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. Han Yu was the leader of the ancient prose movement in Tang Dynasty. In the theory and practice of ancient prose, he encountered the composition problems of "difficult" and "easy" or "strange" and "flat". Although Han Yu tried to unify the two, as the saying goes, "Nothing is difficult, but independence is also" (Answer to Liu), his artistic personality advocated "difficulty" and "strangeness" all the way. However, in the Song Dynasty, ancient writers focused on developing simple styles. We read Han Yu's letter to Li, assistant minister of the Ministry of War, and Su Zhe's letter to Han Taiwei, a Tang Dynasty envoy, all of which were "swearing" articles, targeting senior military officers in charge of the whole country. However, from the beginning, Korean claimed to be "poor in the theory of Historical Records, immersed in training, repeatedly reading sentences, grinding career and practicing articles", pretending to be an economic wizard; Then he said that the other party was a "court minister", and like "the son of heaven was newly enthroned", it was incumbent on him to promote talents. Asking for an extension means aggressive. The language is novel and unique, which conforms to his standard of "words must come out". Su Wen wrote an article about "qi"; In addition, qi depends on increasing experience and expanding friends; Then I came to Beijing from Shu, visited the ancient capital, visited famous mountains and met celebrities, but there were not many celebrities, showing the hope that the other party would introduce me diplomatically. Write slowly and don't rush to talk. The language is easy to understand, and there are few words with bright colors. Su Xun's "The First Book of Ouyang Neihan" comments on the differences between the styles of "difficulty" and "change" between Han and Owen, which can be regarded as a general comment on the prose of Tang and Song Dynasties. The plain style of prose in Song Dynasty is more suitable for reasoning, narration and lyricism than that in Tang Dynasty, and it has become the main model for later essayists to learn. Wen Song has more influence than Tang Wen.
The high achievement of prose in Song Dynasty also brought great influence to other styles. In the literature of Song Dynasty, we can see a general tendency of prose culture. Starting from Mei and Europe, Du Fu and Han developed the tendency of "writing as poetry" in the Song Dynasty, and further applied prose brushwork, composition, syntax and word usage to poetry, gradually revealing their own characteristics. Ci has also added prosaic elements in the hands of Su and Xin. Fu, from Chu Ci, Han Fu, lyric Fu in Wei and Jin Dynasties to practical prose "Law Fu" in Tang Dynasty, has declined and lacks artistic creativity. But in the Song Dynasty, inspired by prose, it regained its artistic life and formed a style similar to prose poetry. Ouyang Xiu's ode to the autumn sound and Su Shi's ode to the red wall are masterpieces that have been read for a long time. Parallel prose in Song Dynasty did not pursue rhetoric and allusions, but adopted the momentum and style of prose, which brought some new features. Ouyang Xiu's Reading Poems on the West Lake by Picking Mulberry Seeds, Su Shi's Living Table of Begging for Changzhou, Wang Zao's Book of Dragon Tour to the World in the Southern Song Dynasty, Fang Yue's Tang Qi in Xie Miao, and Shao Wujun of the two instruments are all excellent parallel essays. The general tendency of this kind of prose is the result of the prosperity of prose in Song Dynasty, which constitutes a major feature of literature in Song Dynasty. As a new form of poetry, Ci began in Sui and Tang Dynasties and reached its peak in Song Dynasty. There are more than 1,000 people and 20,000 poems written by Tang Guizhang in the whole Song Dynasty. Recently, it has been supplemented one after another (for example, Mr. Kong's "Complete Song Poetry Supplement" and so on. Although many ci poems were lost because they were not recognized as "orthodox" literature at the beginning, the results collected so far are enough to reflect the prosperity and richness of song ci poems.
Previous comments on Ci ranged from "graceful" to "bold", and there have always been different lawsuits. This theory was first seen in Zhang Wan's Biography of Poetry in Ming Dynasty. After his "Ordinary Cases", there is a note saying: "The style of words is slightly different: a graceful and unconstrained. Graceful people want their own words and feelings, while bold people want their own magnificent weather. Gai also has unique characters. For example, most of his works are graceful and restrained, while most of his works are bold and unrestrained. In general, the style of words is graceful. " Zhang Wan's definition of graceful and restrained words is based on artistic style, but he regards graceful and restrained words as two "styles" of words, and later generations extended them to two "schools" (such as Wang Shizhen). This is contradictory to the diversity of the actual styles of Song Ci: Song Ci is obviously more than these two styles, that is, as far as the works of Su Shi, the founder of the bold school, are concerned, there are only twenty or thirty people who are truly bold, and the controversy arises from this. In fact, among the specific comments of many poets, the bold and graceful school is not a literary genre in a strict sense, nor a simple classification of artistic styles, nor is it a one-by-one evaluation of specific writers' works, but refers to two basic tendencies in content theme, technical style, especially systematic melody, and two different trends in maintaining or innovating the traditional ci style. Understanding this tendency and trend is of great significance to the in-depth study of Song Ci. Generally speaking, Su Xinhao's school of releasing Ci is an innovative school, which is different from the traditional school of graceful Ci in that, in terms of content and theme, the graceful school sticks to the barrier of "gorgeous" and "poetic", the lyrical school loves men and women, hurts the spring, draws on romantic and beautiful materials, and the unrestrained school expands the theme of Ci and improves the artistic conception. In Su Shi's hands, all poets can write poems, such as remembering the past, remembering the past, giving answers and seeing off, almost reaching the situation of "unintentional entry, nothing to say" (Yi Jian's Ci Jian); The theme of Xin School poets in Southern Song Dynasty is patriotism, which marks the highest ideological achievement of Song Ci. In terms of technique style, the former is good at comparison and beauty, and the latter is good at expressing one's mind directly, with unrestrained as the main feature. In terms of systematic melody, the former emphasizes harmony. For example, Li Qingzhao's Ci theory demands harmony and melodiousness, and criticizes Su Shi's "constant discord", while the latter emphasizes soft words and refuses to accommodate the melody, which hinders the free expression of thoughts and feelings. The so-called "outstanding, naturally can't be tied to the song" ("Notes on Gaizhai", Volume 16). These are two tendencies and trends that actually exist in Song Ci.
It should be pointed out that since the Northern Song Dynasty, it is wrong for many critics to regard bold and graceful as "appropriate cases" and "exceptional cases". Chen Shidao's Poems on the Back Hill said: "It is a masterpiece in the world to retreat to the text as a poem, and Zi Zhan to use poetry as a word, such as thunder making it dance, which cannot be true." Four Treasures of the Study's General Catalogue 198 also says that Ci should be "elegant-oriented", and Su Xin's Ci School's "tracing back to the source" cannot but be called an exception. However, it is impossible to say that it doesn't work. Although they acknowledge the merits of Su Xin's ci, they are limited by traditional stereotypes and regard it as unnatural and special, and they don't know enough about the innovative significance of Su Xin's ci. But since liberation, some commentators have described the two factions as "mainstream" and "countercurrent", which is also wrong. It is generally believed that graceful writers have achieved different degrees of ideological and artistic achievements, and it is obviously unrealistic that the theory of countercurrent leads to total negation; Bold writers not only still have some graceful works, but also their bold words often absorb and melt graceful words, and still maintain the characteristics that words are different from poems and are not assimilated by poems. We are moved by the great emotion of "gone forever", and we can also feel the lingering feelings of the travelers who are "Liu Yang 'an, Xiao Feng Canyue". Zhang's "He Xinlang Farewell Hu Bangheng to NSW", Yue Fei's "Man Jiang Hong", "Song of Six Countries", "Nian Nujiao Deng Duo" and even many of Xin Qiji's masterpieces are of course resounding with cymbals (towers, drums and cymbals), which fully reflect their generosity. Chunlan Qiuju, with their own ingenuity, can meet people's various aesthetic needs. On the premise of fully estimating the innovative significance of bold and unconstrained ci school, the two schools should be unified.
Song Ci is the pinnacle of China's ci history, and its influence has enveloped the whole ci circle in the future. Song Ci is actually the most accomplished lyric poem in Song Dynasty, which makes it as famous as Tang Poetry and Yuan Qu. Song poetry was greatly influenced by Tang poetry. The early Northern Song Dynasty mainly followed the poetic style of the middle and late Tang Dynasty, which can be roughly classified as three-body. At first, Bai Juyi's poetic style was imitated by Bai Juyi. The main poets are Liu Yun, Xu Xuan and Wang Yucheng. Among them, Wang Yucheng paid special attention to the sufferings of people's livelihood, and his style was popular, which suggested a new direction for the development of Song poetry. After vernacular Chinese, Jia Dao and Yao He became popular in the late Tang Dynasty. The main poets are Lin Bu, Pan Lang and Kou Zhun. In addition to the vernacular Chinese and the style of writing in the late Tang Dynasty, another school worships Li Shangyin's style of writing. The representative figures are Yang Yi, Qian. Kunxi style pays attention to the use of allusions, but lacks ideological content and cannot reflect the spirit of the times. In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, with the second ancient prose movement, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi and Su Shi created a new situation in the Song Dynasty. They not only swept away the gorgeous habits, but also established the standard of prose culture and discussion in Song Dynasty. Then Wang Anshi, Su Shi and others. Wang Anshi's early works pay attention to people's livelihood and are good at argument, while in his later years, he pays attention to skills and strict poetry rhythm. Su Shi's works are rich in themes and diverse in styles, which greatly expanded the realm of Song poetry. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, the main poets were Su Men Si Zi and Chen Shidao. Although they inherited Su Shi's poetic style, they tended to differ in aesthetics. Among them, Huang Tingjian and Chen Shidao had a great influence on the later Jiangxi Poetry School.
In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Jiangxi Poetry School was formed and expanded, represented by Chen and Lu Ben-zhong, but its creativity was not enough, and the poetic style gradually changed after crossing the south. In the mid-Southern Song Dynasty, four great poets appeared, namely Yang Wanli, Fan Chengda, You Mao and Lu You. Among them, Lu You was the most outstanding poet in the Southern Song Dynasty. He has a wide range of materials, tragic poetic style, grand artistic conception and eclecticism. After Jiangxi Poetry School gradually faded out of the poetry circle, Yongjia Siling and Jianghu Poetry School appeared the phenomenon of opposing Jiangxi Poetry School and learning from the late Tang Dynasty. Yongjia Siling specializes in five laws, with narrow materials and trivial carving. The pattern of Jianghu Poetry School is wider than that of Siling, with a wider theme and exquisite overall style, and it has not broken away from the old habits of the late Tang Dynasty. The novels and operas in Song Dynasty prepared good conditions for the great development of novels and operas in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The novels in Song Dynasty are mainly "storytelling", which was originally the base of the story told by the speaker, but in fact they are vernacular short stories. There are about thirty or forty kinds of books about the Song Dynasty, which are scattered in Beijing popular novels, Qingping Shantang stories, Sanyan and other books. There are two distinct characteristics of the Matsumoto version: First, the color of civic literature. Storytelling was a kind of "tile shed technique" at that time, and it was a kind of literature and art for urban people to express themselves, educate themselves and entertain themselves. For the first time, the lower class citizens appeared in batches as positive figures, such as Cui Ning, the jade grinder in Mo Yu Guan Yin, John Zhang, the manager in Zhang Zhicheng, and Cui Ning, the silk seller in Wrong Chop, especially Xiu Xiu, Zhou Shengxian, Xiao Nian and a group of rebellious lower class women. The sociality and reality of the novel have been strengthened, which has opened the way for the future development of the novel. The second is the characteristics of vernacular literature. The script language is vernacular, which is more detailed, vivid, tortuous and full of life flavor than classical Chinese novels (such as Tang legends). In particular, the personalization of character dialogue has made great progress. Although there are still classical Chinese novels in later generations, they have to retreat to the second place compared with vernacular novels. As for the long "history-telling" story book, it also provides story material for future long historical novels.
The folk opera in Song Dynasty is still in its infancy. Such as puppet shows, shadow plays, musicals, etc. The first two are not played by people, and the last one is played by people, but it is still a narrative rather than a first-person narrator. However, all these have some dramatic conditions. Although there are no scripts circulating in the Northern Song Dynasty Zaju and the Southern Song Dynasty Opera (some people think that Zhang Xie's top three operas in Yongle Dadian were written by Song people), they are quite complete operas with the basic characteristics of China opera art, and they are the basis and starting point for the future development of operas.
In a word, due to the development of social politics and economy, new requirements are put forward for literature, and also due to the law of literature's own development, China's classical poems and essays have gradually passed the golden age and lost their dominant position in the literary world, and novels, operas and other styles are brewing a greater literary climax, thus becoming the focus of the literary world. Song Dynasty literature is in such a transitional stage.