One of the signs of this change is the appearance of Zhang Heng's Return to Tianfu. Zhang Heng once spent ten years thinking about the attached poems and writing "On Two Capitals". The main purpose of this fu is to satirize the frugality of emperors and princes, but sadly, this great fu, which cost Zhang Heng a lot of energy, is of no help to politics and religion. In the face of the situation that the government of the DPRK was facing Japan and the river was declining, his thought of "nourishing qi and being peaceful" was shattered and Taoist thought began to rise. The poem "Returning to Tianfu" describes the quiet interest of seclusion, with fresh and beautiful scenery and carefree life, which makes the poet "entertaining" and "vertical". Although Fu has no distinct personality, it is obvious that he has a lyric hero, whose self-awareness has been strengthened and his personal value has been valued. Since then, lyrical small fu has appeared constantly, which has become a common practice in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, replacing the position of big fu. Since then, Ci Fu has become a tool for literati to express their feelings and realize their literary consciousness. It should be said that Zhang Heng's Return to Tianfu is a primrose in literary consciousness.
The second sign of this change is the appearance of Nineteen Ancient Poems. At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, influenced by Yuefu folk songs, literati began to write five-character poems, and by the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, they gradually matured. Around Huan and Ling, a number of five-character poems (now lost their owner's name) appeared, the representative of which was Nineteen Ancient Poems selected from Selected Works of Zhaoming. Nineteen Ancient Poems is not only a symbol of the maturity of literati's five-character poems, but also a symbol of poetic literary consciousness. First of all, there are many ancient poems. Zhong Rong of Liang Dynasty said in Poems: "Lu Ji wrote fourteen poems" and "Besides, forty-five poems have been written in past dynasties". The two figures add up to ***59 songs, which shows that Prince Xiao Tong may watch more. It is conceivable that their number at that time was considerable (today's so-called "Su Li's poems" should be included). It can be said that the poetic style of five-character ancient poems was widely used by literati at that time, and there may even be creative groups who created five-character ancient poems. Secondly, ancient poems show "human consciousness" in content. The content of Nineteen Poems is nothing more than two aspects: the song of wandering and the words of thinking about women. The poet lamented the shortness of life and the bleak future, and expressed his worries about travel and parting, which was sad and deep. Among these hymns, what impressed me the most were those short-lived sighs, such as "I was born before I was a hundred years old, and I was always worried that I was a thousand years older", "Life suddenly seems to be like sending, and my life is not solid", "If I choose, I will fly suddenly", "How can I live a long life test" and "Life in heaven and earth suddenly seems like a passer-by". There are quite a few poems describing life like this. In addition, there are some poems such as "how to grow old quickly" and "the thought of a gentleman makes people old", which also reflect the same theme. This short-lived sigh is the persistence and concern for life. In the reality of repression, some ancient poetry writers encouraged themselves to "establish a career" as soon as possible and obtain "honor", "Why not aim high and strike first"; Some advocate carpe diem and sing, "The days are short and the nights are long. Why not swim by candlelight?"? If you want to eat, drink and be merry in time, how can you stay here? " "Eating while seeking immortality is mostly caused by medicine. It is better to drink wine and put on tens of thousands and sous. " These voices, whether decadent or positive; Whether vulgar or noble; Both reflect the affirmation and pursuit of personal life value. Thirdly, the lyricism of Nineteen Ancient Poems is very real and strong. The author makes no secret of his feelings of sadness, depression, injustice, indignation, yearning and missing, and sends them to the poem. This shows that the authors of ancient poems no longer regard literature as a vassal of politics and religion, but create it to meet their own lyric needs; The theme of mankind has been made clear, and literature has become a literature that expresses life, human destiny and human soul. Therefore, Nineteen Ancient Poems is another important symbol of literary consciousness in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty.
The third sign of this change is the new look of prose creation. The first is the rapid development of various essays. Stylistically speaking, there are many kinds, such as tablet, inscription, topic, admonition, book, note, strategy, order, discussion, note, joke, essay and Julian. In the classical and other styles, the entertainment color is already very strong, which basically breaks away from the barrier of politics and religion. Even books, performance, discussion, tablet and other styles with clear functions have changed a lot. As far as books are concerned, most of the letters in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty describe complex feelings in daily life, such as the book of Qin Jia and his wife Xu Shu, the book of Xu Shu's reply to my husband Qin Jia, and Li Yan's suicide note. Touching, compassionate and generous. Another example is the memorial ceremony, which was originally unremarkable, but in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, there was always a very strong personality, a melancholy and a particularly strong emotional color. Secondly, the prose in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty gradually tends to be neat and gorgeous. First, make a fuss about sentence patterns, syllables, rhetoric and allusions, and strive to create a formal beauty; The second is to pay attention to the elegance and agility of prose. This change shows that literature has been aimed at pleasing people's emotions, which is the core spirit of literary consciousness.
In view of the above understanding, the conscious era of China literature began in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. As for Jian 'an literature, it is not only closely related to the literature in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty in time, but also pushes the literary consciousness originated in the late Eastern Han Dynasty to a more mature stage in the spirit of literary creation.