It is said that Emperor Qianlong loved to write poems. In his 89-year life, he wrote 43,584 poems. What concept? Even the whole Tang poetry contains 49,403 poems, that is to say, it is quite powerful for Emperor Qianlong to write the whole Tang poetry alone. Emperor Qianlong had to write so many poems, almost three in two days. Such a horrible speed of writing poetry can be described as "unprecedented, and there is no one after it." I'm afraid there are only emperors.
So, how did Emperor Qianlong evaluate his poetry writing level? It is said that in 1977, Emperor Qianlong once talked about his creative career. He said: "I look forward to nine years, and what I have accumulated is different from the poets of the whole Tang Dynasty. Can you say that Yilin is a story? " What do you mean? In other words, Emperor Qianlong thought that the poems he wrote in his life were comparable to the whole Tang poetry and were "art stories".
But in today's view, the level of emperor Qianlong's poetry is not the so-called "art story", but a kind of "joke". It is worth mentioning that Qian Zhongshu, a famous writer, once commented on the poems of Emperor Qianlong. He said: "Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty also used literature as poetry, which contributed to procrastination and made people sick ... Those who were sour and regarded literature as ugly poetry were the sixth episode of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty." What do you mean? That is to say, the poems written by Emperor Qianlong are very sour and disgusting. Such fierce rhetoric shows Qian Zhongshu's aversion to Qianlong's poems.
So, what's wrong with Emperor Qianlong's poems?
One is too straightforward. Gan Long's poems are too straightforward, just like plain water. Simply put, it is a limerick.
The second is that uncommon words are used too much. Emperor Qianlong liked to use uncommon words to cover up his illiteracy. For example, in Exemption from Some Regular Taxes in Suqian County and Other Places, Emperor Qianlong used such uncommon words as "bullying" and "squatting eaves" in this poem.
In a word, Qianlong's poems are really not elegant.