On the one hand, learning from Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty mainly refers to learning from Tang Dynasty or Song Dynasty in classical poetry creation. The debate on this issue mainly began in ancient times, especially in the Song Dynasty, until the Qing Dynasty and until modern times. This is of great practical significance among those who studied poetry at that time. In fact, there is no question of whether Tang poetry is good or not in the dispute between Tang and Song poetry in past dynasties or in the 20th century. The dispute between Tang and Song actually involves a question, that is, whether the classical poetry of Song Dynasty after Tang Dynasty also has the necessity and value of existence. Judging from the development of China's classical poetry, Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Dongpo and Huang Tingjian, the first two poets are representatives of Tang poetry, while the last two poets are representatives of Song poetry. In fact, the Song Dynasty is another model of China's classical poetry after the Tang Dynasty, so people who study poetry creation after the Song Dynasty are either from the Tang Dynasty or from the Song Dynasty, and there is nothing else. In fact, the last question involved in the dispute between Tang and Song poetry is whether the Song poetry also has its own value.
In fact, Chen Yan is a representative of Tongguang Song School in theory and creation, and his views have a great influence on our future study of Song poetry. For example, an idea is the so-called "ternary theory". The theory of "three elements" holds that the development of China's classical poetry is mainly "three elements": one is "Kaiyuan". Fifteen years or so after the beginning of Kaiyuan marked the formation of poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which was marked by the so-called "temperament" and was a peak of China's poetry. The other is "Yuanhe". "Yuanhe" actually refers to the mid-Tang period, namely Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Han Yu, and Meng Jiao and "Han Meng School of Poetry". There is a saying that "poetry changes yuan and style", which has changed a lot, and has an impact on the development of later yuan and poetry and the later Song Dynasty. The peak of the development of Song poetry is the Northern Song Dynasty, which is represented by Su and Huang, and is the third "yuan" in the "ternary theory". "Sanyuan" is the most important stage in the development of China's classical poetry, in which "Yuanhe" plays a connecting role.
The second influential point put forward by Chen Yan is that he advocates "scholars' poems". Tang poetry is a poet's poem, Song poetry is a scholar's poem, and this scholar is a scholar. This is also the difference between Song writers and Tang writers. I feel that writers in Song Dynasty are better than those in Tang Dynasty in humanities, culture and even art.. To sum up, poets in the Song Dynasty were well educated. Some of us now advocate scholar writers. In fact, writers were literati as early as the Song Dynasty. Scholars have both advantages and disadvantages. The bad thing is that reason and rational things are too strong, which often erases some poetic things. Chen Yan saw this aspect, so he advocated the best combination of "scholars' poems" and "poets' poems" in poetry creation.
Chen Yan also has an influential point of view, that is, where is the essence of Song poetry. In the past, Su Dongpo was regarded as the representative of Song poetry in the evaluation of Song people. Su Dongpo's main achievement is his classical poetry, which is mainly reflected in the creation of prose poetry. Therefore, it is more important to think that the ancient style in the Song Dynasty is well written, especially the "Seven Exquisites of Ancient Style", and its essence lies in that part. However, Chen Yan believes that the essence of Song poetry lies not in classical poetry, but in modern poetry. In his view, Huang Tingjian and Chen Shidao should be the most typical representatives of Song poetry. His view is that if the development of Song poetry is to be regarded as poetry, it can be said that it started with Ouyang Xiu and then reached its peak with Su Dongpo. If it is from the creation of modern poetry, it should be that Song poetry has its own characteristics in the creation of modern poetry; And when did your own characteristics begin? From Wang Anshi to Huang Tingjian.
Later, Zhu Ziqing and Cheng went all the way to Mr. Qian Zhongshu. Generally speaking, their views on Song poetry were obviously influenced by Chen Yan. At that time, it was Liu Yazi, the South Society of Liu Yazi, who confronted Chen Yanyou directly. Nanshe advocated that poetics flourished in the Tang Dynasty. In fact, advocating poetry creation to learn from the Tang Dynasty did not begin with Nanshe. There is a slogan for Ming people to learn from the Tang Dynasty: "Poetry must flourish in the Tang Dynasty", and poetry is the goodness of flourishing in the Tang Dynasty.
There is another question I want to mention again, because it involves whether Song people understand thinking in images. The discussion about Song poetry, whether negative or positive, is basically based on the previous views on Song poetry. When Yan Yu mentioned the Song Dynasty in Cang Hua, he thought (Yan Yu was also a member of the Song Dynasty) that people in this dynasty took literature as poetry-writing as poetry, discussing as poetry and learning as poetry-then these three aspects were considered as the characteristics of the Song Dynasty. One of the most important cores of Cang Hua is to advocate "different materials", "different interests", "wonderful understanding" and "interest". "Wu Miao" and "interest" mean that poetry creation should rely on intuition, and poetry should have infinite charm and charm. Judging from these two articles, the poems of the Tang people meet his standards best, so he advocates learning from the Tang people and taking the prosperous Tang dynasty as the law; As for the poems and songs of the Song Dynasty, he said that "words are poems, discussion is poems, and learning is poems", which is a criticism of the Song Dynasty. It is also debatable whether it is appropriate to regard Yan Yu's criticism of Song poetry as the characteristics of Song poetry.
Song poetry is different from Tang poetry. What is the difference? The main viewpoints are as follows: one thinks that the difference between Song poetry and Tang poetry lies in the dominant position of humanistic images. There are two sources of images in classical poetry: one is the image of nature, which is the image of the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains and rivers, and nature; Another image is the humanistic image, that is, the image of historical and cultural remains, which is more reflected in the use of allusions. Therefore, one of the characteristics of Song poetry is that there are many allusions-this is not to say that it has no natural images, but that natural images are not dominant in Song poetry. This is considered to be a feature of the Song Dynasty.
Secondly, the cultural implication and artistic style of Song poetry are different from those of Tang poetry. This view holds that Song poetry is the product of Song Wenhua. People who study the literature of Song Dynasty, Song Poetry and Song Ci all like to quote a sentence from Mr. Chen Yinque, saying that the development of China's culture for thousands of years has reached a very mature stage by the time of Zhao and Song Dynasties. This maturity is not only reflected in the field of literature, but also in the field of philosophy and history. In history, there is such a masterpiece as Purple Tongzhi Sword. In philosophy, there are philosophers like Zhu; In terms of literature, there are eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, six masters in Song Dynasty, and Song poetry is ok, so is Song Ci. The same is true of literati painting and calligraphy in Song Dynasty. Therefore, the difference between Tang and Song poetry is the difference between Song culture and Tang Wenhua.
Thirdly, everyone thinks that the achievements and characteristics of Song poetry are that it is different from Tang poetry, which is also the place where it is higher than Yuan poetry and Ming poetry. Because actually speaking of poetry creation, although it was put forward in the Ming Dynasty that "poetry must flourish in the Tang Dynasty", poets in the Yuan Dynasty began to emphasize that poetry should learn from the Tang people. But no matter how well you study the Tang Dynasty, will you surpass Li Bai and Du Fu? Art lies in innovation. You can't survive in the history of art and literature without your own fresh and unique things. Anyway, Song poetry is different from Tang poetry, which is a great achievement. In addition, one more thing, the overall pursuit of Song poetry is an elegant style. What kind of beauty is the beauty of Song poetry? We put forward a view that it is a kind of beauty of the old environment, that is, gradually entering the old environment. The beauty of native land is a kind of plain beauty, and it is the beauty of old trees with flowers. So this representative of Song poetry, like Huang Tingjian, has a thin and hard style. Being thin simply means that he tries to avoid using many words and expressions with strong feelings and try to avoid using gorgeous words. Gorgeous words are mostly used when people are full of feelings, but Song poetry is not so plain. Moreover, from Su Dongpo to Huang Tingjian, plainness is regarded as the highest symbol of the maturity of the poet's poetry creation style.