Graceful and restrained school is the school with the longest history, the largest number of people and the greatest influence in the history of China Ci. Its representative figures are: Qin Guan, Li Qingzhao and so on.
Compared with the graceful school, the unrestrained school is quite different in content, form, theme and style. It broke through the barrier of "Ke Yan" and opened up a brand-new world for the ci world. Its representatives are Su Shi and Xin Qiji.
Su Dongpo and Xin Qiji in Song Dynasty were both representatives of the unrestrained school of Song Ci. There are similarities and differences in their ci styles, which have made outstanding contributions to the rise of Song Ci in the literary world with a brand-new look.
Su Shi changed the graceful and restrained style of five pronouns in the late Tang Dynasty with bold feelings and frank and cheerful mind, and created the style of bold ci school. Xin Qiji inherited and carried forward this bold and romantic ci style, creating a more magnificent and broad artistic conception, more vivid and abrupt, full of pen and ink and flying momentum.
The bold and unconstrained artistic style of Su Xin's ci also has the same side, that is, their ci is full of strong bold and unconstrained sentiments, expressing the poet's incomparable love for life, open-minded optimism and the ideal of making contributions. It is their lofty aspirations that determine the unique creative personality and artistic style of Su Xin's ci. Because Su Xin's Ci expanded the theme of life, it improved and deepened the artistic conception of Ci, so that the poet's life and thoughts were more fully expressed in Ci, and his creative personality and artistic style were more vividly presented. For example, in Su Shi's poem Niannujiao Red Cliff Nostalgia, the magnificent scenery of mountains and rivers, the heroism and great achievements of outstanding figures in history constitute a magnificent artistic image, which fully reflects Su Shi's positive and promising ambition, cheerful and open-minded personality and attitude towards life without losing interest in life because of political setbacks, and is a concentrated expression of his bold and unrestrained artistic style. Another example is the symphony poem "Yong Yu Le Jing Kou Gu Bei Ting Nostalgia". Facing the endless rolling Yangtze River, we look back on the past and think about the future in Myanmar, and our hearts are surging. Praise outstanding historical figures, satirize those who seek peace and stability, express their firm belief in resisting gold and recovering the Central Plains, and convey their lofty desire to be old and strong. The bold and unconstrained artistic style in Ci is similar to that in Su Ci "Never Return to the River".
The same bold style shows obvious differences in Dongpo Ci and Jiaxuan Ci. The bold style of Su Ci is full of freedom and optimism. His free writing attitude and unpredictable text structure are closely intertwined, forming the artistic characteristics of bold romanticism in Su Ci. The boldness of Xin Ci is often full of heroic and desolate, majestic and depressed personality unique to Xin Ci. The artistic conception he created is more magnificent and spacious than Su Ci, and his vivid and exaggerated description and imagination constitute the artistic characteristics of Xin Ci's bold romanticism. Su Shi's optimism about life and eager pursuit of ideals make his words always lively and natural, surging and jumping, impassioned and forceful. Xin Qiji's poems are unrestrained and impassioned because of long-term suppression of national hatred and national hatred, and sad because of the contradiction between political ideal and social reality and the rejection of capitulationists, which determines that his poems are not and cannot be as free and easy as Su Shi's.
As poets with rich life, complicated thoughts, outstanding talents, mature art and diligent pursuit, the artistic styles of Dongpo and Jiaxuan's ci are diversified. In addition to those works that express personal lofty sentiments, there are also many touching and elegant works. Su Shi's eulogy is sad and sad; The words describing rural life are so light and clear; The words expressing loneliness are cold; The words describing drunken nights are so elegant. Xin Qiji's ci is versatile, eclectic and flexible. His long tone is passionate, his short tone is gentle and generous, or vigorous and vigorous, or graceful and clear. His style and charm vary according to the content of his works, which fully embodies the poet's outstanding artistic talent and superb control ability, as well as contradictory and complicated thoughts and feelings.
The formation of the style characteristics of Su Xin's ci is also reflected in the development and expansion of the theme of his works. They further broke through the old frame of writing about love and parting between men and women since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, magnified the artistic conception of Ci, and enriched the life content of Ci. Su Shi reflected and expressed the themes used by poets in past dynasties, such as nostalgia, nostalgia, reasoning, etc., which brought a broader field and vitality to the creation of Ci. Xin Qiji gave full play to the lyrical, expressive, commemorative and argumentative functions of Ci, integrating the strengths of poetry, prose and Ci, and enriched the expressive techniques and language skills of Ci. It is this bold innovation that forms the unique artistic style of Su Xin's ci.
Su Xin's mastery of language is even more remarkable because of his superb skills. The predecessors said that Su Shi took poetry as his ci, while Xin Qiji took prose as his ci. In language, Su Shi changed his rhetoric style, absorbed more poems of Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Du Fu and Han Yu, and occasionally used the spoken language at that time, giving people a fresh and simple feeling. Compared with Su Shi, Xin Qiji not only used the syntax of ancient modern poetry, but also absorbed prose, parallel prose and a large number of folk oral characters, regardless of history, philosophers, Chu Ci, or poems and songs of Du Fu and Li Bai. Han Yu's and Liu Zongyuan's essays are often handy and integrated into ci, forming a fresh and lively atmosphere.
The same spoken language, the same fresh and lively atmosphere, the same bold theme, and the same diversified artistic style have linked two outstanding poets together, and later generations have called them "Su Xin" and pushed them to be the representatives of bold ci style. They are well-deserved.