Historical Evolution of Poetry in Southern Dynasties

In the first stage, Liu Song's poems were just freed from the metaphysical poems since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and "Zhuang Lao retired, but the mountains and rivers were beautiful". This transformation began in Yu Yan, Yin Zhongwen and Xie Hun in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty and was completed by Xie Lingyun. The representative writers at that time were the so-called "three masters of Yuanjia" ── Xie Lingyun, Yan Yanzhi and Bao Zhao. The poetry styles of these three writers are quite different, but they have left a great influence on the poetry of the whole Southern Dynasty and even later generations.

The second stage is the poetry of the Southern Qi and Liang Dynasties, represented by Xie and other writers who take "eternal style" as the equal sign. One of the main characteristics of "Yongming Style" is to emphasize the rhythm of poetry. Zhou, a phonologist at that time, put forward the division of four tones and applied it to the metrical aspect of poetry, and put forward the theory of "four tones and eight diseases" This theory laid a theoretical foundation for the metrical poems in Tang Dynasty. The representative figures of "Yongming Style" have always been regarded as Xie, Xie and Xie. The number of poems is the largest, which theoretically embodies the idea of "eternal poetic style", but the actual achievements are not as good as Xie. Xie inherited Cao Zhi's poetic style, and was good at starting with epigrams, taking advantage of Xie Lingyun and Bao Zhao's description of scenery and lyricism, thus avoiding the important and neglecting the important. Zhong Rong's "Poetry" says that his poems are "too late", but it is not entirely true. Yan Yu in Song Dynasty said that he "has a whole story that resembles the Tang Dynasty", which is close to the truth. Poets in the Tang Dynasty, such as Li Bai, praised and thanked the most in their lives. He was the best poet in the three generations of Qi, Liang and Chen, and almost all the more successful poets after Qi and Liang accepted his influence. His poetic style is similar to that of Shen and Xie, but there are not many famous works. In addition to the above three people, Fan Li and others also have many good poems, and their poetic style is similar to that of Shen and Xie. He Xun, Wu Jun, Liu Yun and Liu Xiaozhuo, who became famous in Liang Dynasty, also got married respectively. He Xun's poetic style is more archaic than Xie's recent Wu Jun, which is greatly influenced by Bao Zhao. Liang Wudi ZSZSZSZ and the author of Yong Ming Ti also wrote some beautiful and easy-to-read poems, but he disagreed with the theory of "four tones and eight diseases".

In the third stage, from the middle period of Liang Dynasty to Chen Dynasty, the poetic style was different from "Yongming Style". During this period, there appeared "Palace Poetry" represented by Xiao Gang (Emperor Wen) and Liang. The basic style of "Ti" represented by Xu, Xu Ling, Yu Jianwu and Yu Xin (early) is similar. The content of "Palace Poems" mostly describes court life, especially the entertainment of nobles, and some of them are unhealthy. It is also soft in artistic style, often fiddling with allusions and pursuing form, so the critics have always held a negative attitude. However, some palace poems were written with reference to the "five hymns" and "western songs" popular in the south at that time, with strong folk sentiment. In addition, they inherited the tradition of focusing on rhythm in Yongming style poetry, and were closer to rhythm style in form. Xiao Gang, Yu Jianwu, Xu Ling, Zhang, and other writers who wrote palace poems also created some works with high artistic quality and healthy ideological content. In addition, poets such as Wang Ji and Chen Yinque of Liang Dynasty are also good at writing landscapes. Wang Ji's poems mainly study Xie Lingyun; Yin Keng and He Xun have always been called "Yin He". Generally speaking, Yin Keng's grades are not as good as He Xun's.