Representatives of graceful and restrained school: poets in Song Dynasty: Li Qingzhao, Liu Yong, Qin Guan, etc.
Representatives of the uninhibited school: Xin Qiji, Su Shi, Yue Fei, Chen Liang, etc.
Prose in Song Dynasty is an important development stage in the history of China's prose. A large number of prose writers have appeared in more than 300 years. Among the so-called "eight masters of ancient prose in Tang and Song Dynasties", Song people accounted for six (Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Wang Anshi, Ceng Gong), and wrote many literary essays and essays, as well as many representative works of argumentative essays.
One of the important achievements of prose in Song Dynasty is to establish a stable and mature prose style: simple and natural, fluent and euphemistic. Yuan Zaju is a new genre in Yuan literature. Traditional dramas in China are generally divided into zaju and Sanqu. Today, there are more than 3,800 Sanqu songs and more than 450 sets. Because Sanqu grew up on the basis of folk songs in the Northern Jin Dynasty, most of them were northern songs. More than 200 writers left their names. Many zaju writers have also made achievements in the creation of Sanqu. The early writers of Sanqu were Guan Hanqing, Ma Zhiyuan, Bai Pu, Lu Zhi and Guan Yunshi, with simple style and many dialects. In the later period, there were Georgie, Sui, Zhang and Liu Shizhong, whose poems were slightly gorgeous. Because Sanqu is the lyrics of banquet geisha, there are more erotic songs. But there are also many poems about scenery, lyricism, nostalgia and sighing; As well as several sets of heroes who satirize the world, criticize the shortcomings of the times and ridicule the troubled times, such as Ma Zhiyuan's Borrowing Horses, Liu Shizhong's Prefectural Mansion, and Sui's The Return of Gaozu, all have the characteristics of the times and high artistic achievements.
Prose and novels in the Yuan Dynasty basically only inherited the achievements created in the Song Dynasty, with little innovation. In addition, prose and Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism are intertwined, and their thoughts are poor. Most of them are applied words and lack emotion. The articles in the Tang Dynasty imitated Korea and Liu, and the articles in the Song Dynasty imitated Europe and the Soviet Union, but the achievements were not high. Yao Sui and Yu Ji are known as the two masters of ancient prose in Yuan Dynasty. Most of their writings are epitaphs and timely works. Although their writing is elegant, it has no characteristics.
Many novels were revised in the Ming Dynasty, so it is difficult to judge the specific writing age. It can be said that it was written by the Yuan Dynasty. Only Lu Xianzhi's "My Good Son Zhao Zheng" (Song Sigong made a scene to suppress the soul) is an article, and the rest are not fragmentary, that is, speculative works. However, the historical Pinghua, such as the Pinghua of the Three Kingdoms, is basically the works of the Yuan Dynasty, and its historical facts are mostly mixed with truth and falsehood, which is a backup script for storytellers.
Throughout the literature of the Yuan Dynasty, although traditional poetry also produced some excellent or better works, on the whole, the achievements were not high. However, great writers and many excellent or relatively excellent works have appeared in China traditional operas, which have far-reaching influence in the history of literature.
The Ming Dynasty was a period when popular literature such as novels and operas flourished and orthodox poetry declined relatively. However, the change of this power is not reflected in the reduction of the number of poems, but in the deterioration of the ideological and artistic quality of the works. From the time point of view, the time of enjoying the country in the Ming Dynasty is roughly the same as that in the Tang and Song Dynasties, about 300 years. In terms of quantity, the number of poetry and song writers and works in Ming Dynasty is far above that in Tang and Song Dynasties. There are nearly 5,000 different collections of Ming people recorded in Qian Qingtang Bibliography alone, and there are more than 3,400 poets included in Poems of Ming Dynasty. However, in terms of quality, it is difficult for poets in Ming Dynasty to find such great masters as Li Bai, Du Fu and Su Shi who have made epoch-making contributions to poetry, and they also lack the innovative spirit of poets in Tang and Song Dynasties. From their works, although we can also see the social life and personal psychological feelings reflected by the writers, the shortcoming is that their methods of conveying information are basically imitating the ancients, and they have not or rarely created some refreshing new worlds in artistic concepts and methods. Nevertheless, the progressive trend of thought of society and literature in the late Ming Dynasty still left deep regret in the field of poetry and prose.
The novels created by literati in Ming Dynasty mainly include vernacular short stories and novels.
According to the theme and ideological content, novels in Ming Dynasty can be roughly divided into four categories, namely, historical novels, ghosts and gods novels, secular novels and case-solving novels. Representative works include Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, The Journey to the West and Jin Ping Mei. Qing Dynasty was the last feudal dynasty in China and the last important stage in the history of ancient literature. Poetry, ci, prose, novels and operas have all made important achievements. It is generally believed that the development of ancient literature in China ended before the Opium War (1840). After the Opium War, the stage of modern literature began.
In prose, Tongcheng School, represented by Fang Bao, Liu Da and Yao Nai, appeared. Fang Bao lectures, and Yao Nai stresses the rigidity and softness of yin and yang. Insisting on Confucian orthodoxy in thought, his style was mainly halal and elegant, which adapted to the political background at that time. Their concise and graceful works have their own characteristics, but they lack grandeur and sense of scale. There were also many parallel prose writers in this period: Hu Tianyou, Yuan Mei, Wu Xiqi, Kong Guangsen and others came down in one continuous line with the Six Dynasties, Tang and Song Dynasties, and won by talent; , Hong, Shao and others followed the example of Wei and Jin dynasties and won by elegance.
The Zhejiang School, represented by Li E, has the greatest influence in ci.
The novels of this period exude unique brilliance, namely Wu's The Scholars and Cao Xueqin's A Dream of Red Mansions. The Scholars fully exposes and satirizes the destruction of talents by the feudal stereotyped imperial examination system. Although it is exaggerated, it embodies the profound reality that "satirizing life is real". Its simple language art with a sense of humor can also be "harmonious, sad and ironic", full of implications. This is the most accomplished satirical novel in ancient China. A Dream of Red Mansions, through the love tragedy between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu and the story of the rise and fall of Jia Fu, reflects the decay of bureaucratic landlord's life, shows the conflict between the democratic thought of rebellious youth and traditional ideology, and reveals the declining trend of feudal ruling class and feudal society. Through the meticulous description of daily life trivia and characters' inner world, a large number of characters with profound typical significance and distinctive personality have been created. Delicate description, rich atmosphere and beautiful language. It became the peak of China's classical novels and made great achievements in thought and art. China's short classical note novels, such as Yuewei Caotang Notes by Ji Yun and New Qi Xie by Yuan Mei, are not as successful as the previous Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio.