Tang poetry and Song ci are two bright pearls in the crown of China ancient literature, and they are also wonderful works of art blooming side by side at the peak of world literature. They are deeply loved by readers at all times and all over the world because of their great and unique artistic charm.
First, Tang poetry
The Tang Dynasty was the peak of China's poetry development. The powerful national strength, eclectic cultural spirit and rich cultural accumulation of the Tang Dynasty contributed to the unprecedented prosperity of poetry creation. There are many poets in the Tang Dynasty, and the number of their works is amazing. The Complete Poems of Tang Dynasty edited by Qing Dynasty alone included 2,873 poets and 49,403 poems. The style of Tang poetry is complete and mature. There are three kinds of ancient poetry: Sao style, four words, five words, seven words and miscellaneous words, while modern poetry has five laws, seven laws, five sentences, six sentences and seven sentences. Tang poems are rich in themes. Zhao Mengkui's 100 classified poems of Tang poems in the Southern Song Dynasty can be divided into eight categories, namely, Heaven and Earth, the Forbidden City, classic epics, Guo Cheng Gardens, Shixian Temple, tableware, soldiers' frontier defense, plants and fishes, and each category is divided into several subcategories. Zhang Zhixiang's Tang Poetry Garden in Ming Dynasty has 200 volumes 1094 and 39 parts. There are many schools of Tang poetry, such as four friends of essays, Wu, Shen Song, Sijie, Wang Meng, Dali ten gifted scholars,,,, and arts and sciences. Such as Shangguan style, Shensong style, Taibai style, Shaoling style, Changji style, Bai Yuan style, Du Xunhe style and so on.
In the development process of nearly three hundred years, Tang poetry shows different characteristics in different stages.
From the first year of Emperor Gaozu's Wude (665,438+08) to the first year of Xuanzong's Kaiyuan (765,438+03), the early Tang Dynasty was a period when Tang poetry gradually got rid of the influence of the flashy poetic style of palace poetry in the Southern Dynasties and showed its growing feelings. In the early Tang Dynasty, Yu Shinan, Xu, Shangguan Yi, "Four Friends of Articles" (Li Qiao, Du, Su Weidao, Cui Rong), Shen Quanqi, Song and other court poets were deeply influenced by the poems of Qi Liang Palace. Their songs and palace banquets show pale and delicate feelings in gorgeous forms, but they have made outstanding contributions to the formation of rhythmic poems. Only Wang Ji, a recluse poet outside the court, has a simple language and distant feelings, showing a completely different face from court poetry. In the Wuhou period, Yang Jiong, Lu, Luo and other "four outstanding figures of the early Tang Dynasty" consciously changed their writing style, explicitly opposed extravagance and extravagance, advocated vigorous character, expanded the scope of expression of poetry, and made poetry move from Taige to Guanshan and Saimo, to the broad life of the market and the times. Whether writing frontier fortress, traveling or seeing off, they all have strong feelings, showing great momentum and broad mind, reflecting the prosperous national conditions and the increasingly prosperous social state in the early Tang Dynasty, which opened the prelude to the reform of Tang poetry. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, Chen Ziang completed the innovation of Tang poetry from both theory and creative practice. In Preface to the Pearl Show, Chen Ziang objected to Qi Liang's poems, which were colorful and complicated, but praised Jian 'an Zhengshi literature, which was elegant and charming, and corrected the weak creative tendency of poetry circles with unyielding heroic character, high-spirited life ideal and positive spirit. This is the great noise of Hong Zhong, which is in line with the spirit of the early Tang Dynasty. In terms of creation, Chen Ziang's thirty-eight Love Destiny, seven Visits to Ancient Jizhou and Youzhou Tower are full of strong self-awareness, enterprising spirit and thinking and pursuit of new personality ideals, which enrich and sublimate the ideals of life in the times reflected in the "Four Masters" poems. The romantic temperament of poetry in this period was strengthened day by day, which revealed the information that the weather in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was coming. Zhang's Moonlight on the Spring River, in the vast, remote, quiet and magnificent moonlight on the Spring River, not only shows the wanderer's attachment to acacia, but also expresses his rational thinking about his youth and life universe, which is full of romantic youth. Liu Xiyi's "A Generation of Sad Pulsatilla" shows the Tang people's sadness about the aging of life and their deep admiration for the eternal life of nature, and presents a beautiful and touching youthful melancholy.
The Tang Dynasty was in its heyday from the first year of Kaiyuan (7 13) to the first year of Dali (766). During this period, the Tang Dynasty's national strength was strong, its politics was enlightened, its economy was prosperous, its culture was developed, its foreign exchanges were frequent, and its social self-confidence was high. Poems in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, with the combination of natural images, create a broad, majestic, beautiful and far-reaching artistic conception, which fully embodies the scholar-bureaucrat style of emphasizing individual independence and freedom and pursuing fame and fortune in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and vividly shows the passionate and vigorous atmosphere in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. It is the talented poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty who embody the atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Poetry, all important officials of the imperial court, expressed his arm with Wang Ba's great cause in straightforward language; Zhang Jiuling's poems show the ideal of keeping a high degree of incorruptibility in the advance and retreat of poverty. The pastoral poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, represented by Wang Wei and Meng Haoran, led readers into a new century full of vitality, interest and leisure with the seclusion of Ming Xiu's pastoral poems; Frontier poets, represented by Gao Shi, Cen Can and Wang Changling, led readers into the prosperous Tang Dynasty with their bold frontier poems. Li Bai, the "Poet Fairy" and Du Fu, the "Poet Sage", are the poets who can best embody the atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Li Bai's poems and songs, with explosive lyricism, unpredictable imagination, vivid images and bold and elegant style, show his cheerful and heroic personality, strong bold feelings and bold and competitive personality, fully show the high self-confidence and self-esteem of the scholars in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, actively participate in society and politics, and are full of ideals in spirit. Du Fu grew up in an official family and had the lofty ambition of being a gentleman of Confucianism. Like many poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Du Fu in his youth also had the romantic temperament of "reaching the peak and being the other mountains all appear dwarfs under the sky.". . However, ten years of poverty and poverty in Chang 'an and the drift from place to place during the An-Shi Rebellion gave him a deeper observation and understanding of society. His poems combine personal sorrow with the pain of home and country in a narrative and realistic way, and describe the extravagance of the ruling class, the suffering of the lower class and the crisis of the country and society before and after the An Shi Rebellion extensively and profoundly, reflecting the keen insight, courage to expose social contradictions, feelings of worrying about the country and the people and a strong sense of social responsibility of scholars in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which has had a far-reaching impact on later generations.
From the first year of Daizong Dali (766) to the ninth year of Wenzong Dahe (835), the middle Tang Dynasty was another peak of Tang poetry. The early Tang Dynasty (from Dali to Zhenyuan) is a transitional period for poetry creation. Poetry not only has the charm of the prosperous Tang Dynasty (such as Wei's "Farewell to the country"), but also has the realism of war (such as Qian Qi's "Farewell to Han Yunqing in his old age": "The mountains are miserable and colorless, and my love suddenly leaves"), but more. Representative poets are Liu Changqing, Gu Kuang, Wei and "Ten Talented Scholars in Dali Period". In the middle and late Tang Dynasty (after Yuanhe), under the influence of the reform trend of thought, the creation of Tang poetry entered the second prosperous period. Han Yu, Meng Jiao and some poets around them are fond of adventure and rhyme, deliberately avoiding the familiar routines of the previous generation, striving for novelty and novelty in language and image, and pursuing the beauty of strangeness and strangeness. They often break the shackles of statutes and forms and take prose sentences as poems, which is the first of its kind. "Shi Gui" Li Henian is only 27 years old, but his poetry creation is unique. Li He's poems mainly express his personal feelings, experiences and resistance to the oppression of nature and society. He inherits the romantic tradition of the previous generation in art, gallops the imagination, uses myths and legends, creates a strange, colorful, novel and magnificent artistic realm, and forms his own style, which is called "Dragon Lucky Style" internationally. Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen, the main poets in Bai Yuan, put forward the idea that "articles should be written in time, songs and poems should be written for things", advocated the new Yuefu movement, and advocated that poems should benefit politics and religion. Their new Yuefu poems point to the disadvantages of the times, express their feelings of worrying about the country, attack the dark phenomenon, sympathize with the sufferings of the people, and are clear and easy to understand. In addition, Bai Juyi's sentimental poems "Song of Eternal Sorrow" and "Pipa Travel" also have high artistic achievements. Both Liu Zongyuan and Liu Yuxi were important members of Wang Yongzhen's reformist school in the middle Tang Dynasty. They had similar experiences of relegation, but Liu Yuxi, who was generous and optimistic, often showed a cheerful spirit in his poetry creation. The sentimental Liu Zongyuan's poems are natural and simple, but they contain the grief and indignation of being exiled to a distant place and have an empty artistic conception.
The late Tang Dynasty was from the ninth year of Emperor Wenzong Daiwa (835) to the fourth year of Eddie's blessing (907). Under the influence of eunuchs' autocratic power, the struggle between Niu and Li and the separatist regime in the buffer region, the Li and Tang dynasties went into decline and people were divided. The times cast a shadow of disappointment and depression on the minds of literati. They have neither the unrestrained vigor of the literati in the prosperous Tang Dynasty nor the courage of the literati in the middle Tang Dynasty to strive for reform. But in their poetry creation about history, nature and love, they convey their dissatisfaction with reality, their exhaustion of the world and their comfort to their individual souls, which is full of sadness and decline. In art, subtle language is often used to express rich emotions and delicate inner experiences, creating a bright, beautiful or profound artistic conception. The representative poets are Du Mu and Li Shangyin, who are called "Little Du Li". Du Mugong's Four Musts is also a good way to write an epic. His poems often combine the feelings of nature, society and history, showing a strong sense of remembering the past and hurting the present, and his poetic style is either heroic or fresh and elegant. Li Shangyin was the most accomplished poet in the late Tang Dynasty. His poems often create a hazy and secluded artistic conception with fine structure, vivid and illogical images and strong and delicate feelings, which show his mental journey to the maximum extent and make important contributions to the development of Tang poetry. In this issue, the works of Zhang Hu, Xu Hun, Li Qunyu, Han Wo, Wei Zhuang and other poets. Most of them are based on nostalgia for the past and hurting the present, with a strong sentimental color. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, a group of poets such as Pi Rixiu, Nie and Du Xunhe criticized current politics, sympathized with the people and criticized the social reality in the late Tang Dynasty, which was sharp and realistic.
Second, Song Ci
Ci is the abbreviation of Quzi Ci, that is, lyrics with scores, which have the characteristics of literature and music, or words are poems sung according to certain tunes. It is generally believed that Ci originated in the Sui Dynasty, was processed and created by literati in the Tang and Five Dynasties, and by the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was full of tunes and different styles, which became another peak in the history of China literature alongside Tang poetry.
In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the creation of Ci experienced a process from inheritance to development, and then to change. Poets such as Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, Yan basically inherited the style of five pronouns, with narrow themes, or writing about the love between men and women, leaving sorrow without hatred; Or reflect the leisure life interest of noble literati; Systematically speaking, it is mainly based on the middle tone or near poetry; Multi-purpose painting and figurative skills; The language is elegant and exquisite, beautiful and smooth; It is famous for its lyricism and elegant style. Liu Yong was the first poet who devoted himself to the creation of Ci in the Northern Song Dynasty, and also the first poet who changed the style of Ci in the Northern Song Dynasty, and made important contributions to the development of Ci in the Song Dynasty. First of all, Liu Yong developed the style of ci. Liu Yong "changed the old voice and made a new voice", and created a large number of slow words, which provided a new form for later poets to accommodate more content. What is a slow word? Slow music is called slow music, and words filled in according to slow music are called slow words. In Liu Yong's collection of words "Le Ji", seven or eight out of ten are slow words. Since Liu Yong, it has become a common practice to use long tunes as slow words, which laid the foundation for the prosperity of Song Ci. Secondly, Liu Yong expanded the theme of Ci, and introduced Ci from small courtyard and deep courtyard to city and mountain city water post. For example, Looking at the Tide of the Sea describes the prosperity of the city, while Lin Yuling and Klang Ganzhou describe the sadness of travel, which opens up a new subject area for the creation of later poets. Thirdly, Liu Yong developed the expressive skills of ci. Liu Yong's ci is good at using descriptions, sketches and vulgar language, showing high skills and having a far-reaching impact on the creation of later writers. Su Shi's "Poetry as Ci" changed the style of Ci and made great contributions to the development of Ci. In content, Su Ci broke through the barrier that Ci is a "colorful style", expanded the theme content of Ci, expanded the realm of Ci, and improved the quality of Ci. Su Ci can write everything that poetry can write, such as chanting history, remembering the past, mourning, traveling, reasoning, expressing ambition, etc., which makes the theme of Su Ci all-inclusive and can reflect the broad social life. In terms of style, Su Shi was not unique except graceful and authentic. For example, Jiangchengzi Mizhou Hunting is impassioned and patriotic, and Niannujiao Chibi is nostalgic and magnificent. The topic of water regulation (when is the bright moon) is open and elegant. These bold words opened up a new road for the bold words in the Southern Song Dynasty. In melody, Su Ci broke through the bondage of melody. Words are sung with music, and their meter is often stricter than poetry. In order to fully express the artistic conception and lyricism, many Su Ci poems have broken through the fixed rhythm limitation of epigrams. This breakthrough made Ci get rid of its dependence on music and become an independent poetic style.
In the late Northern Song Dynasty after Su Shi, due to the deep-rooted traditional ideas and the drunken dream of the ruling class, the creation of Ci did not continue along the road initiated by Su Shi, but prospered by combining the styles and skills of terns, Liu Yong and Su Shi. The representative poets are Qin Guan, He Zhu, Zhou Bangyan and others. The content of Qin Guan's ci is mostly the life experience of men and women's love and parting, with sincere feelings, delicate style, skillful language and strong artistic appeal. He Zhu's ci pays equal attention to both content and rhetoric, with graceful and bold style, rigorous rhyme, rhythm and musical beauty. His paintings of spring flowers and autumn moon are lofty in artistic conception, rich in language and sad, close to Qin Guan; Writing about patriotism and worrying about the world is tragic and passionate, close to Su Shi. Zhou Bangyan is a master of the artistic creation of Ci in the Northern Song Dynasty. He is proficient in melody and can compose his own music. His poems are about love between men and women, nostalgia, stagnation, narrow content and low level. However, in artistic creation, his ci is good at describing, infiltrating narrative into the lyric of scenery, creating another realm, forming a tortuous cycle, opening and closing turmoil, cadence, and further developing slow ci; In addition, the beautiful language, the use of allusions, and the extremely precise meter formed a rich, elegant and meticulous artistic style, which had a great influence in the Song Dynasty.
1 127 The Northern Song Dynasty perished due to the change of Jingkang, and the Southern Song Dynasty was partial to Jiangnan. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, ethnic conflicts intensified. At that time, people and literati with a sense of justice and national integrity showed a high degree of patriotism. Therefore, feeling the current affairs and expressing the will to resist the enemy became the main contents of Ci in the early Southern Song Dynasty, and the theme and style of Ci changed again in the early Southern Song Dynasty. Zhang, a famous poet, sang the voice of grief and indignation about the country's decline and resisting the enemy to save the country. Their poetic style is vigorous and bold, which can be regarded as a transitional figure from Su Shi to Xin Qiji. Li Qingzhao, a famous poetess of graceful and restrained school, lived a carefree life as a noble girl before crossing the south, and wrote many poems about love, especially parting from acacia, with sincere, delicate and euphemistic feelings. After the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Qingzhao's ci style changed greatly during her wandering in the south, and expressing the pain of national subjugation and the pain of her dead husband became the central content of her later ci works. From the overall style, Li Qingzhao's ci is good at sketching, fluent and natural in language, clear in words, good in spoken English, harmonious in rhythm, lyrical and euphemistic, and is known as "Yi 'an Style". Lu You was a famous patriotic poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, and also a master of Ci. The contents of his ci mostly show his strong patriotic thoughts, his ambition to kill the enemy and serve the country, and his dissatisfaction with the decadent court, such as Confession of Love (seeking titles in Wanli) and Not Doing. Xin Qiji is a famous poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, and he is also called "Su Xin" with Su Shi and "Jinan Er 'an" with Li Qingzhao. He was born in the state of Jin, and he was a teenager who resisted the return of gold to the Song Dynasty. He served as an envoy of Jiangxi and Fujian. There are more than 600 existing poems, which express the patriotic feelings of trying to restore national unity, pour out the grief and indignation of hard-to-pay ambitions, and expose and criticize the humiliating and surrendering behavior of the upper ruling group in the Southern Song Dynasty; There are also many works that praise the rivers and mountains of the motherland. The artistic styles are diverse, with bold, passionate, generous and solemn, and strong brushwork. Xin Qiji made an important contribution to the development of Ci. First of all, Xin Qiji expanded the theme of his ci, including politics, philosophy, friendship, love, pastoral scenery, folk customs, daily life, reading feelings and so on. He wrote the theme that could be written in any other style at that time. Secondly, Xin Qiji "takes literature as his ci", and he often transplanted the techniques of composition, discussion and dialogue commonly used in China's ancient ci into his ci. The original use of words in essays such as Shi Jing Zi not only endows the ancient language with new vitality, but also expands and enriches the vocabulary of words as never before. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Chen Liang, Liu Guo and others were close to Xin Qiji's ci style. Their lyrics are mainly about expressing patriotic feelings, and they all like to use prose as their lyrics.
In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the confrontation between Song and Jin was basically formed, and the ruling group became more comfortable and enjoyable. Under this background, there are two schools in the field of ci: metrical ci school and symplectic ci school. The school of metrical ci, represented by Jiang Kui, Wu Wenying, Shi Dazu, Zhou Mi and Zhang Yan, takes the traditional love between men and women, parting from sorrow, natural landscapes and literati's feelings of joining the WTO as the theme, with narrow content, emphasis on metrical style, pursuit of formal skills and elegant and delicate style. Jiang Kui is a representative poet in the transitional period from the early Southern Song Dynasty to the late Southern Song Dynasty. In his poems, he expressed his feelings of hurting the world for the king, his depressed mood of being useless and frustrated in love, and his extraordinary personality. His ci has a wide range of themes, rigorous composition, and is famous for its ethereal implication, which has a great influence on later ci circles. Shi Dazu's ci is full of leisure, good at chanting things, delicate description, choice of words and sentences, formal pursuit of gorgeous workmanship, lack of artistic conception and temperament. Wu Wenying's ci is poor in content, and he writes more about the luxurious life of the rulers, or expresses decadent and sentimental emotions. His rhythm is harmonious and his words are refined, but he pays too much attention to form and likes to use allusions, which makes the meaning of the ci obscure. The new poets, represented by Huang Ji, Liu Kezhuang and others, often express their patriotism, regardless of their temperament, and are bold and unconstrained.