Choosing poems is the knowledge that needs knowledge, insight and courage most. An anthology without appreciation and professional knowledge will certainly not be accepted by people, let alone widely circulated. So, what is the reason for the success of 300 Tang Poems?
For this problem, critics often investigate from the preface of 300 Tang Poems, and think that the success of 300 Tang Poems mainly lies in its popularity. It is true that popularity is one of the characteristics of this anthology and one of the reasons why it is widely accepted by the masses. But this alone is obviously biased and underestimates Sun Zhu's identification level of Tang poetry. We might as well select some representative poets' poems from "Three Hundred Tang Poems" and make a brief list, from which we can clearly see Sun Zhu's principles and standards of choosing poems and realize his profound understanding and understanding of Tang poems.
"Three hundred Tang Poems" * * * selected 77 poets and 3 13 poems. Judging from the social status and identity of poets, from emperors to ministers, from literati to monks and prostitutes, there are seats, which reflects the editor's broad and fair mind. What's more commendable is that Sun Zhu showed his unique views here, and all his selected works are of high artistic quality. The artistic level is the most important criterion for his compilation, and whether a poet is selected is not determined by his identity and fame. Only six of Wang Zhihuan's Complete Poems of Tang Dynasty are left, while Lulou Ci and Liangzhou Ci were selected as 300 poems of Tang Dynasty. Jin Changxu has only one "Spring Complaint" among the "All Tang Poems", and he was also selected as "Three Hundred Tang Poems"; Du Qiuniang's "Bian Yi" was also selected in "300 Tang Poems".
The most prominent feature of 300 Tang Poems is its complete poetic style. Editors choose poems from the perspective of poetic style. We find that all kinds of poetic styles have their inherent laws, which have great influence on the expression of content. The poet's spiritual temperament, the artistic style formed and embodied by spiritual temperament, as well as the content and theme of poetry have a great relationship with poetic style. In the above table, we can clearly find that Sun Zhu pays special attention to the number of poems selected that meet the highest achievement of the poetic style that poets are good at.
Poets who are good at all kinds of poems are Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, Cen Can, Li Bai, Du Fu, Wei, Bai Juyi, Liu Zongyuan and Li Shangyin. It's all big, big, so everyone is good at it.
Du Fu is the best writer in writing metrical poems. Among 39 selected poems, 23 are metrical poems. Another poet who is good at rhythmic poetry is Li Shangyin. Li Bai is good at ancient Chinese prose, and the number of selected ancient Chinese prose accounts for more than half of the editor-in-chief. In addition, Chen Ziang chose only one ancient poem with seven words, while Han Yu chose only four ancient poems with seven words.
These three people are chivalrous, impassioned and upright, and they all need to lament and sing freely, and the ancient style of poetry can better express this character, so their creations have high ancient achievements.
Du Fu's poetic style is gloomy and frustrated, so the rhythm is very long. He is a dancer in fetters, who respects Confucianism and worships the king. On this basis, he can exert his strength. Therefore, he made great efforts in regular poetry, which was very restrictive and kept improving under the constraints. Therefore, legal poetry is most suitable for his character and spirit. This relationship between poetic style and literary style has been noticed by Sun Zhu.
From the linguistic form, Wang Wei's 29 poems account for 19, which shows that he is good at five-character poems. Meng Haoran has only one non-five-character poem among the selected 15 poems, which shows that his accomplishments in five-character poems are particularly profound. On the other hand, Li Qi's seven poems are all seven-character poems, which shows that he is particularly good at seven-character poems. These are all proved by their creative achievements.
Let's talk about Yuefu poetry. Among the 300 Tang poems, Li Bai has the most Yuefu poems and achieved great success. Although Bai Juyi advocated the "New Yuefu" movement and personally created a large number of Yuefu poems, his achievements were not very high, so none of Bai Juyi's Yuefu poems were selected.
Bai Juyi's two most famous seven-character ancient poems, Song of Eternal Sorrow and Pipa Xing, were all selected, becoming the one with the largest number of words among 77 selected poets. It can be seen from here that Sun Zhu really has excellent opinions on Tang poetry.
From the perspective of the times, poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty were all good at ancient customs, but gradually decreased in the middle Tang Dynasty; By the late Tang Dynasty, the ancient style had declined and almost disappeared. On the contrary, it is the fate of quatrains: the prosperous Tang Dynasty is less, the middle Tang Dynasty is more and more, and the late Tang Dynasty is a grand view. This is in line with the characteristics of the times. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the weather was magnificent, and everyone wanted to make contributions. Everyone is passionate, strong and fierce, and speaks freely. Therefore, the poet consciously chose the style of ancient style, because only ancient style can express his spirit and spirit smoothly. In the late Tang Dynasty, the situation changed greatly, life became increasingly vulgar, and the pursuit of pleasure, so exquisite quatrains came in handy and became a fashion trend.
Vertically, Li Bai and Du Fu are the most selected ancient poems, followed by Wang Wei and Wei Wuying. Du Fu is the most important of the five laws, followed by Wang Wei and Meng Haoran. Apart from Du Fu, Li Shangyin dominated the Seven Laws. Wang Wei is the best of the Five Musts, while Du Mu and Li Shangyin are the best of the Seven Laws. These are all clear in the above table. It can be said that Sun Zhu has a profound understanding of the poetic style that the poet is good at, and his compilation is basically in line with the actual situation of the poet.
Sun Zhu's editorial principle is to pay attention to the form and prosodic features of poetry from the perspective of pure art, and then select the "most important person" in his Moxibustion Works for the Population, all of which are recorded by Jing Jing Zhu Yu Ji. In terms of content and style, more than 300 Tang poems have diverse themes, different emotions and different styles. There are idyllic landscape poems that blend poetry and painting, beautiful and quiet; There are frontier poems, which are magnificent and romantic; There are great structures such as Song of Eternal Sorrow and Pipa. There are also exquisite and euphemistic poems such as "when those red berries come in spring"; There is a melancholy and generous elegy of "I miss heaven and earth, and there is no limit, and I cry alone"; There is also a light and interesting whisper of "whispering after makeup, the depth of thrush is out of place" ... and so on, poems of various themes and emotions are integrated into it.
Of course, "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty" does not choose parallelism, and parallelism is not without good structure, such as Zhang's "Moonlit Night on a Spring River"; It is also quite puzzling not to choose Li He's poems. At least Li He has his own family among poets in the Tang Dynasty. These questions are debatable. Xin Mao nian si Jiaxing zongzi is a poor work of the stationmaster. Please don't be confused.
The era when Sun Zhu lived (300 Tang poems compiled by Kloc-0/764 in the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty) was an era when poetic theories such as verve theory, mode theory and soul theory unified the literary world. Sun Zhu's ability to break the tradition of various schools of thought, learn from others' strengths, and synthesize great achievements is admirable. Perhaps this is the vitality of 300 Tang Poems, which has been popular for more than 200 years.
The original preface of 300 Tang Poems: secular children go to school, that is, they teach thousands of poems, which are easy to learn, so they don't waste them. However, their poems are picked up at will, clumsy and difficult to distinguish, and stop at the three-seven-law system, in which people from Tang and Song Dynasties are mixed, which is a very good system. Because they specialize in the most popular works of Tang poetry, they choose the most important ones, and each individual gets dozens, including 300. As the saying goes, you can recite 300 Tang poems by heart even if you can't recite them. Please make it up for inspection.