Five-character poem, one of the ancient poetry genres. It refers to a poem with five words in each sentence. The number of sentences is uncertain, but each sentence has five words. Five-character poems are formed by absorbing folk songs. Five-character poems can accommodate more words, thus expanding the capacity of poems and expressing feelings and narratives more flexibly and meticulously. In terms of syllables, even-odd matching is more musical. Therefore, it is more suitable for the social life developed after the Han Dynasty, thus gradually replacing the orthodox position of four-character poetry and becoming one of the main forms of classical poetry. Modern poetry appeared after the early Tang Dynasty, including five-character poems and five-character quatrains. The five-character poems before the Tang Dynasty are generally called "five-character ancient poems" or "five-character poems".
Five-character poetry is the main form of classical poetry, which has been paid the most attention by poets since Jian 'an. For example, Zhong Rong said in Preface to Poetry: Five-character poetry is the key to literary works, because this poetic genre refers to shaping things, writing things with poor feelings, and it is the most meticulous. The Han Dynasty happened to be the mature period of five-character poems. It was in the Han Dynasty that after hundreds of years of independent development, five-character poems finally broke away from fate and moved towards narration, from the stage of folk songs and Yuefu songs to the track of literati creation with independent language and artistic characteristics, thus laying a solid foundation for poetry to consciously embark on a new era of prosperity and brilliant achievements.
The appearance of five-character poems originated from folk songs. Around the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the beginning of the Warring States Period, there have been four fonts in folk songs, which are more convenient to accommodate disyllabic words to express more and more rich social real life and the embryonic form of people's inner world. For example, the Chu folk song "The Ruzi Song" contained in "Mencius on Li Lou": the water of surging waves is crystal clear and can be used by me; The water in the rough waves is so turbid that it can be used to drown my feet.
By the Qin Dynasty, the songs of the Great Wall were completely regular, with rhyming every other sentence and more harmonious syllables. At present, the earliest five-character style that can be seen in the Han Dynasty is Records of the Historian Xiang Yu's Biography. Zhang Shoujie quoted Yu Ji's Song of the King of Hexiang, and Lu Jia quoted Chu Chunqiu: the Han soldiers have been omitted, and Chu songs are everywhere. Your majesty's breath is exhausted, so why should I?
In addition, the beautiful and melodious love song "Jiangnan" written by Han Yuefu: lotus can be picked in Jiangnan, lotus leaves are mixed, and fish plays between lotus leaves. Fish hits the lotus leaf east, fish hits the lotus leaf west, fish hits the lotus leaf south, and fish hits the lotus leaf north.
It is also considered as a folk song in the early Han Dynasty. And such beautiful, vivid and pleasing folk songs, after being adopted into Yuefu during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, will inevitably attract the attention of scholars and consciously imitate and learn. Now it seems that music, singing and dancing serve the emperor's initiative. Li Yannian has a famous "Li Furen Song": There are beautiful women in the north, and they are peerless and independent. Take care of the city first, then the country. I don't know the beauty of the city and the countryside, but it's hard to get it again.
The fifth sentence of this song is seven words, which is not very standardized in the early stage of imitation. However, with the frequent increase of imitation, especially the participation of literati with high cultural level, its form is gradually standardized, and its interest has also changed to lyric theory. In ancient Yuefu poems, you can see songs and poems written obviously for literati, such as Long Songs written by Xianghe: sunflowers in the green garden, waiting for the morning sun. Spring fills the earth with hope, and everything presents a scene of prosperity. I am always afraid that when the cold autumn comes, the trees in Ye Er will turn yellow and the grass will wither. A hundred rivers go east to the sea, when will they return to the west? If you don't work hard, you will be sad!
This song is based on the morning dew on the sunflower in the garden. After the sun rises, it will dry up, lamenting that everything sometimes rises and falls in the spring and autumn, and then exhorting people to work hard while they are young, otherwise the boss will accomplish nothing and worry in vain. Using Bixing, the language is close to the simplicity of folk songs, but it is literary, profound in reasoning and warning, lyrical and high in artistic taste, which shows that the author has cultural accomplishment and is not the same as the folk oral ballads. Another poem of the same song has more prominent characteristics: the pavilion on the mountain, the stars in the clouds, the distant vision and the wandering love. Drive out of the north gate and overlook Luoyang city. The triumphant wind blows long thorns and leaves fall. Yellow birds fly one after another, biting and making noises. Looking at the Xijiang River, I weep and touch Luo Ying.
The lyrics express the sad feelings of homesickness and homesickness. Wanderer, driver and Ying Luo not only clearly explained a scholar's identity different from ordinary people, but also opened the wind with The Book of Songs Li Feng Kai Feng, which blew his heart from the south. I want to die, and my mother has a reward. Allusions; It's easy to stand and talk, in the words of Wu Qi, the mother of Xihe satrap Wei during the Warring States Period: If you don't work for it, you will never want to enter Wei again. The ancient story of being forced to leave Xihe River with tears is a remarkable feature of literati poetry.
It was only because of the restriction and restraint of the realm of elegance and vulgarity in the concept of poetry at that time that these five words were regarded as vulgar words, which were despised by literati and could not be elegant. Most of the songwriters are lower-level literati, so we haven't seen the works of upper-level literati until the Western Han Dynasty. But after all, the five-character style has developed vigorously among the folk and lower-class literati. It has evolved from a lyric poem to a disciple poem with advantages over other genres, and has become an ideal form for poets to express their feelings and ambitions. Therefore, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, not only did the literati create more lyrics, but the first five-character poem "Ode to History" written by Ban Gu was completely divorced from music. Although the quality is not high, it marks the beginning of a new era of poetry creation.