Shen Deqian's literary thoughts.

Shen Deqian studied under Ye Xie when he was young, and his poetic thoughts were influenced by Ye Xie to some extent, but he failed to inherit the positive factors in Ye Xie's theory. The purpose of his discussion on poetry is mainly found in his book On Poetry and the preface and example sentences of his books, such as The Source of Ancient Poetry, Poems of Tang Dynasty and Poems of Ming Dynasty (later named Poems of Qing Dynasty). Shen Deqian emphasized that poetry served feudal politics. At the beginning of Talking about Poetry, it said: "Poetry is the Tao, can reason, can care about things, can feel ghosts and gods, can run the country, and can deal with princes, so it is so important." At the same time, it advocates "gentle and honest, the ultimate rule" (on the volume of "Talking about Poetry") and advocates the Confucian tradition of "poetry teaching".

In terms of artistic style, he pays attention to "style", so his poetic theory is generally called "mode theory". The so-called "style" originally refers to the rhythm and tone of poetry, and also refers to its magnificent and changeable aesthetic feeling. His theory originated from the Seven Scholars of the Ming Dynasty, so Shen Shi respected the Seven Scholars of the Ming Dynasty and rejected the police and Jingling. On the constitution of poetry, he lived in the Tang Dynasty but lost to the Song Dynasty. His so-called "style" is "the style that can't surpass the three Tang Dynasties" (on Poetry), "Poetry reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty and was well prepared", while "the inferiority of the Song and Yuan Dynasties" (Tang Yi Ji) is essentially the same as that of the seven poets in the early and late Ming Dynasty. The so-called "tune" emphasizes the importance of melody. He said: "Poetry uses sound, and its subtlety lies in fluctuation. Readers are quiet, quiet and chanting, feeling that it is difficult to write it in the previous voice, and all the wonderful things heard outside come out together. Zhu Ziyun: "Irony is based on prosperity, while suggestion is based on style." Reading poetry is really interesting. "

However, the significance of Shen Shi's poetics is actually different from that of the Seven Scholars in Ming Dynasty. Because his poetry theory has the most important and fundamental premise, that is, it needs a kind of "poetry teaching" which is conducive to the ruling order and is "gentle and sincere". In the first section of Talking about Poetry, he said: "Poetry is the Tao, which can be used rationally, done good deeds, felt ghosts and gods, taught the country and ruled the princes." This poem first determines the value of poetry from the perspective of benefiting feudal politics. He also talked about "his words have substance" and "primitive temperament", but he suggested that only those who are related to the daily life of interpersonal relationships and the success or failure of ancient and modern times can survive. If he acts gently, he will be "the most harmful to people's hearts and can't survive at all" (see Poems of Chao Jue). Therefore, according to the standard of "poetry teaching", Tang poetry is no longer good. Living in the Tang Dynasty, while stressing style, we should also "look back on elegance and respect poetry" (Talking about Poetry). Therefore, Shen Shi's argument is very similar to that of the ancient writers of Tongcheng School. Although they emphasized the writings of eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, they thought that their thoughts were still not pure enough and should be traced back to Confucian classics. In terms of poetic style, Shen Deqian confuses the principle of "gentleness and gentleness" with the artistic expression of "implication", and advocates honesty, gentleness and implication, and opposes exposure. He also said: "The beauty of Yuefu lies in promoting festivals with countless voices. It comes from there, walks slowly, and often meets at the corner of Xianghui. This is the legacy of Yonghe Yin. " (same as above)