Usually, apart from the concept of the times, the distinction between Tang and Song poetry refers to style. Style is of course related to the times and cannot be divided by time period; Tang poetry began from the school of poetry, and in the Song Dynasty, there were also people who inherited Tang sounds, such as Bai Ti and Ti in the early Song Dynasty. Generally speaking, the poetic styles of Tang and Song Dynasties are quite different. From Song Dynasty to modern times, the style of China's classical poetry did not go beyond the scope of Tang and Song Dynasties.
"On Poetry and Songs" said: "Tang poetry wins by rhyme, so it is elegant and elegant, but ethereal; Song poetry wins with meaning, so it is refined and capable, expensive and profound. The beauty of Tang poetry lies in its sentimental words, so it is rich; The beauty of Song poetry lies in its strength, so it is thin. " These words are the characteristics of Tang and Song Dynasties.
For example, for example, Li Bai's Dongting Lake (I): "Dongting Lake looks at the Chu River in the west, with water all over the sky and no clouds." The poem "I don't know where to hang the Xiang army at sunset in Changsha" is exactly what I saw in the east and west. It is handy and effortless. It's really ethereal and emotional to read, which is better than rhyme.
Let's take a look at Huang Tingjian's "The Portrait of the Founder" (I): "Hui Chong's misty rain returns to the wild goose and sits in my Xiaoxiang Dongting. I want to call the boat home, so the old man said it was Dan Qing. " The first three sentences of this poem describe the scenery and moving scenery in the lake. When the poet wanted to buy a boat to travel, he realized that this was not a real scene, but a painting. The first three sentences are posturing for the sake of flashing the last sentence, which shows that it takes a lot of ingenuity and is deeply broken, that is, winning by intention.
Tang poetry attaches great importance to rhyme, so most of them are mixed with scenes or feelings. Another example is Li Bai's "Looking at Lushan Waterfall" (Rizhao incense burner gives birth to purple smoke). The four sentences are all about scenery, with no special meaning, but they are free and easy for readers to understand; Its beauty lies in love words. This is what Yan Yu said in Cang Hua, "Don't care about the road, don't say anything."
When writing Lushan Mountain, Su Shi's poem Xilin Wall (a mountain peak on the side of the mountain) was different. The first two sentences are still about scenery, and the last two sentences are about discussion, but because of this discussion, people can fully appreciate the twists and turns of Lushan Mountain. Zhao Yi, a Qing man, commented: "The masterpiece of Lushan Mountain is like a forest. If you do it again, it will never be excellent. Pogong wants to fall into the sky, and he is clever enough to beat the teacher. "
Indeed, compared with Li Bai's poems, this poem has a deeper meaning and is famous for its strength. But the richness of love words is not as good as that of others. The significance of Su Shi's poem lies not only in this, but also in readers' profound philosophy. This is also one of the characteristics of Song poetry, which is full of rational interest.
As for the rich interest, there are also in Tang poetry, such as Wang Wei's reply to Zhang's deputy governor, and the passage of time only gives me all kinds of leisure. I think that there is no brilliant strategy to serve the country, only to retire to the mountains and forests. Wide wind, the wind in the shade, the moon shining on the right to play the piano. You ask me good or bad luck? Listen, there is a fisherman singing on the lake! . "Poets are just narrating and writing scenery, and relaxing the wind and mountains, unbuttoning the belt and playing the piano can all be used to realize the Tao. Finally, there is no answer, which is intriguing. Reason lies in the scenery, meaning is beyond words, which is the characteristic of reasoning in Tang poetry.
The characteristics of reasoning in Song poetry can take care of Huang Tingjian's "Two Rhymes to Answer the Old Bing's Disease and Two Amusement Parks" (I): "Everything is on the same plane, and the worry is Zen disease. There are new poems in boredom, forgetting the hoof and leaving the rabbit path. Lotus leaf mud shows anger and joy. The stalls are close to the fragrance, and the heart is quiet with the dusk. " Compared with the last poem, the two poems actually have the same meaning, but Huang's poem is more tortuous and more thorough. It's just that it's even worse when it comes to hints.
Tang and Song poems have their own characteristics in reasoning poems, and so do landscape poems. Another example is Cen Can's "Bai Xuege sent back for a military trial" (the north wind makes a hundred flowers fold). Although it tries to describe things, it comes slowly, changes the rhyme for a pause, and the steps are in tune. In Song Dynasty, Su Shi's Hundred Steps of Flood (Dragon and Hong all fall and jump) imitates the metaphor in Han Yu's Preface to Sending Stones to Chu Shi, which makes people overwhelmed. Moreover, the rhyme does not change in the middle, and there is a tendency to fall straight. There are advantages in both the beauty of poetry and the fluency of writing. Compared with Cen's poems, the writing skills can be said to be improved, but it is inevitable that there is a sense of urgency and there is no elegance in Tang poetry.
Song poetry not only changed the old ideas in composition, but also in tone. Huang Tingjian's poems are tall, straight and thin, which is quite different from the elegant voice of Tang poetry. In addition, Yan Yu once accused Huang Tingjian and Jiangxi Poetry School of "taking words as poems, discussing as poems and learning as poems." In fact, this is the difference between Song poetry and Tang poetry, which is a major feature of Song poetry.
Song people seek innovation and change, and everything in the world, laughing and cursing, is written into the text, creating a new way. However, vanilla beauty, love stories between men and women in Tang poetry and Song poetry are rarely seen. This is mainly a word that appeared in the late Tang Dynasty and developed to the Song Dynasty. Its genre is suitable for romance, so most of these emotions of Song people are transferred to words.
There has always been a dispute between the superior and the inferior in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the choice of praise and criticism varies from person to person. The strength of Song poetry lies in the improvement of techniques and the expansion of themes compared with Tang poetry. But the more you improve your literary talent, the more you lose your natural voice, and it is inevitable that you will lose your grace and beauty. This is also a helpless move. At the same time, if you blindly seek innovation and change, depth and adventure, and you can't get any new ideas, you have to pay attention to the use of words, because the use of words hurts poetry and meaning. This is where Song poetry is inferior to Tang poetry.
As far as the development of literature is concerned, originality is more important than form, and it is difficult for Song people to continue under the situation that Tang poetry has been in full swing. If you are poor, you will change your mind, so you will expand your territory, set foot in places that the Tang people have never been to, and find another way to form a rival with the Tang poetry. After the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, although poetry also changed, it could not cross the barrier between the two schools.