Tang poetry is an outstanding representative of Chinese literature. There are so many volumes of Tang poetry that ordinary people cannot and do not need to read them all. There have been more than a hundred compilers and selectors of Tang poems since Yuan Jie of the Tang Dynasty's "Zhongzhongji". The famous ones include Wang Yuyang's "Samadhi Collection of Tang Xian" and Shen Deqian's "Collection of Tang Poems". But the one with the greatest influence and wide spread is undoubtedly "300 Tang Poems" compiled and selected by Sun Zhu, a retired scholar from Hengtang.
Poetry selection is the knowledge that requires the most knowledge, insight and courage. A selection without a high level of appreciation and appreciation will inevitably not be accepted by people, let alone be widely circulated. So, what is the reason for the success of "300 Tang Poems"?
Regarding this issue, commentators often examine "300 Tang Poems: Original Preface to Hengtang Retired Scholars" and believe that the success of "300 Tang Poems" mainly lies in its popularity. It is true that popularity is one of the characteristics of this anthology, and it is also one of the reasons why it is accepted by the broad masses and has been widely circulated. But this alone is obviously biased and underestimates Sun Zhu's appreciation of Tang poetry. We might as well select some representative poets from "300 Tang Poems" and make a brief list. From this, we can clearly see Sun Zhu's selection principles and standards, and appreciate his insight and deep understanding of Tang poetry.
"300 Tang Poems" selects 77 poets and 313 poems. Judging from the poet's social status and identity, everyone from emperors and ministers to scholars, commoners, and even monks and prostitutes had a place, which reflects the broad and fair mind of the editor. What is even more commendable is that Sun Zhu showed his unique insight here and selected works with relatively high artistic quality. The level of artistic level is the most important criterion in his selection. The identity and fame of the poet does not determine whether he is selected. Wang Zhihuan only has 6 poems in the "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty", and two poems, "Climbing the Stork Tower" and "Liangzhou Ci", were selected into the "300 Tang Poems"; Jin Changxu has only one "Spring Resentment" in the "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" , was also selected into "300 Tang Poems"; Du Qiuniang's "Golden Threaded Clothes" was also selected into "300 Tang Poems".
The most outstanding feature of "300 Tang Poems" is its complete poetry style. The editor selects poems from the perspective of poetic style. We have discovered that various poetic styles themselves have inherent laws and have a great influence on the expression of content. The poet's spiritual temperament, the artistic style formed and reflected by the spiritual temperament, as well as the content and subject matter of the poem have a great relationship with the style of the poem. From the table above, we can clearly find that Sun Zhu pays special attention to the number of poems selected that are consistent with the highest achievements of the poetry style that the poet is good at.
Poets who are good at various poetry styles include Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, Cen Shen, Li Bai, Du Fu, Wei Yingwu, Bai Juyi, Liu Zongyuan and Li Shangyin. They are all masters and big spenders, so they are good at each.
The best writer of rhythmic poetry is Du Fu. Among the 39 selected poems, 23 are rhythmic poetry. Another poet who is good at rhythmic poetry is Li Shangyin. Li Bai is good at ancient styles, and the number of his ancient styles selected accounts for more than half of the total number of selections. In addition, Chen Ziang only chose one song from Qigu, and Han Yu only chose 4 songs from Qigu.
The characters of these three people all have the characteristics of heroic, impassioned, and upright. They need to lament and sing freely, and the ancient style of poetry can better express this character, so their creations The achievements in ancient style are higher.
Du Fu's poetic style is melancholy and frustrating, so his poems have long verses. He is a man who dances in shackles and respects Confucianism and kings. He can develop on this basis, so he has studied the most profoundly in the verses with greater restraints. Under the restraints, he can innovate and strive for excellence. Therefore, the verses are most in line with his character and spirit. Sun Zhu has noticed this relationship between poetry style and style.
In terms of language form, 19 of Wang Wei’s 29 poems are five-character poems, which reflects that he is better at five-character poems; while only one of the 15 poems selected by Meng Haoran is not a five-character poem, which shows that he is good at five-character poems. The attainments in five-character poetry are particularly profound. Li Qi, on the other hand, selected seven poems, all of which are seven-character poems, which reflects that he is particularly good at seven-character poems. These are all proven by their creative achievements.
Let’s talk about Yuefu poetry. In "300 Tang Poems", Li Bai has the most Yuefu poems, and his achievements are also very high. Although Bai Juyi advocated the "New Yuefu" movement and personally composed a large number of Yuefu poems, his achievements were not very high, so none of Bai Juyi's Yuefu poems were selected.
Bai Juyi's two most famous seven-character ancient poems, "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" and "Pipa Song", were both selected, making him the one with the largest number of words among the 77 selected poets. From here we can see that Sun Zhu indeed has profound insights into Tang poetry.
From the perspective of the times, all poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty were good at ancient styles, but the number gradually decreased in the mid-Tang Dynasty; by the late Tang Dynasty, the ancient styles were extremely declining and almost disappeared. On the contrary is the fate of quatrains: there were fewer in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, gradually increased in the middle Tang Dynasty, and became grand in the late Tang Dynasty. This is consistent with the characteristics of the times. The prosperous Tang Dynasty was grand, and everyone wanted to make achievements. Everyone was impassioned, ambitious, and freely expressed their thoughts. Therefore, the poets consciously chose the ancient style of poetry, because only the ancient style could best express their spirit and spirit. In the late Tang Dynasty, the situation changed greatly. Life became increasingly vulgar and people pursued pleasure. Therefore, exquisite quatrains came in handy and became a fashion trend.
From a vertical perspective, the most selected ancient poems are Li Bai and Du Fu, followed by Wang Wei and Wei Yingwu; the five rhymes are Du Fu, followed by Wang Wei and Meng Haoran; the seven rhymes, except Du Fu, are Li Shangyin Among the top five, Wang Wei is the best, and among the seven laws, Du Mu and Li Shangyin are the best. These are all evident in the table above. It can be said that Sun Zhu has a deep understanding of the poetry style that the poet is good at, and his selection is basically consistent with the poet's actual situation.
Sun Zhu’s editing principle is to pay attention to the form and rhythmic characteristics of poetry from a purely artistic perspective, and then combine this with relevant content to select “especially important works” among his “popular works”. "" are all compiled from crystal clear and round pearls and jade. In terms of content and style, there are more than 300 Tang poems with various themes, emotions and styles. There are pastoral landscape poems that blend poetry and painting, and are peaceful and tranquil; there are majestic, romantic and wonderful frontier poems; there are grand works like "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" and "Pipa Song"; there are also poems like "Red Beans Are Born in the South" There are exquisite and tactful poems; there are the deep and powerful generous elegy of "Thinking about the long journey of heaven and earth, and crying when I am alone"; there are also the brisk and interesting murmurs of "After putting on makeup, I asked my husband in a low voice, and the eyebrows were light and dark." Love language...and so on, poems of various themes and emotions are included in it.
Of course, "300 Tang Poems" does not select verses, but there are not without excellent works in the verses, such as Zhang Ruoxu's "Spring River Flower Moonlight Night"; it is also quite puzzling that Li He's poems are not selected, at least Li He is also in a class of his own among Tang poets. These issues are debatable. "Xin Mao Year Sijia Xing Zongzi Works" is the work of the webmaster, please do not confuse it.
The era when Sun Zhu lived ("300 Tang Poems" was compiled in 1764 during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty) was the time when poetic theories such as the theory of verve, style, and spirit unified the literary world. But Sun Zhu is able to break through the theories of various schools, draw on the strengths of others, and gather the best, which cannot but be admired. Perhaps this is why "300 Tang Poems" has been so popular for more than 200 years.
Original preface of "300 Tang Poems": When secular children go to school, they are taught poems by thousands of families. They are easy to understand, so they are not abandoned. However, his poems are picked up casually, and they are clumsy and difficult to distinguish, and they are limited to three There are only two styles of Qilu, but people from the Tang and Song Dynasties mixed in between them, which is a unique system. Because they specialize in the most popular poems in the Tang Dynasty, they select the most important ones, and get dozens of poems from each style, and more than 300 of them are recorded in one volume. , as a school textbook, for children to fly, even if the white head is white, it is not far better than the poems of thousands of schools. The proverb goes: Read 300 Tang poems by heart, and you can recite them even if you don't know how to recite them. Please compile and verify it accordingly.