So, what is palace poetry? Palace-style poetry refers to the poetry that originated from the court and described the life of the court as its basic content. Its style is usually superficial and frivolous. In other words, palace poetry is a kind of palace literature with specific content and style. In the early Tang Dynasty, Wei Zhi's Annals of the Classics of Sui Shu described what palace poems were from these two aspects: "Emperor Liang Jianwen was in the East Palace, and he was also good at writing and writing skillfully, ending with banquets; Carved rattan algae, very thoughtful in the boudoir. After death, do good deeds and hand over lessons. There are many ruling and opposition parties, and the number is the palace. " According to similar standards, Xu Ling in the Liang Dynasty compiled "New Poems on Yutai" at the request of imperial edict, and included poems in the Liang Dynasty. According to Su's "Da Tang Xin Yu", in his later years, Emperor Wendi of the Tang Dynasty "made Xu Ling a jade platform and a big body". Xu Ling is the son of Xu Jian, and Yutai is another name for the palace, so the jade combination mentioned by later generations is actually the palace body. So, how did "New Ode to Yutai" grow up? Its preface says: "The colorful songs written and recorded are all ten volumes, and they have never been satisfied with praise, nor have they been extravagant with people." It can be seen that the so-called palace style, in the view of the court literati at that time, was also a "colourful song". The reason why ancient works are dragged into these "colourful love songs" and crowned at the frontispiece is only to prove that palace poems are elegant, that is, the so-called "general". Therefore, "New Yutai Fu" mainly includes the palace poems of the Liang Dynasty. Among the recorded palace poems, Jian Wendi is the most representative. For example, his poems, such as Chanting My Wife Sleeps, Singing Dance, Spring Day, Lonely Complaint, or describing the sleeping state and dancing of maids, or inventing the words that hurt spring under the pretext of female tune, are full of the word "Yan". As for other poems that describe scenery and things, such as Wings in the Wind, Autumn Night and Evening Scenery; Basically, it is not within the scope of the court, and there are often shadows of maids. For example, the opening cloud of "Evening Scenery" says: "Fine trees contain lingering shadows, and spring boudoir scatters fragrance in the evening. Light flowers, light sweat powder. " Although the topic is the evening scenery, the second sentence is "spring boudoir" and its style is also light and gorgeous. This kind of poem is the so-called official poem popular in the court of Liang Dynasty.
Although palace poems appeared in the Liang Dynasty, they originated from western songs popular in Wu Ge after the Jin and Song Dynasties. Angkor Wat opera is a typical civic literature, which is basically produced in the city and popular in the streets and lanes. There are many erotic works among them; However, it became a popular song because it was played on the strings of an orchestra and flowed among the crowd. At that time, the lower literati and even the upper nobility were immersed in it for a long time, so they competed to imitate it and became a trend. By the time of Liang Wudi, even the palace had a female geisha who specialized in singing Angkor. This kind of lively and colorful street songs fit in with the flashy court life, and palace poetry came into being. Liu's "History of Medieval Literature" has concisely and accurately described the process of the emergence of palace-style poems in civic literature: "Although the name of palace-style poems began in Liang Dynasty, its colorful words originated in the past. Yuefu in the Jin and Song Dynasties, such as Song of Peach Leaves, Song of Jasper, Song of Rice and Song of Cypress, remained in Jiangzuo until Xiao Qi flourished. Those who used this five-character poem began between the Jin and Song Dynasties, followed by Bao Zhao, and before that, there was an emblem, especially in the Liang Dynasty, which was especially prosperous. "
As the palace poetry has become a whole, its influence has surpassed the Liang Dynasty. It's like the official institution of the Liang Dynasty is not limited to the East Palace of the Crown Prince. Due to the emperor's own advocacy and the response of a large number of court scholars, palace poems were also widely popular in the courts of Chen Houzhu and Yang Di, and the aftermath did not disappear until the early Tang Dynasty. Therefore, palace poems have lasted for nearly a hundred years in history. Because the three generations of literati of Liang, Chen and Sui mostly gathered in the court, and the court literati were almost all the literati of that era, court poetry became the mainstream of poetry development during this hundred years.
Palace-style poems were popular in three short-lived dynasties, and Chen Houzhu and Yang Di were the so-called kings of national subjugation, so palace-style poems were often said to be the voice of national subjugation. In fact, the demise of the country is not because of the gorgeous poetry, but because the dying face of the country has become so glamorous. The era has been irreversibly declining, and palace poems reflect the court life and the unbalanced psychological state of the court nobles in this declining era. However, with the abnormal prosperity of palace poetry, this is a liberation of poetic theory. For example, Xiao Gang advocates the theory of love and opposes taking classics as the model of poetry creation, and thinks: "The way to stand up is different from articles; Be careful before you stand, and the article must be debauched. " This is undoubtedly a bold betrayal of traditional poetry teaching. The theory of romance is only reflected in the creation of erotic poems, which is the misfortune of that era. From an artistic point of view, palace poems also have undeniable historical value. Palace poems focus on cultivating color, improving the descriptive ability of language and enriching the color of vocabulary. This has a certain influence on the language of Tang poetry. Although it can be said that the development of Tang poetry began with the denial of official poetry, the prosperity of Tang poetry can not be separated from the positive reference to the language, vocabulary and description skills of palace poetry. As far as the form of poetry is concerned, official poetry continues the exploration of eternal Ming style, and also prepares for the emergence of regular poetry in Tang Dynasty. In palace poems, the forms of five words, eight sentences and four sentences are gradually confirmed, and the antithesis becomes more stable and rhymes more harmonious. Some works, except for occasional posting, have coincided with the level of regular poetry. Therefore, in the long run, the accumulation of palace poems in artistic form has certain positive significance for the development of Tang poetry.