Because there are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand readers! It's hard to say that the public is right and the old woman is right.
As for Li Bai and Du Fu, two great writers who can be called once in a thousand years, it is especially difficult to judge the two peaks in the field of classical poetry.
Besides, in terms of their poetic achievements and standards, there are no experts who are qualified to evaluate them before, now, and whether they will be born in the future is probably only God knows.
The reason why I dare to answer this question against the world's criticism is that I just want to express my opinions as an amateur poet and talk about my attitude and views. Please don't spray the two fans of the Great God and literary research experts.
In order to compare the poetic achievements of the two poets and the influence of the literary world, I think we should first analyze several crucial questions: Why did poetry come into being? What's the significance of existence
In many people's traditional ideas, literature seems to be inferior to science, because literature composed of poems, songs, novels and essays is far inferior in its ability to create realistic value, and there are too many sciences in the fields of physical chemistry, astronomy and biology.
The most intuitive representation of this situation projected in the real world is that after graduation, almost all the students majoring in literature are left behind by those majoring in science, and few of them specialize in poetry creation. Few modern poets can write poems to support themselves.
It seems that the topic is a little far away, and it's beside the point of Wan Li, so let's get straight to the point!
why did poetry come into being?
Poetry is perhaps one of the oldest art forms in human history, and it is also one of the signs that human beings have entered the civilized era from barbarism. After the language is mature and before the writing system is invented, human beings may have used poetry as a way to express their feelings. Although they can't write, they can sing it.
I don't know much about the origin of poetry. I probably know that among the ancient poems that have been handed down to this day, the oldest one should be the Song of Beating the Soil, which was written in the period of Yao and Shun: "I work at sunrise, rest at sunset, dig a well and drink, plow the fields and eat. What good is Dili for me?"
most of the literary works handed down from ancient times to the present are mainly poems. The more distant the ancient times, the higher the proportion of poems!
Looking through these ancient poetry collections, it is not difficult to see that the purpose of writing poems is very simple, that is, to reflect daily life, eulogize natural scenery, express men's and women's love and attitude towards life, express hatred between the country and the family, sing praises to great people, and offer the necessary congratulations for sacrifice.
This is probably the simple reason for the birth of poetry!
For example, Yi Yi's Wax Ci recorded in The Origin of Ancient Poems: "The earth is against its house, and the water belongs to its valley. If the insects don't do it, the vegetation will return to its zest. " This is the toast used in the sacrifice.
Qing Yun Ge: "Qing Yun is rotten, so correct it. Sun and Moon Guanghua, Dan Fudan. " This reflects the natural scenery.
"Song of Babe": "It's obvious that heaven is shining, but it's rotten. The sun and the moon are brilliant, and they are more than one person. " This is a poem praising the glorious and great image of Babe.
The Song of Mai Xiuge: "Mai Xiu is gradually emerging, and the corn is oily. He's childish and doesn't like me. " This is a love poem.
Through these ancient poems and ancestors in the field of poetry, we can probably know that poetry was born almost to record the bits and pieces of real life, praise the character and merits of great people, eulogize the beauty and magic of natural scenery, and express the love and attitude of men and women towards life.
In the long history of thousands of years, poetry has been developing slowly in this direction. It has gradually evolved from an ancient poem with loose meter, lively form, freedom, agility and simplicity to a modern metrical poem and quatrains with strict meter, paying attention to the balance of words and quotations.
However, no matter how it evolves, poetry is always the same, with the purpose of recording real life, eulogizing natural scenery, expressing men's and women's love and attitude towards life, and praising great people.
This point has never changed from the early poetry in the Yao and Shun period to the Tang and Song dynasties, the peak of classical poetry, and then to the Ming and Qing dynasties in the dusk of classical poetry.
If you don't believe me, read the Book of Songs and Songs of the South first, then the complete works of Li Du, and then look at Nalan Xingde Huang Zunxian. When you are in a good mood, you don't brag about the beautiful scenery of this mountain, that is, this girl is really beautiful. When you are in a bad mood, you either lament how our country is so miserable, or curse the emperors and ministers for being so useless.
from ancient times to the present, over and over again, poetry has said nothing more than these words, but only changed a pattern.
if you don't believe me, when it comes to love, the Book of Songs is "My Fair Lady, Gentleman is Good", while Li Bai is "when you, my lover, on a bamboo horse and came trotting in circles and throwing green plums". When it comes to A Dream of Red Mansions, it becomes "All roads are good marriage, and I only read the alliance between wood and stone". To put it bluntly, it is nothing more than being very much in love with me.
reflecting the actual situation, the poem "Bi Shu left" in the Book of Songs describes the tragedy of national subjugation through the ages, which means "though a country be sundered, hills and rivers endure and and spring comes green again to trees and grasses" in Du Fu, and "7, Li Rong gathered here in the late Qing Dynasty, which is unheard of in 5, years" in Huang Zunxian.
why do you say this?
I just want to emphasize that in the reasons for the birth of poetry, and in the long development process of thousands of years, there has never been, and subjectively, no need to add political factors, although in the recent history of more than 1, years, the development path and evaluation system of poetry have been objectively infiltrated and distorted by political forces, especially in contemporary times, which makes it very difficult to objectively evaluate poetry and poets.
In order to evaluate poetry and poets fairly, after we have made clear the essence of poetry, we should thoroughly eliminate the negative influence exerted by political forces in past dynasties, peel off the hypocritical but gorgeous coat created by political forces, and give the poet a truth.
I believe that many friends have understood my attitude after seeing this. Yes, I personally think that Li Bai is far better than Du Fu in terms of poetic artistic achievements, and Du Fu is not worthy to shine Li Bai's shoes.
why do I dare to be so outspoken? There are several reasons!
first, Li Bai was famous all over the world before his death, but Du Fu failed to make a name for himself all his life.
Datang is a country of poetry, and it is also the peak of the development of classical poetry in China. In that great era when even rural peasant women loved to read poems and could write poems, Li Bai, a descendant of a poor merchant, was able to surpass many high-ranking aristocratic poets with his extraordinary poetic talent and won the praise of "fallen immortal". His poetic talent can be seen.
On the contrary, Du Fu is the grandson of Du Shenyan, a great poet in the early Tang Dynasty. He is an official family with a scholarly family. His status is much more noble than that of Li Bai, a merchant family. His starting point is so high and his ancestral shadow is so long. But throughout his life, although he can't be said to be unknown, he really didn't rely on poetry to make a name for himself, and he couldn't keep pace with Li Bai, a famous poet.
In other words, he has no position at all in the field of poetry in his own time.
Second, Li Bai was suppressed after his death, and his foolish loyalty helped Du Fu become a saint after his death.
Du Fu was not well-known when he was alive. However, due to his superstitious and stupid loyalty thought in his poems, he was suddenly excavated from the pile of old papers by Han Yu, who was equally loyal, and immediately became a confidant. From then on, he spared no effort to help him hype up, calling him and Li Bai "Li Du" for the first time, praising them for "Li Du's articles are there and the flames are endless". Since then, it has been out of control. After the tireless touting of the ancient prose leader, he constantly embellished it in front of the emperor, and then Bai Juyi and others screamed at the top of their lungs, Du Fu finally boarded the shrine and kept pace with the poet Li Bai. In the Song Dynasty, when Neo-Confucianism was at its peak, Du Fu, who represented the Confucian idea of loyalty to the monarch, went up a storey still higher, gradually overwhelming Li Bai and became the first poet in ancient and modern times.
Here, we need to focus on in-depth discussion. Why did Du Fu get the favor of Han Yu, Bai Juyi, Su Shi and Zhu Xi, and why did he get the attention of emperors in Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties?
Let me talk about Du Fu's poems first. In all fairness, the artistic achievements of Du Fu's poems are very impressive. Ancient poems such as "Three Officials and Three Farewells" and a series of regular poems such as "Climbing the Building" all have high artistic standards. These alone are enough to occupy a position in the dazzling poetry hall of the prosperous Tang Dynasty!
However, it is only a position, because his poetic achievements are not enough to overwhelm Bai Juyi later, let alone Su Shi in the Song Dynasty.
In terms of the ideological strength to reflect reality, Du Fu's "Three Officials and Three Farewells" is not as profound as Bai Juyi's "Selling Charcoal Weng". The "Three Officials and Three Farewells" focuses on rendering the country's turmoil, and the personal safety of ordinary people is not guaranteed. Their lives are very miserable and precarious, which looks very shocking, but that's all. Even with these ancient poems "two for the road", he is also.
On the other hand, Bai Juyi, a poem "Selling Charcoal Weng" is invisible, just like a sharp knife thrown at all landlords and bureaucrats. The front of it is "full of dust and fireworks, and the temples are gray and ten fingers are black". In the cold weather, it cuts firewood and burns charcoal in the south mountain, but in the end it ends up as "a car full of charcoal, more than a thousand kilograms, and the palace envoy will be sorry for it", which directly reveals the source of people's suffering. As for the artistic charm of Pipa Xing and Song of Eternal Sorrow, I really don't know where it is inferior to Du Fu's regular poems.
But why did Du Fu become a poet instead of Bai Juyi?
It's very simple. Bai Juyi exposed it too profoundly, pointing the finger at the landlords, bureaucrats and emperors who caused people's suffering. I believe few emperors would like such courtiers. Fortunately, he was born in the Tang Dynasty. If he was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, how many heads could he cut off with the everlasting regret and the criticism of selling charcoal weng?
On the contrary, take a look at Comrade Du Fu, our so-called great representative realistic poet, and his so-called masterpiece "Three Officials and Three Farewells", which seems to describe the sufferings of the people. Alas, the people are so miserable. If they are arrested, they will never return, leaving many families separated, leaving only women and the elderly. What a desolation!
and then what? It's gone!
who caused people's suffering? If he doesn't say anything, even if he mentions it occasionally, he will put the lavatory on the rebel's head.
He didn't dare to reveal a word, and the root cause of the endless distress to the people was actually the emperor's fatuity and ignorance.
Not only did he not expose and scold the emperor for being fatuous, but he also kept singing praises for the emperor, saying, "The Arctic court will never change, and bandits dare not venture from the western hills".
Let's take a look at what Du Fu did after the Anshi Rebellion broke out. The country was in such a mess, and the people were suffering from hanging upside down. As a scholar and a citizen of the country, he didn't join the army and help the court to crusade against the rebels, but left his wife and children behind and followed the emperor's ass everywhere. Wherever the emperor fled, he chased him. What did he do? How brazen you are to ask for an official!
Let's see, how can such a person be sanctified?
Of course, he is a scholar, and we don't expect him to whip his horse into battle to kill the enemy. But in that war-torn era, there are wars everywhere. Can he just join a general's command and help others write battle essays, promote righteousness, boost morale, appease people's hearts and fight against rebellion from public opinion propaganda? It's not hard to have an inch of light and a minute of heat, is it?
At that time, the campaign was of great strategic significance. When Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were fighting, Chen Lin's eloquent essay on begging for thieves scared Cao Cao into a cold sweat. When Wu Zetian usurped the Tang Dynasty, King Luo Bin helped Xu Jingye to write the historic famous essay "Asking for the Warfare", which made Wu Zetian lament, "Did the Prime Minister gain or lose this person?"
at the beginning, Du Fu wrote an essay asking for thieves even if he had a little concern for the people and serving the country. I never doubted his status as a poet.
It's a pity that he didn't. He did almost nothing. He just kept running with the emperor, and his purpose was to get an official position, so the realm was poor. Ironically, during this period, he was caught by the rebels once, but as long as he escaped from the birth, he chased the emperor to be an official.
Let's see, the so-called loyalty to the monarch and patriotism means that during the period of chaos, people do not seek for the benefit of the country, but only for an official position and a part-time job. How can such a thing be called sacred?
This kind of character is not worthy of praise among the people, but it is different when it comes to the emperor. Emperors of past dynasties really wanted a group of powerful ministers when the situation was unstable, but whether it was a wise king or a bad king, the dogs they liked best were often those who just followed the emperor stupidly and shouted "Long live the tsunami", even if the dog could do nothing but fawn on the emperor.
Coincidentally, Du Fu is such a loyal dog!
A talented and loyal dog, I believe no emperor would refuse.
Especially in the era of Han Yu, when the separatist regime in the buffer region became more and more fierce, the central government lost its appeal in the Zhenguan period long ago, and most of the country's talents went to towns to save our lives, rather than work for the imperial court. When the situation was not optimistic, it was even more necessary to set a group of examples of foolish and loyal emperors!
So, after a search by Han Yu, I found Du Fu, who was almost buried by history. Hey, isn't this just a typical example?
This guy's poems are all right, with strict meter and cadence. The most important thing is that few people are so completely loyal. No matter what the world is like, no matter how miserable his wife and children are and how bleak their future is, he runs after the emperor's ass with no regrets, and he only recognizes the emperor! Such a loyal model can't be found with lanterns!
The above words may be a little harsh, which may easily lead to the siege of Du Fu fans, but please look at that history. If there is any fiction, I am willing to apologize!
Since the Tang Dynasty upgraded Du Fu to a typical model of loyal and patriotic poet, everyone can guess the attitude of the later Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties even with his ass. Du Fu gained a sacred position in the successive emperors of Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties and the literati in power!
compare it with du fu, and then look at Li Bai, which is simply a living negative textbook! Somebody else's emperor gave face and invited you to be an official. As a result, you wrote something like "Go out laughing in the sky, are we people from Artemisia scoparia" and "oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high office, who never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face". The arrogant tone made it clear that you just didn't want to follow the emperor. Finally, you joined the shogunate of Yongwang Lilin, and almost became a group of rebels and thieves, exiled Yelang.
Speaking of which, sometimes I feel curious. With these experiences, it would have been enough for the scholar-officials in the Tang Dynasty to drive Li Bai into eighteen levels of hell and never turn over. Later, Han Yu even called this kind of traitor and traitor together with Du Fu, a loyal model, as "Li Du".
at least two points are explained. firstly, the Tang emperor and the ruling scholar-officials are indeed extraordinary in spirit. Unlike the later dynasties, they cherish talents and seek truth from facts. They don't like to play such a trick. This matter should be put aside in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is strange that Li Bai participated in the great crime of Yong Wang Li Lin, and his poems can leave a capital. Secondly, objectively, it also shows the greatness of Li Bai's poetic art. A traditional scholar-bureaucrat like Han Yu, who is determined to safeguard imperial power and Confucian loyalty and patriotism, can't bear to put this poem suspected of being a traitor.