His poems can be roughly divided into three periods:
The first period was from adolescence to middle age (46 years old). There are only about 200 poems in this period, and the works are mainly in the form of words, which have not been enriched by life.
The second period was after he entered Shu, he abdicated at the age of 64 and returned to the East. After nearly 20 years, more than 2,400 poems have been preserved. This period is a period when he joined the army to explore the south, full of fighting atmosphere and patriotic passion, and also a mature period of his poetry creation.
The third period was a long-term seclusion in his hometown of Yin Shan until his death, also for 20 years, with nearly 6,500 existing poems. There is an idyllic flavor in the poem, which reveals a sense of desolation in life from time to time. "Poetry only works when no one loves it", which also expresses his state of mind and artistic realm at this time. In addition, in the poems of this period, there are also simple and practical creative styles.
Lu You's poems in three periods are permeated with ardent patriotism, especially after he entered Shu in middle age, which is not only outstanding among contemporary poets, but also rare in the history of China literature. Lu You's poems can be said to have both styles, no matter they are classical, metrical and quatrains, they all have excellent works, among which seven verses are well written. In this respect, Lu You inherited the experience of predecessors and enriched his own creation at the same time, so some people say that he, Du Fu and Li Shangyin completed the "three changes" in the creation of the seven laws (Shu Wei's poem "A Bottle of Water"), and his seven laws were unparalleled at that time.
In Lu You's "Seven Laws", the famous Zhang Jun's sentences are indeed overlapping, and everyone is reciting them, such as "Jiang Sheng's endless heroes hate and God's will is selfless" (Huangzhou); "Wan Li closes the river and sleeps alone, even the wind and rain fall in four mountains" ("Sleeping Man") and so on. These famous sayings, either magnificent or picturesque, are both steady and vivid.
In addition to the seven laws, Lu You's achievements in poetry creation should be regarded as quatrains. Although Lu You's poems present colorful styles, from the general creative tendency, they are mainly realistic. He inherited the fine tradition of Qu Yuan and other previous generations of poets to care about the country and the people, and made outstanding achievements based on his own era.
His works mainly have two aspects: on the one hand, he enthusiastically revenges the country, regains lost land and liberates the occupied people; On the one hand, it is leisurely and delicate, chewing out the deep and eternal taste of daily life and ironing out the twists and turns of the current scenery. His students praised him and said: "On poetry, it is more than crossing the south, and the grass took a fancy to the Northern Expedition"; An old man in the Song Dynasty praised him and said, "The predecessors commented on the poems of Song Dynasty after crossing the south, imitating Du Fu with Lu Wu's views, in order not to forget the Central Plains, which is the same as the fact of worshipping Juan." It is Du Fu's realm that is not enough, so it is not very accurate to say that Lu You is "the same as Chongjuan", and he has not yet realized his special features.
Bai Juyi:
Bai Juyi was an outstanding poet in the middle Tang Dynasty. His poetic thoughts and creations, which emphasize popularity and realism, occupy an important position in the history of China's poetry. In Jiu Shu Tong Yuan, he clearly said: "Servants aim to help the two, and they are independent. Always serve the Tao, and invent poetry. Calling it a satirical poem is also aimed at helping others; It's not bad to call it leisure poetry. " It can be seen that among Bai Juyi's four kinds of poems: irony, leisure, sentimentality and miscellaneous law, the first two reflect his "serving the service and always being good", so they are the most valued. His poetic thoughts are mainly based on early satirical poems.
As early as the early Yuan Dynasty, Bai Juyi showed a tendency to emphasize realism, popularity and allegory: "If there is no textual research on today's praise and demotion, there is a lack of punishment and persuasion;" If the poem "The Beauty Sting" does not test politics, then the significance of the make-up test will be abolished. ..... The satirist who admonishes Ci Fu, though wild, will be rewarded. "The role of poetry is to punish evil and persuade good, and make up for current politics. The means of poetry is praise and criticism, and it is admonition and irony. Therefore, he advocated: "establish an official who collects poems, open a satirical way, examine their gains and losses, and understand their feelings." (Poetry Sixty-nine) He opposes the simple pursuit of "high palace rhythm" and "strange writing" without content, and even more opposes the gorgeous poetic style of "mocking the wind and making flowers" since Qi and Liang Dynasties. In the preface to new Yuefu, he clearly pointed out that the standard of writing poetry is: "the quality and path of his words are easy to distinguish for those who want to see;" "His words are straightforward and he admonishes those who want to listen; Its business is nuclear and true, so people who use it can send messages; Its body is very smooth and can be played in music songs. " Here, "quality and diameter", "straightness and tangent", "core and reality" and "smoothness and smoothness" respectively emphasize that the language should be simple and popular, the discussion should be straightforward and exposed, the writing should be absolutely false and pure, the form should be smooth and fluent, and it has the color of ballads. In other words, poetry must be authentic, easy to understand and easy to sing in order to be considered the ultimate.
Bai Juyi's above requirements for poetry have only one purpose, that is, to make up for current politics. So he went on to say: "In short, for the monarch, for the minister, for the people, for things, for things, not for writing." (Preface to New Yuefu) In Nine Books of the Same Origin, he reviewed his early creation and said, "Since I came to Korea, I have grown older and read more. Every time he talks to others, he asks more current events; Every time you read history, you should seek truth and Tao, and you will know that articles are written in time and songs and poems are written in things. " The first thing to do for time is to show it to the king. He also said: "I don't know when to avoid it" (the second of two painful poems about Tang Qu), and created a large number of satirical poems reflecting the sufferings of people's livelihood, but the general direction is "only songs make people sick, hope the emperor can know" (sent to Tang Sheng). Because only when the people's feelings are heard in heaven, the emperor opens the door and reaches the people's feelings, will politics tend to be calm.
Pipa Xing and Song of Eternal Sorrow are Bai Juyi's most successful works, and the outstanding feature of their artistic expression is the strengthening of lyric factors. Compared with the previous narrative poems, although these two works also use narrative and description to express events, they can no longer simplify the events, and only use one central event and two or three main characters to structure the whole article, such as the dramatic Ma Wei incident that the author is about to take over, but in the most lyrical psychological description of the characters and the rendering of the environmental atmosphere, they pour ink like rain in order to enjoy themselves, even though Pipa is such a story. In addition, the lyricism of these two works is also manifested in creating an appropriate atmosphere and setting off the artistic conception of poetry with selected images. For example, in Song of Eternal Sorrow, "He gazed at the desolate moon from the temporary palace, and he heard the bell in the late rain, cutting it on his chest"; "Maple leaves and mature rushes rustle in autumn" and "When the river mysteriously expands to the full moon" in the pipa; Or combine the bleak moonlight, the patter of rain at night and the heartbreaking bell into a charming scene; Or use rustling maple leaves, flowers and boundless rivers and the moon to form a sad and lonely picture, revealing sadness, sadness and depression.
Theme and theme concentration are one of the artistic features of Bai Juyi's satirical poems. He usually only chooses the most typical things, highlights a theme, and the theme is clear. Secondly, the artistic features of Bai poetry are also reflected in the portrayal of characters. He can grasp the characteristics of the characters and draw the characters vividly by line drawing. However, Baishi's poems are not simple. He often uses simple sentences to express meanings and has achieved amazing artistic effects. The poem "Light Fat" describes the spirit of the ministers, doctors and generals attending the meeting, as well as the richness of wine and food on the table, but ends with the following sentence: "There is a drought in the south of the Yangtze River, and people in Quzhou eat people." What a tragic scene this is.
Leisure poems and allegorical poems are two kinds of poems that Bai Juyi pays special attention to. Both of them are realistic, vulgar and thrifty, but they are quite different in content and mood. Irony poems aim at "supporting the two", which are closely related to social politics and write more about lofty sentiments and excitement; Leisure poems are meant to be "exclusive", "content with harmony, and give play to one's temperament" (Nine Books of Yuyuan), thus showing an indifferent, peaceful and leisurely state of mind.
Bai Juyi's leisurely poems have a great influence on later generations. His simple language style and indifferent and leisurely mood have been praised repeatedly. However, in contrast, the "leisure" thought of retiring from politics and being content with peace, and the attitude of returning to Buddhism and imitating Tao Yuanming in these poems have far-reaching influence because they are more in line with the psychology of later literati. For example, Bai Juyi said, "If you fight for two snail horns, you'll get a dime a dozen" (No.7 of Let's Drink Seven Songs), "If you fight for the snail horns, I'll send the body in the firelight of the stone" (No.2 of Drink Five Songs) and "I'll know what happened to the snail horns later" (No.8 of Wu Zeng's Can Change My Diet). That is to say, on the basis of the names given by the Song people, "the names of drunkards, pedants and Dongpo all come from Bai Letian's poems" (Gong Yizheng's "Notes on Mustard Seeds"). Zhou Bida, a poet in the Song Dynasty, pointed out: "Su Wenzhong, a loyal minister in this dynasty, did not pay much attention to permission, only loved Lotte and wrote poems many times. Gage's articles are all about words, but they are honest and generous, outspoken, full of words, affectionate with people and indifferent to things. Living in Huangzhou, the first name is Dongpo, which must have started from Lotte Zhongzhou. " (Poems of Erlaotang) All these show the influence track of Bai Juyi and his poems.
Bai Juyi once divided his poems into four categories: allegory, leisure, sentimentality and heteronomy. Generally speaking, the first three categories are ancient bodies, and the latter category is near bodies. The first three categories are roughly divided by content, but they overlap. Among these four types of poems, Bai himself pays more attention to the first two types, and thinks that satirical poems embody the "ambition to be satisfactory to both sides"; Leisure poems show the meaning of "being independent"; It is a direct embodiment of his life goals. Sentimental poems and miscellaneous poems are "either seduced by one thing or sent by a smile, born spontaneously, not in life" (Yuan Zaju "Nine Books"). Satire is the essence of white poetry. His poems are easy to understand, fluent and natural. His representative works include 50 pieces of New Yuefu and Qin Zhongyin 10. They widely reflect the major issues in all aspects of social life in the middle Tang Dynasty, and focus on describing the darkness of reality and the suffering of the people. These poems are fiercely worded and have no scruples, breaking through the tradition of "gentle and honest" poetry teaching, and are very prominent in ancient poems criticizing current politics. Satire is more direct in form. The narrative is complete, the plot is vivid, and the plot of the characters is meticulous and vivid. The other part of satirical poetry uses allegory to support things and natural images to support political feelings. These two kinds of works have profound and broad generalizations, concentrated themes, vivid images and clear language. Some "new Yuefu" still adopt the sentence pattern of "337", which has traces of folk popular literature and art. Leisure poems show the tranquility of his early seclusion in the countryside, emphasize the political function of poetry and strive for popularity. His poetry style is simple and easy to understand, which can be said to be simple and close to ancient times, so it is widely spread and has far-reaching influence on later generations. His 60 poems "New Yuefu" and "Qin Zhongyin" really make people sick, and every sentence must be strictly regulated, which is as famous as Du Fu's "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells". The long narrative poems "Song of Eternal Sorrow" and "Pipa Journey" represent his highest artistic achievements.