Li Bai's poems and songs have inherited the romantic literary tradition since Zhuangzi and Qu Yuan. By adhering to the ideal of progress, resisting the dark reality, believing in one's own talent and despising decadent dignitaries, Li Bai has expanded the field of romantic expression and enriched the methods of romantic expression, which has made romantic poetry develop to a new peak. In the Tang Dynasty, Yuan Zhen said that Li Bai's poems and songs were "bold and unrestrained", which vividly summarized the unique romantic artistic achievements of Li Bai's poems.
In Li Bai's poems, the heroic and unrestrained momentum is an important factor that constitutes this kind of "surging waves and unrestrained" romanticism. The poet called his poem "Five Mountains shake the feelings, and the poem becomes a roaring and arrogant Cangzhou", which vividly revealed the momentum of his poem. First of all, in Li Bai's excellent poems, no matter the objective description of things or the expression of subjective feelings, people feel a kind of lofty spirit and irresistible force. Describe objective things, such as the Yellow River described by poets;
"The Yellow River comes to Kunlun in the west, roaring Wan Li and touching Longmen." (Wu Gong Crossing the River)
The Wan Li of the Yellow River touches the mountain, and the vortex hub turns to Qin Mine. ("Xiyue Yuntai Song Send Dan Qiu Zi")
How the water of the Yellow River flows out of heaven and into the ocean, which is gone forever. ("will enter the wine")
Here, the Yellow River roared and broke through all the images, which really "put pen to paper to shake the five mountains". Expressing subjective feelings, such as writing that he was hit and suppressed by the feudal ruling group in the Tang Dynasty, has a feeling of resentment that he could not realize his ambition of "securing the country" and "helping the poor":
It's hard to go, it's hard to go! Dodge Road, where is Ann now?
One day, I will ride the wind and waves, raise the Yun Fan and cross the sea.
(It's hard to go)
I was born useful, spinning a thousand pieces of silver, all come back! . ("will enter the wine")
Here, the poet is in adversity but not overwhelmed by adversity, and he does have the spirit of "roaring Cangzhou". Secondly, the heroic and unrestrained momentum also comes from the strong and passionate feelings in poetry. In Li Bai's poems, he often expresses his feelings that he has been in Chang 'an for three years, doing nothing and finally being excluded. In his poem, he shouted: "When the Qing Dynasty is not as good as a hero, three-foot children spit on the lowly forest" ("Drunk to my nephew Gao Zhen"). He hated traitors, so he expressed his desire to get rid of them in his poems: "Why not make the eight poles high and not hit, and go straight to the sky to sweep the clouds" ("Lu Junyao Temple sends Dou Mingfu to Xijing"). He opposed the Anshi Rebellion and demanded the reunification of the motherland. He said in the poem: "Only use Dongshan to thank Anshi, and deceive the king with laughter." . He sympathized with the miserable experience of the working people and wrote a painful poem, "You look at Shimang, hide your face and cry, and you will always be sad." In Li Bai's poems, all kinds of passionate feelings, such as love, hate, exultation, laughter and abuse, converge into a heroic and unrestrained momentum, which shakes the readers' heartstrings. Thirdly, the reason why Li Bai's poems and songs can show such heroic and unrestrained momentum is because he is not bound by metrical rules. In the era of Li Bai, orthodox poetry rose. Among the more than 940 poems handed down by Li Bai, there are only 12 poems with seven rhythms and few five rhythms. It's not that Li Bai can't write irregular poems, but as Zhao Yi said in the Qing Dynasty, he is "disdainful of being bound by the duality of metrical patterns and competing with sculptors." He wrote many Yuefu songs and ancient poems with five or seven words. It is in these Yuefu songs and ancient poems with five words and seven words that there is no strict metrical constraint, the syntax and phonology change freely, and the poet's feelings, like the Yangtze River, are irresistibly expressed, forming a heroic and unrestrained momentum.
Another important factor that constitutes Li Bai's romantic artistic characteristics is his rich and peculiar imagination. The imagination in Li Bai's poems is rich and strange. Rich, there is a lot of imagination in Li Bai's poems, almost every poem has imagination, some poems are full of imagination, and some poems use a variety of imagination. Realistic things, myths and legends, historical allusions, natural scenery, dreamland and so on have all become the media of imagination in Li Bai's works. Through these media, the poet's imagination broke through the limitation of time and space and galloped at will. And this kind of imagination is based on reality, which is inextricably linked with reality, so that surreal description serves to reflect reality more deeply. Dream on Mount Tianmu is a famous work about dreams by Li Bai. With bold imagination, the poet described the beautiful scenery of nature and colorful fairy realm, which is actually an "ideal kingdom" used by the poet to fight against the dark reality. In the poem, the discussion about waking up from a dream directly expresses his fighting spirit of "Alas, how can I bow and scrape to those high-ranking officials whose sincere faces will never be seen". The bright moon is the object that Li Bai often praises. In his poems, there are many imaginations about Mingyue alone. For example:
My heart is full of sorrow, and the moon is full of sorrow. I will always follow you until Yelangxi. ("I heard that Wang Changling left and moved to Longbiaoyao to post this")
This is the poet's sympathy for his friend's political persecution, and he imagines the bright moon as an emissary who can entrust his homesickness.
Flowers in the next pot of wine, no friends, drink alone.
Raise my cup, I invite the bright moon, which brings me its shadow and makes us three people.
(Drinking the bright moon alone)
This is when I am hit, frustrated politically and feel lonely, I regard the bright moon as my friend.
When does the bright moon rise in the sky? I stopped my glass and asked now. ("Wild speculations")
This is when you can't find a way out politically and feel depressed, imagine Mingyue as a teacher who can explore the philosophy of life. Wait, the list goes on. Strange, the imagination expressed in Li Bai's poems is often unexpected and novel. However, it is not surprising that it is unexpected and reasonable, novel and beautiful. Give it a try:
The old spring will be brewed in Ji Minruo's grave.
There is no dawn at night, who is selling wine?
Cry about Xuancheng's good brewing history
It is envisaged in the poem that the old man surnamed Ji will continue to make wine after his death. This is impossible, but the poet insists on thinking as if it really happened: who will the old man sell the wine to in the long night? I will never taste the "old spring" brewed by old people again. This kind of imagination seems to come from a naive child, which is really strange and novel. But it is this kind of imagination that profoundly expresses the image of the old man who is good at brewing. The deep friendship between the poet and the old man, especially the poet's memory of him after his death, is completely reasonable.
Exaggeration and imagination are closely linked. In Li Bai's poems, imagination, like imagination, is an artistic technique often used when ordinary description is not enough to express his strong and passionate passion. Therefore, bold and appropriate artistic exaggeration. It is also an important factor that constitutes the romantic artistic characteristics of Li Bai's poems. Regarding Li Bai's exaggeration, Mr. Lu Xun once said: "Yanshan Snowflakes are as big as seats" is an exaggeration, but there are indeed snowflakes in Yanshan, which contains a little frankness, so that we can immediately know that Yanshan was so cold. If it is said that' the snowflakes in Guangzhou are as big as seats', it will become a joke (Complete Works of Lu Xun, Volume 6, page 185- 186). This is the dialectics of exaggeration and truth in art, and the exaggeration in Li Bai's excellent poems has never been divorced from the truth of life. On the contrary, he always exaggerates on the basis of real life. Therefore, the more exaggerated, the more profound and true the real life is.
White hair three thousands of feet, sorrow like a beard. ("Qiu Pu Ge")
On the high cliff, it seems to be thousands of feet high, which makes people think that the Milky Way has fallen from heaven to earth. (Look at Lushan Waterfall)
Both Three Thousand Pieces and Three thousands of feet are extremely exaggerated, but the former is based on the poet's own sadness and the latter is based on the height of Lushan Waterfall, which not only makes people feel unreal, but also makes people feel the poet's deep sadness and the majestic Lushan Waterfall more deeply. When Li Bai uses exaggeration, he pays great attention to grasping the characteristics of exaggerated objects, so that exaggeration itself is intrinsically related to exaggerated objects, thus being bold and appropriate. For example:
The sky is grey and windy, and the river flows like a snow-capped mountain. (A song "Lu Jinshan wants to be a censor, Lu Xuzhou")
In the latter sentence, the poet grasped the characteristics of the rushing river rolling up piles of snow in the distance, and exaggerated it with the "flowing snow mountain", highlighting the vast scene of choppy waves.
In addition, Li Bai is also a master of art who is good at using metaphors. Vivid metaphor is an important factor that constitutes the romantic artistic characteristics of Li Bai's poems. In Li Bai's poems, abstract things often become concrete images through metaphor, such as using water to compare feelings:
Oh, ask this river flowing eastward, whether it can go further than the love of friends! ? (Breaking up at a hotel in Nanjing)
Even if the Peach Blossom Pond is deep, it is not as deep as Wang Lun's sending away my love. (To Wang Lun)
But since the water is still flowing, although we cut it with our swords and raise our glasses to drown our sorrows. ("Xuanzhou Xie Tiao Building Farewell School Shu Yun")
It can be seen here that Li Bai used metaphors. First, he achieved the image: feelings were abstract, but the poet described them with surging rivers or deep pools in thousands of feet, turning them into tangible images and vividly presenting them to people. Second, it is appropriate; Metaphorically speaking, the length of time to leave friends, endless running water has long characteristics; To make a metaphor, my friend sent me deep affection, and thousands of feet Tanshui has deep characteristics; Metaphor is constant sadness, and drawing a sword and cutting off water is an unbreakable feature. All these metaphors are made with images with the same characteristics as the things being compared, which makes the metaphor very appropriate. The third is vividness: the image itself has vivid characteristics. Poets are good at choosing images that are easy to arouse people's rich associations as metaphors, so they become more active. The metaphor of "drawing a sword to cut off water" not only highlights the poet's melancholy, but also reminds people of the poet's resentment and heroism from the action of "drawing a sword to cut off water", which is memorable. It is worth noting that in Li Bai's poems, a large number of allusions are also quoted. These allusions generally also play a metaphorical role. Poets use allusions to express many thoughts and feelings that expose and criticize the inconvenience of feudal supreme rulers, and these allusions can arouse people's rich associations, which are often deeper and more touching than outspoken expressions. For example, in the fifty-first episode of Antique, the rule of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was compared with the historical legends of Yin tyranny and fatuity. Although you don't say anything, from the legends about Yin He in history, people will think of how dark, chaotic, fatuous and decadent the rule of Xuanzong in Tang Dynasty was.
The language of Li Bai's poems also has unique achievements. All the factors that constitute the romantic artistic features of Li Bai's poems are expressed through his fresh and natural language. Li Bai pays great attention to learning from folk songs. He absorbed a lot of nutrition from folk songs, whether it is heroic and unrestrained momentum, rich and strange imagination, or bold and appropriate exaggeration and vivid metaphor, all of which have the characteristics of folk songs. What stands out is language. Li Bai advocates that writing poems should be "clear water gives birth to hibiscus, natural carving" This is a vivid summary of the fresh and natural language style of his poems, and it is also the result of his learning the language style of folk songs. For example:
Human nature is good, farming inherent vice.
A gust of wind blew down the mountain for three days, and the white waves were higher than the crock pavilion.
-"Hengjiang Ci"
The language is simple and clear, unpretentious, lively and vivid, with harmonious syllables and quite a folk song flavor. However, he did not simply take the folk song language as a model, but processed and refined it, which not only kept the true colors of the folk song language, but also had the characteristics of subtle refinement, such as:
Tianmen cut off the Chu River and Higashi Shimizu River.
The green hills on both sides are neck and neck, and a boat meets leisurely from the horizon.
-"Looking at Tianmen Mountain"
At first glance, it is effortless to blurt it out, but it is meaningful to go deeper. After the wind and rain, the fresh and natural language style of folk songs has been further sublimated.
Lu You, a great poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, once praised Li Bai's poem: "There are several bright windows, and things grow new." Li Bai's poems have a far-reaching influence on later generations. In the middle Tang Dynasty, Han Yu's poetry school accepted Li Bai's creative experience and formed its own romantic style. Li He's poems are influenced by Li Bai's poems and combined with his own creative practice, forming a unique romantic poetry style. Su Shi and Lu You, great poets in the Song Dynasty, also borrowed Li Bai's bold and unconstrained poetic style to express their thoughts. Until Gong Zizhen in Qing Dynasty, many poets absorbed nutrition from Li Bai's poems and integrated it into their own poetry creation. More than 0/200 years after Li Bai's death, his excellent poems have been handed down from generation to generation and are still loved by people today. They are sung by women and children and are widely known. They are not only the glorious heritage of the motherland's cultural treasure house, but also the treasures of world literature.