What is Twenty-four Poems?

Twenty-four Poems is a monograph on the aesthetics and theory of ancient poetry. This old poem was written by Si Kongtu in the late Tang Dynasty, but in fact the author has doubts. It inherits the aesthetic thoughts of Taoism and metaphysics, takes Taoist philosophy as the main thought and nature as the aesthetic basis, including many artistic styles and aesthetic artistic conception of poetry, and classifies the styles and realms created by poetry. The whole story is full of Taoist flavor. Tao is the noumenon and life of the universe, which produces all things in the world. Twenty-four poems are also twenty-four aesthetic realms of Tao. This is a theoretical work on poetry creation, especially the aesthetic style of poetry. It not only vividly summarizes and depicts the characteristics of various poetic styles, but also deeply discusses the formation of various artistic styles from the perspective of creation, which has made considerable contributions to poetry creation, criticism and appreciation. This made it not only received the attention of the poetic circles at that time, but also had a great influence later, becoming a classic in the history of China's literary criticism.

Twenty-four Poems focuses on poetic style. In China's ancient literary criticism, "style" is often called "style". On the basis of Liu Xie's predecessors' exposition, Si Kongtu comprehensively improved the style of poetry and divided it into 24 types, namely: vigorous, diluted, slender, heavy, lofty, elegant, refined, vigorous, beautiful, natural, subtle, bold, smart, meticulous, sparse, unique, tortuous and realistic. Each article takes twelve four-character poems as an example and arranges them in order. The summary of the general catalogue of Sikuquanshu calls it "all the bodies are prepared, not the main body."

The greatest feature of the style of Twenty-four Poems is that it pays attention to the artistic conception of various styles, but not to the elements and methods of its formation. The author uses the language of poetry to describe the artistic conception of various styles, and adds a little creative method of this style in his writing. Some are perceptual images that have not been analyzed by rational logic. Such as "Qing Qi": "Juanjuan pine, there is a stream under it. It's sunny and snowy, and fishing boats are separated by streams. Lovely as jade, step by step to find seclusion. Carry forward and stop; The sky is blue and leisurely. It is impossible to accept the difference between the past and the present. Such as the dawn of the moon, such as the autumn of gas. " It is really "nothing to say" not to tell the whole story and let readers chew, understand and grasp it themselves.

Although most chapters have a few rational explanations on the methods and characteristics of expression, they all try to keep images and poetry, which is consistent with the artistic conception of the whole article. For example, "Fiber" said: "Collecting running water, Pumbaa is far from spring. When you are in a deep valley, you will see beauty. Peaches are full of trees, and it is windy and rainy. Liu Yin Road turns, and warblers live next to each other. The more you ride, the more you know. If it is inexhaustible, it will be as new as the past. " The long, quiet and bright spring scenery described in the poem is the so-called "slim" style. The phrase "the more you ride, the more you know" can be regarded as a theoretical analysis of this style, that is, the more you experience and observe this natural scenery, the more you can understand and grasp it, and the more you will avoid being associated with the ancients in performance, thus generating endless new ideas.

This undoubtedly means that the objective world is the source of poetry. However, "the more you ride, the truer your knowledge" can be regarded as the protagonist of the in-depth exploration of victory and seclusion in the poem, while still maintaining the image consistency with the previous work.

Although the title of "Twenty-four Poems" is "all aspects are ready, not one style", it is actually branded with the author's world outlook, reflecting the author's tendency and state of mind as a hermit eager to explain the Tao, which is indifferent, lonely and sad. He uses artistic conception to explain his style, in which "meaning" is often "seclusion", "independence", "lightness" and "silence", while "realm" is often desolate, empty, moonlit and sunset. Even those "bold", "bold", "vigorous" and "broad-minded" styles lack inspiring spirit. On the philosophical level, these artistic conceptions are dominated by the concepts of Taoism, truth, element and emptiness. Therefore, strictly speaking, it is not "not exclusive", and there is a general trend of desalination.

The "flavor" of "poetic flavor" can be interpreted as "category", that is, twenty-four categories; It can also be used as a solution to "taste", that is, pondering various styles. Si Kongtu is good at discussing poetry with "taste". In On Poetry with Li Sheng, he said, "Fools think you can distinguish between interest and poetry." He demanded that poetry should have a "taste beyond taste". The so-called "off-flavor" means "off-flavor", "off-image" and "off-scene", that is, the infinity of association, imagination and aesthetic feeling caused by specific artistic images. The style of Twenty-four Poems also runs through this kind of artistic masterpiece. For example, "beyond the image, in the ring" in "Vigorous", "silent, romantic" and "out of shape, like several people" in "implicit" and so on. Influenced by Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts, poetry is naturally unpretentious, pure and correct, and it is not forced to follow suit. These thoughts throughout the book are also contributions to the art of poetry.