In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, there were another group of writers, mainly frontier poems.
Mainly such a group of people, they have a long experience of military life, while others, some of whom have a short experience of military life, some even have no experience of military life at all, that is to say, they have never been to the border barracks, but they are fascinated by border life and frontier scenery, so they also wrote some frontier poems.
Then, among these poets, their poems all describe the life of the army, the scenery of the frontier, the customs of some frontier areas, and their profound thoughts on conscription and women.
Because these writers have the same ideological content and similar poetic style, people call this group of writers in the prosperous Tang Dynasty "Frontier Poetry School", among which Gao Shi and Cen Can are the representatives.
Of course, in addition to these two writers, there are a large number of writers, such as Wang Changling, Wang Zhihuan and Cui Hao. In this way, a relatively strong frontier poetry school was formed.
Frontier poems in the prosperous Tang Dynasty should be said to be quite prosperous in the following aspects.
Let's discuss why there was such a frontier poetry school in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
You can also look at it through social reasons and literature itself.
Social reasons for the prosperity of frontier poems in Tang Dynasty
The first social reason is social reality. In the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty was in full swing, the military strength was very strong, and there were many troops stationed in the frontier.
Well, the second social reason is that because of the prosperity of the country, the literati are in high spirits and full of energy.
Therefore, in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the appearance of frontier fortress poets should be said to have a lot to do with this mental state of literati. Some writers have not lived in the army for a long time, and even have no experience in military life. But they also yearn for frontier fortress and military affairs, and have written many frontier fortress poems.
03 literature's own reasons
This comes from social reasons and then from literature itself.
China's frontier poems have a long history. Although there was no frontier poetry school before the prosperous Tang Dynasty, frontier poetry has existed since ancient times. For example, The Book of Songs and Songs of the South in the pre-Qin period all contained the contents of military expeditions, describing the mentality of the characters and the spirit of dying for the country.
There are chapters describing wars in Han Yuefu in Qin and Han Dynasties. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were more and more frontier poems, such as The White Horse by Cao Zhi and The Journey to the North Gate by Bao Zhao. In the early Tang Dynasty, frontier poems became more prosperous and mature, such as joining the army.
It can be said that from the Book of Songs to the early Tang Dynasty, the content of frontier life, the content of military life, and the content of expressing the ambition to recruit talents and die for the country emerged endlessly.
All these have opened up the atmosphere, accumulated experience and provided reference for the prosperity of frontier poems in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. This is also the reason why frontier fortress poetry flourished in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. There used to be frontier poems, but there were no frontier poets. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, a group of such writers emerged at the same time and made great achievements, forming a huge and far-reaching school of poetry.
Above, I briefly introduced what frontier poems are and the reasons for their formation. Next, I began to talk about Cen Can, one of the representative writers of frontier poems in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Cen Can, an outstanding representative of frontier poets.
Let me briefly introduce Cen Can's family and life.
Cen Can (7 15-770), a native of Nanyang, has been an official for generations. His great-grandfather, grandfather and uncle were all prime ministers.
But Cen Can people don't want to climb from scratch like ordinary literati, be a small official, make no mistakes, slowly and steadily, step by step, with a small increase in three years, a big increase in five years, and slowly climb. He doesn't want to take such an old career path, but he is willing to make contributions to the frontier. So he offered to work in the border area. In this way, he had two experiences of serving in the Northwest Army. They are all in Xinjiang today.
For the first time, Yu Tianbao went to Anxi in the eighth year (749), stayed for about two years and returned to Beijing. Three years later, Tianbao was appointed as Feng Changqing's shogunate judge (deputy, similar to an adjutant in the army) in the 13th year of Anxi North Hospital. Eight years' life in Xinjiang military camp provided unique conditions for his frontier poems.
After returning to North Korea, under the recommendation of Du Fu and others, Yu Baoying served in some official positions, Yuan Zai served as our envoy in Kansai to help quell the rebellion, and then crusaded against the Anshi Army rebellion. Later, he made a secretariat and was called Cenjiazhou.
05 Cen Can's Poetry Creation
Cen Can's rich military life has accumulated rich creative materials for him. At the same time, Cen Can loved military life and devoted himself to it sincerely.
He wrote the poem "On the way to Longshan for the first time, I was Judge Yuwen", expressing his feelings at this time. He wrote that for the sake of the king, regardless of personal interests, his wife's high-spirited mental state is also an important reason for his writing frontier poems.
The Content of Cen Can's Frontier Poems
What are the main contents of so many frontier poems? Let's have a look. The content of Cen Can's frontier poems can be divided into three aspects. The first song expresses the ambition to serve the country and make contributions, which not only reflects my mental state, but also reflects the healthy mentality of poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty who are full of vigor and are not afraid of difficulties.
This is what the frontier poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, especially Cen Can, have.
He has repeatedly said, "
The mouth of Yinshan Mountain is like an arrow, and the iron gate is like Kansai Moon.
Both of them were sad and tearful, and Sasha Vujacic shot into people's faces.
My husband is not rich in his thirties, so he can keep his pen and ink inkstone all day. "(Yinshan Bridge West Pavilion).
"Volcano should be hotter in June, and the pedestrians at Chiting intersection are unique.
Knowing that you often cross Qilian City, you won't be afraid to see Luntai Moon.
Please dismount, enter Luzai Restaurant and take you to the west ten thousand miles away.
Fame comes only from horses. What a hero. "("send Li for western loyalist agreement ").
All this shows that he wants to achieve fame in the frontier, in the war horse and on the battlefield. This is the husband of the hero.
After the An Shi Rebellion broke out, he organically combined the two aspects of joining the army and beating thieves, like his two marches, which talked about this aspect:
Regret reading too much in my early years. If I learn the bow and arrow, I can kill the enemy myself. Therefore, such an ambition, such a healthy and progressive mentality, has been prominently reflected in his frontier poems.
Second, describe military life in detail and truly. For example, send Judge Liu Dan from Wuwei to Anxi, send the Song of the Wheel Tower by General Feng, and send him to the Western Ocean.
These poems not only express the ambition of the soldiers to make contributions, but also reflect some grievances in their hearts, including the soldiers' praise and praise for the fiery life of the army and the description of the terrible experience of the army.
These experiences of ambition, sadness, praise and horror all provide readers with real and legendary fresh content.
In other words, on the basis of traditional frontier poems, some fresh contents have been added.
Third, the description of frontier fortress scenery and frontier fortress customs.
This is very distinctive in Cen Can's poems, and even some things can make up for the lack of history books. Cen Can's main troops live in the northwest border area of Xinjiang, so there are a lot of descriptions about the frontier scenery in Xinjiang in his frontier poems.
For example, write about the magnificence of volcanic cloud (the fire clouds are frozen all over the mountains, and birds dare not come thousands of miles away), the searing heat of hot sea water (steaming sand and burning clouds, boiling waves and burning waves and frying the Han moon), the perennial snow in Tianshan Mountain (the snow clouds in Tianshan Mountain often don't open, and the snow in Qianfeng Wanling Mountain is Cui Wei), the early snowstorm and cold (the north wind rolls white grass and eight In the snow cross Tatar days), and the banquet in the army (Pipa flute music).
Say goodbye to Dugu Gradually and Yan Ming and eight servants;
These rare scenery and exotic customs, which we mainlanders can't see, have brought brand-new content to frontier fortress poems and made readers feel refreshed.
In addition, there are some works that express friendship and homesickness. For example, the farewell poem (sending Judge Wu to Beijing) and his "ambassador to Beijing" all express nostalgia and friendship.
The Artistic Features of Cen Can's Frontier Poems
It can be said that it is very artistic.
Formally:
The greatest feature of Cen Can's frontier poems is magnificent and unrestrained romanticism. In form, Cen Can mostly adopts free verse, that is, the form is relatively free, and he is especially good at using seven-character verse.
Because this form is long in length and flexible in poetic style, it is suitable for expressing rich content and complex thoughts and feelings, paying attention to the expression of content, that is, the proposition of material, which is very creative, and the lines are full of strange feelings and strong colors, which artistically expresses his ambition and lofty feelings in his poems.
Judging from his main expression techniques, there are three main aspects.
One is rich imagination, the other is peculiar exaggeration, and the third is changeable rhythm.
For example, The Journey to the West, his poem, is not only a documentary about the life of sending a commander to crusade against the enemy, but also describes the expedition environment, the hardships of military life and the high morale of soldiers. This poem is not a documentary, and the author has added his rich imagination to the environment.
This is entirely out of imagination. At that time, the environment and situation were vividly written, with rich imagination, exaggerated strangeness and subtle metaphor.
For example, you are familiar with the phrase "Spring breeze comes, night comes, and ten thousand pear blossoms blow away" in "Sending Tian Shuji home", which is also a wonderful imagination and metaphor.
About the change of rhythm:
Surprisingly, "Journey to Sichuan, Sending a Teacher to the Western Expedition" makes ends meet, and the three sentences turn to rhyme and jump like a sudden storm; "Bai Xuege Farewell to Tian Shuji Wu's Home", or two sentences and one rhyme, or four sentences and one rhyme, has a change of rhyme and a lively jump.
The artistic style of Cen Can s frontier poems;
Vivid framing, strange imagination, novel metaphor, rich colors, magnificent pictures, lofty artistic conception and scene blending have formed a magnificent artistic style.
Du Fu said: "The Cen Can brothers are curious", which shows that strangeness is the main feature of Cen Can's poetry, but this kind of imagination is not only exaggerated, but close to real life, and it is reasonable and makes people feel true and credible.
Of course, he writes lyrical scenery, which is also very distinctive, such as his representative works "Dream of Spring" and "On the Messenger of the Capital".
In addition, although he is a representative writer of frontier poems, he also wrote many landscape poems, the number of which is second only to that of Wang and Meng, and he is known as "beautiful".
Cen Can's poems enjoyed a high status at that time and later generations.