"Spiritual Poetic Heart--History of Ancient Chinese Landscape Poetry"
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The following is an excerpt from the preface:
< p>Landscape poetry is the product of human beings' aesthetic ability and artistic creativity for natural scenery reaching a certain stage. In the Book of Songs, the earliest collection of poems in my country, there are simple descriptions of natural scenery and even some scenes that blend scenes. But generally speaking, the description of landscapes and scenery only accounts for a minority in the whole poem. They are just fragments that the poet uses to trigger, foil, highlight, exaggerate or metaphor the poet's thoughts and feelings. The descriptions of natural landscapes in "Songs of Chu" are more specific, vivid, and detailed than those in "The Book of Songs", with more pen and ink, showing the author's higher aesthetic ability and richer artistic imagination. However, the landscape and scenery still play a supporting role in the work, and the poet does not regard the natural landscape as an independent aesthetic object.After a long historical process, people have gradually formed and developed a sense of natural aesthetics, and their ability to appreciate and express the natural beauty of landscapes has also become higher and higher. During the Jian'an period at the end of the Han Dynasty, natural landscapes were generally depicted in large quantities in poems, poems, and letters. Jian'an literati were good at using natural scenery to render the tragic, turbulent and vibrant atmosphere of the times, express impassioned emotions, and express a free and unrestrained spiritual outlook. Cao Cao's poem "Guan Cang Hai" describes the majesty of the turbulent sea, the sun and the moon, and expresses his ambition. The poem has a magnificent realm and a majestic charm. It is recognized as the earliest complete landscape poem in the history of Chinese literature. With the rise of metaphysics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties with Lao and Zhuang's thoughts advocating nature as its core, people's ideological emancipation and literary consciousness emerged. As a poetry genre and a literary trend, landscape poetry finally took shape in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, more than a thousand years before the emergence of landscape poetry in Europe. Xie Lingyun, a poet of the Liu Song Dynasty, was a poet who devoted his whole life to creating landscape poems and achieved outstanding achievements. He has a real and keen observation of natural beauty, and uses rich and exquisite language to describe the shape, texture, tone and atmosphere of natural landscapes, making people feel as if they are immersed in the scene. His landscape poems combine scenic interest, emotional interest, and rational interest, but the three have not yet been integrated into one. Landscape poets of the Six Dynasties include Xie Tiao, He Xun, Yin Keng and others, who developed the beautiful and natural side of Da Xie's landscape poetry.
The Tang Dynasty had a vast territory, strong national power, economic prosperity, social stability, and comprehensive cultural development. The Tang Dynasty allowed Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism to coexist. People had freedom of thought and belief. Roaming and seclusion prevailed in the society. Poets liked to visit mountains and get close to nature. People generally advocated that "clear water produces hibiscus, and nature is free from carvings." Fresh and natural beauty. Landscape poetry reached the pinnacle of art at this time, and famous artists such as Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, Li Bai, Du Fu, Liu Changqing, Wei Yingwu, Bai Juyi, Meng Jiao, Han Yu, Liu Yuxi, Liu Zongyuan, and Du Mu emerged. It is the largest sect in the country of poetry. The landscape poetry of the Tang Dynasty expresses the poets' broad mind, broad vision and enterprising spirit. It is filled with the poets' passion for loving the motherland, loving life and loving nature. It is full of national pride and self-confidence, and has a lofty ideological realm. With brilliant romantic color. Poets are not limited to describing the appearance of landscapes, but pay special attention to capturing the charm of landscapes, grasping the individual characteristics of landscapes, and combining the personality of landscapes with their own personalities to create an artistic conception in which people and nature are highly consistent, and emotions and landscapes are in harmony. . Landscape poetry in the Tang Dynasty has various genres, styles and schools. The maturity and outstanding achievements of the art of landscape poetry added dazzling splendor to the poetry of the Tang Dynasty.
During the Wei, Jin, and Southern Dynasties, the reason why poets had a great love for mountains and rivers was not only due to the political turmoil and the social dislocation that led to the scholar's psychological reasons for hiding, but also the detachment of Xin Taixuan and the fascination of maintaining health and immortality. Madness, which embodies the spiritual thoughts of living in the mountains of Foshan, integrates and affects the psychology of the scholars, so that there is a spiritual direction suitable for being placed in the hills and valleys. When the Sui and Tang Dynasties were unified, society became increasingly stable, and the scholars' psychology of seeking the world was obviously greater than their psychology of hiding. In an era when they were eager for fame and career, the scholars actually maintained an unfailing interest in the beauty of landscapes. This fully illustrates that what prompted them to The various cultural and psychological factors that led scholars to be born with good landscapes still exist. Elegance in the woods and hills and mountains of love, as a poetic personality style, have formed a value content that transcends the times. Correspondingly, the poetic art of the spiritual direction of the elegant forest valley - the pursuit of the poetic beauty of scenery and language has also formed a poetic tradition that has been passed down across the ages. It is on the basis of the above understanding that before we describe and analyze the artistic achievements of Tang Dynasty landscape poetry in detail, it is necessary to solemnly explain that the so-called "first peak" is by no means a sudden spectacle rising from the plains, but The climb ups and downs gradually becomes more and more majestic. In other words, the people of the Tang Dynasty achieved their greatest prosperity by standing on the shoulders of giants.