creative style.
The richness of literary works determines the diversity of creative styles. The tone of Tao's poems is natural and fresh, but it does not rule out the fierce and bold style of his poems. Zhu Zeng, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said, "Everyone says that Tao Yuanming's poems are plain. According to some people, he is proud of them, but he is uninhibited. What reveals its true colors is an article in Ode to Jing Ke. How can ordinary people say such a thing? (Zhu lei) Chen ruoming said: "a thousand years ago, I took Tao poetry as my leisure and didn't know what it meant." Zhu only said that an article in Ode to Jing Ke revealed the purpose. From today's point of view, drinking, antique, poor, and reading mountain and sea classics are not the purpose, but they are a little hidden. To taste its tone, I feel a little close to French, but I don't feel very interesting. " Huang Wenhuan also said: "Tao Ruosu is invisible. "They all point out the diversity of Tao poetry styles. In addition to the elegy of "Glaring at Jin Gang", Tao's poems also show a calm reflection on the real world. He often introduces things into his poems and satirizes the present by borrowing from the past, so that his poems often have a quiet and graceful spirit outside of pen and ink, which makes people feel tired. Although "Selected Poems of Banyan Tree" is generous, it is nothing new, which may be one of the reasons why poetry critics talk about the natural and plain style of Tao poetry. One-sided understanding of Tao's poetry style has even led many writers to blindly pursue the so-called "plain and natural", but they have no purpose, blindly telling stories and taking things as poems, so that the taste is the same as chewing wax. In the Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi wrote more than 3,000 poems in his life, taking the plainness of Tao poetry as the standard, which was "indecent and elegant, without a word". (preface to "Answering Poems") The result is too straight and revealing, with neither bone nor blood nor artistic conception. Although the evaluation of his poems by later generations can be explained by an old woman, after all, poetry is not a folk story, and poetry without "meaning" and "meaning beyond rhyme" is lifeless. Bai Juyi himself admitted that his poems were not popular at that time. He said: "Poetry has become tasteless and many people scoff at it. On the odd rhyme, the next is too clumsy. Always sing from time to time, singing ink and thinking. Suzhou and Pengze are different from me. Besides, the only person who loves it is Wei Yuan. "There is quite a feeling that a bosom friend is hard to find. In fact, since Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi in the mid-Tang Dynasty, due to the one-sided pursuit of simplicity and simplicity of poetry, the artistic characteristics of poetry were neglected, which led to the homophony of Song poetry and was eventually replaced by ci. This cannot but be said to be a serious mistake in the theoretical orientation of poetic theorists. Moreover, judging the artistic style of Tao poetry by dullness is also detrimental to the aesthetic value of Tao poetry.
Tao Yuanming's artistic achievements are mainly manifested in his poems, but his few essays and words are also fresh and affectionate. Biography of Mr. Wu Liu is his short biography, the full text is less than 200 words, but it depicts the poet's characters in a concise and slightly self-deprecating style. Peach Blossom Garden is a masterpiece through the ages. Just over 300 words have outlined a picture of life in an ideal society, which has a far-reaching impact on future generations. Most of his poems are lyrical sketches, which are unpretentious and consistent with his poems. For example, the Ci of Returning to Xi describes his joy of getting lost and the eagerness of the bird to return to Lao Lin: "The ship is blowing clothes in the air, and the wind is fluttering, asking for the way forward and hating the morning. It is the pursuit of the universe, the joy of the universe, the rush of the universe, "the clouds come out of the hole unintentionally, the birds are tired and fly to know", and "the wood is thriving, and the spring water begins to flow". Although it is laid out, it is not complicated, lyrical and natural.
Du Fu was born in a Confucian family. When he was young, he accepted the traditional Confucian thought of self-cultivation and family harmony, and devoted himself to "being gentle and obedient to the monarch, and then being vulgar and clear" (Twenty-two Rhymes of Wei Zuocheng). However, the cruel reality shattered his dream. Under the manipulation of the traitor Li, Tianbao's six-year senior high school entrance examination ended in disgrace in the name of "Wild Wind", which caused the aspiring poet to lose face and fall behind Chang 'an. A few years later, the "An Shi Rebellion" made the poet suffer from chaos again. The thief Chang 'an witnessed the scene of national subjugation, and appreciated the trauma brought to people's hearts by the vicissitudes of life. Since then, the poet moved to the southwest and died of poverty.
Du Fu always cares about the future and destiny of the country and the nation, the living conditions of the people, and conveys the suffering of an era and the conscience and courage of a Confucian with songs full of blood and tears. His poetry is unique in the history of China literature with its unique style of "depression and frustration", which has left a deep impression on people.
Depression is a description of Du Fu's early creative style. He said in "Entering the Carving Form": "Although I don't preach the Six Classics first, I am always depressed and agile, but Yang Xiong and Gao Mei are no less than others." Later, when he experienced the war, suffered the hardships and hardships of the people, and showed unbearable sadness in his poems, and his creation became more and more mature, he summed up his poetic style with "depression and frustration". Depression, deep and stagnant on the surface, is characterized by rhythmic ups and downs and twists and turns. It involves the internal structure and external structure of poetry, the heavy fullness in the internal structure and the controlled turbulence and elasticity in the external structure. Among them, depression refers to the deep meaning of literary thinking, and cadence refers to the cadence of intonation; And "depressed" has another meaning of depression, which has the characteristics of deep anger, internalization of latent qi, cadence and rigorous meter.