Compared with the grand fairy world in other works of Chu Ci, the artistic achievements of Qu Yuan's "The Fisherman" are relatively inferior. The fantasy mythical world undoubtedly contains a kind of romanticism and has a strong image appeal. In contrast, Qu Yuan's "The Fisherman" has more reasoning elements but greatly weakens the artistry. This is closely related to Qu Yuan's theme of "I would rather go to the Xiang River and be buried in the belly of a river fish", but also maintain his innocence and integrity. But from the perspective of ideological connotation, the influence of "The Fisherman" on Chinese poetry tradition and literary tradition cannot be underestimated at all. It must be noted that there are two cultural archetypes or motifs in "The Fisherman", which run through the entire history of ancient Chinese literature. The first is the debate between purity and turbidity, which is between dreams and sleep, and the second is the image of the fisherman.
The debate about clarity and dreaminess in "The Fisherman" is one of the most classic expressions in Chinese literature. This is the correspondence between "dream" and "awakening", using dream as dream transformation, intoxication, turbidity, and intoxication; using awakening as awakening, awakening, soothing, and awakening alone, which metaphorically refers to the intoxication of the spirit. Wake up. This became the source of the idea of ??honest officials in Chinese literature. Qu Yuan said: "The whole world is turbid and I am alone pure; everyone is drunk and I am alone sober. This is how I see release." Qu Yuan attributed his lack of political power to his own "purity" and "awakening". He was exiled because he was "pure" and "awakened" alone. Qu Yuan clearly expresses here that he has transcended the thoughts and concepts of all things to reach the realm of Tao. He adopts the very obvious Huang-Lao Taoist concept of entering the world, and the spearhead is directed at the current, worldly, and politics of this side; and the fisherman said: If a saint is not stagnant in things, why not clear the mud and make waves? Everyone is drunk, why not feed the bad and swallow the bad? Why do you think deeply and exalt yourself and let yourself go? "Although it does not go beyond this worldly sentiment, it has obvious Taoist sentiments of Lao Zhuang and Zhuang Zhuang, which pointed out a path of detachment from reality for Qu Yuan. After "The Fisherman", the thoughts of upright officials and Qingliu have basically become an important part of the literary works of the past dynasties. One of the themes, most of the literature of the past dynasties has rarely been unconventional.
However, there are many poems in later generations that use the fisherman as the artistic "prototype" to trigger emotions, starting from Wang Wei's "The Bamboo Noise Returns to the Nv, Lotus." "Getting off the fishing boat" ("Mountain Dwelling in the Autumn Mist"), to Li Bai's "Life is not satisfactory in this world, and the Ming Dynasty spread out and flattened the boat" ("Xuanzhou Xie Tiao Lou Farewell School Secretary Shu Yun"), from Liu Zongyuan's "Lonely Boat with Coiled Hat" "Old man, fishing alone in the snow on the cold river" ("Jiang Snow"), to Han Yu's "The algae is all over the plate and there is nowhere to lay down, and I hear the fisherman knocking on the side of the boat singing" ("Xiangzhong") to Zhang Zhihe's poem "The Fisherman" "Green bamboo hat, green coir raincoat. Although "Slanting Wind and Drizzle Don't Need to Return" has different techniques and different tastes, they all emerge from the deep roots of the "prototype" of Chu Ci. What's more worth mentioning is that when the great writer Su Shi was demoted to Huangzhou, he drank with guests at night On the way home, while drunk, he recited the words "The boat will pass away from now on, and the rest of my life will be left in the river and sea" ("Linjiang Fairy") to express my yearning for the free and reclusive life of the fisherman. All these poems are not gestures of resistance or questioning. The original image of the "fisherman" in Chu Ci gradually became more restrained, expressing the unique fisherman in the author's heart.