Jian'an is the reign name of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The literary creation during this period and the following years in the early Wei Dynasty is called "Jian'an Literature". The Jian'an poets lived in the late Han Dynasty and experienced the ups and downs of the times and the vicissitudes of world affairs. Most of their songs reflected social chaos and expressed their life ideals.
Liu Xie, a litterateur of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, said in "The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons? Chronology":
Looking at the literature of that time, it is elegant and generous, good things are accumulated in the world, chaos and dissatisfaction, and the customs and customs are declining. It has a deep ambition and a long pen, so it is concise and full of energy. On the one hand, Jian'an poets inherited the tradition of Yuefu folk songs of the Han Dynasty; on the other hand, they developed and transformed them, using their realistic creative spirit to set up a banner in the history of poetry. The style mostly presents the characteristics of freshness, vigor, generosity and sadness, and is praised as the "Jian'an style".
Poems in this style contain the poet’s true feelings and are concise and vigorous in language expression.
The main writers in Jian'an include "Three Cao" and "Seven Sons". The "Three Caos" refer to Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Zhi's father and son; the "Seven Sons" refer to the seven literati Kong Rong, Wang Can, Xu Qian, Chen Lin, Ying Jue, and Liu Zhen. The most successful literary style in Jian'an literature is five-character poetry, followed by fu, such as Cao Zhi's "Luo Shen Fu" and Wang Can's "Denglou Fu". The most outstanding literary achievements during this period were Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Cao Zhi and Wang Can.
Cao Cao was an outstanding politician and military strategist, as well as an outstanding poet. There are more than 20 of his poems, all of which are Yuefu poems about current affairs with Yuefu as the old title. The themes are very rich. The poems are based on reality, or describe the disasters caused by war to the people, such as "A Walk in the Grass", "A Walk in the Artemisia", "A Walk in the Bitter Cold", etc. Or express one's broad mind and ambitions, such as "Wine Drinking", "Dan Ge Xing", "Stepping out of Xiamen Xing", etc.
Among Cao Cao's poems, "Dan Ge Xing" and "Looking at the Sea" and "Guishu Shou" in "Dan Ge Xing" and "Stepping out of Xiamen Xing" are famous poems that have been recited throughout the ages. "Dan Ge Xing" is a four-character Yuefu poem that was sung during banquets with guests. The theme of the poem is to express the desire for talents for the great cause of unification. It embodies three sighs in one song, and reflects a high-spirited attitude in the midst of generosity and sadness.
"Viewing the Sea" is the first chapter of "Stepping out of Xiamen". The poet expresses his emotions by observing the sea, using the sea to clarify his aspirations, and the scenery, language and love are integrated into one.
In "The Turtle is Longevity", "The old man is in trouble, his ambition is thousands of miles; the martyr is in his old age, his ambition is endless", which directly reveals Cao Cao's ambition and pride.
Cao Cao was good at innovation. He was the pioneer in learning folk songs and creating Yuefu poems. He used old Yuefu inscriptions to write about current events or express his feelings, such as "Xing Dew" and "Xing Haoli", which were originally elegy, but Cao Cao used them to describe the turmoil of reality and express his own grief.
Cao Cao's poetic language is simple and concise, good at using metaphors, vivid images, and the style of poetry is sad and generous, melancholy and vigorous.
Cao Pi, Cao Cao's second son, ascended the throne as King of Wei after Cao Cao's death. Later generations of the Han Dynasty became emperor and were known as Emperor Wen of Wei. Cao Pi was good at poetry and prose, and quite a few of his works have been handed down, most of which are famous works. There are more than 40 poems in existence, in three-character, four-character, five-character, six-character, seven-character, and mixed-character styles.
Most of Cao Pi's poems describe love and nostalgia between men and women, such as "Miscellaneous Poems? Long Autumn Nights", "Song of the Swallows", "Autumn Moon", etc. "Miscellaneous Poems: Long Autumn Nights" uses floating clouds as a metaphor to describe a wanderer who encountered misfortune and was forced to leave his hometown and stayed abroad for a long time. He hesitated to speak because of fear of outsiders. The poem ends abruptly with a depressing mood, expressing the homesickness and irresolvable sadness.
Two songs from "Yan Ge Xing". "The Autumn Wind is Bleak and the Weather Is Cool" describes a woman who stays alone in an empty house and misses her husband who is traveling far away in the cold night of late autumn. The feelings are sincere, the thoughts are euphemistic and sad, and the language is fresh, natural, harmonious and smooth.
"Yan Ge Xing" is the earliest complete seven-character poem in ancient my country. It opened the way for the further development of seven-character poetry and occupies an important position in the history of poetry.
Many of Cao Pi's poems are compatible with the characteristics of Han Dynasty Yuefu folk songs and Han Dynasty literati poems, and have new artistic creations. His poems are lyrical, graceful and subtle, and their poetic language has the simplicity of folk songs and the magnificence of literati.
Cao Zhi, Cao Cao’s third son. Cao Zhi was talented and quick-thinking when he was young, and Cao Cao admired his son very much. However, he relied on his talent and arrogance, acted willfully, and did not care about his words and deeds. In the end, he fell out of favor with Cao Cao. After Cao Pi became emperor, he immediately weakened Cao Zhi's power. After that, Cao Zhi was depressed and finally died in sorrow and anger.
Cao Zhi’s poems, poems and prose are all outstanding, especially his poetry achievement is the highest. Cao Zhi's poems can be divided into two periods based on his brother Cao Pi's proclaiming himself emperor. The poems in the early period are filled with the enterprising spirit of pursuing political ideals and yearning for achievements.
Cao Zhi's later poems are full of an atmosphere of sadness, anger and depression. The poem that best represents this period is "Giving the White Horse to Wang Biao". The whole poem is divided into 7 chapters. The lyrical content is interspersed with narratives and scene descriptions, which either directly express one's feelings or express one's feelings through contrast. The poem also uses the thimble rhetorical technique of successive chapters to vividly express the poet's complex and tortuous thoughts and feelings.
Cao Zhi’s poetry creation has achieved high artistic achievements. He paid attention to the combination of literati literature and folk music, which made the art of poetry achieve a great leap.
Cao Zhi was the first person to vigorously write five-character poems in the history of ancient Chinese literature. His creation promoted the development of five-character poems.
His five-character poems have more lyrical elements, and their poems have distinctive personality and lyricism.
Cao Zhi also enhanced the literary style of five-character poems. On the basis of keeping the simplicity and nature of folk songs, he also paid attention to the style of words and antitheses, paying attention to word refinement and sound and color, showing the characteristics of concise language and gorgeous words; Cao Zhi's Five-character poems pay attention to writing skills. Most of them have a delicate structure and rarely have straightforward narratives. Especially at the beginning, they often start with an aphorism, which plays a leading role in the whole poem.
Among the seven sons of Jian'an, Kong Rong, Wang Can, Xu Qian, Chen Lin, Ying Jue and Liu Zhen, Wang Can achieved the highest achievement.
Wang Can is from Gaoping, Shanyang. Wang Can's poems are deeply emotional, generous and tragic, and his three "Seven Sorrow Poems" best represent his poetic style. The sentence "You can't see anything when you go out, the white bones cover the plain" in the first poem can quite reflect the reality of the social turmoil at that time. face.
Liu Zhen was born in Ningyang, Dongping. His poems are strong and upright, focusing on momentum without any decoration. His representative works are the three poems "Gift to Congdi". These three poems respectively use pine trees and phoenixes to describe his steadfast and noble personality. They are not only a praise to his disciples, but also the poet's self. Portrait.
Xu Qian was born in Weifang, Shandong. His representative poems include 6 "Thoughts in the Chamber", most of which describe the feelings of resentment between women and girls, and their emotions are euphemistic.
Chen Lin is from Yangzhou, Jiangsu. His Yuefu poem "Drinking Horses in the Great Wall Grottoes" is based on the construction of the Great Wall in the Qin Dynasty and describes the pain and disasters that heavy corvee brought to the people.
Cai Yan is the daughter of the famous writer and scholar Cai Yong. Cai Yan is erudite and proficient in music. She is represented by the Sao style "Poetry of Sorrow and Indignation". This poem is 540 words long. Through the poet's own experiences, it reflects the social reality at that time in a broad and profound way. This poem is deeply influenced by the Yuefu narrative poetry of the Han Dynasty and occupies an important position in the history of the development of realist poetry.