Cao Cao is an elder among Jian 'an writers, second only to Kong Rong. His creative activities started earlier than other writers, so Cao Cao influenced and influenced later generations with his new spirit and new style works. There are only more than twenty poems written by Cao Cao, including four, five and miscellaneous poems. Cao Cao's use of different poetic forms is full of innovative spirit, which is most prominent in four-character poems and five-character poems. Since The Book of Songs, there are few authors and works, and the content is biased towards lessons. The appearance tends to be flat and the language is elegant and dignified. Cao Cao's four words are like different peaks. "Beyond 300 articles, open yourself." Looking at the Sea, Returning to the Longevity, Walking Out of the Summer Gate and other short songs are all well-known masterpieces, which are unique in content, artistic conception, syntax, vocabulary and so on, marking the revival of four-character poems and directly affecting the creation of four-character poems by Ji Kang, Tao Yuanming and others later. Five-character poems belong to "five-character poems" in fashion. Cao Cao is a man who uses five words to reflect the vast real life. Autumn Dew Trip, Good Li Xing, Ku Hanxing, Quechu Dongmen Trip, etc. The artistic conception is profound and profound, the brushwork is vertical and horizontal, and the language is popular, which represents the new tendency of creation at that time, opens the way for the situation of "five words surging like clouds" in Jian 'an period, and lays a solid foundation for the five words to become the basic form of China's classical poetry. Cao Cao wrote four words and five words.
In the Ming Dynasty, Zhong Xing called Cao Cao's poem Lu Luxing "a real epic in the late Han Dynasty". Cao Cao was the first person to win the title of "History of Poetry" in the history of China literature, and he was worthy of the title. Cao Cao's poems of "Mourning the chaos at that time, singing with ambition" and "Chanting his temperament and narrating his career" truly reflect the career, experience, thoughts and feelings of the characters and record many important aspects of social life in the late Han Dynasty. Most of the content is based on historical facts, which is highly authentic.
Cao Cao wrote some poems describing social chaos and the life of the army fighting for defense. Taking Dong Zhuo's rebellion as the object of expression, A Journey to Autumn Deer reveals the reasons, process and consequences of Dong Zhuo's rebellion by describing the scene of national collapse and social division. Hao, the companion of autumn dew, reflects the historical fact that Yuan Shao, as the head of the crusade against Dong Zhuo, had different opinions, sat tight and then attacked and killed each other. Since then, the long-term warlord melee has caused a large number of deaths and huge social and economic losses. This turmoil ended the 400-year-long unification of the two Han Dynasties, and China entered the period of disintegration. The two poems perfectly and truly reflect this historical change. Cao Cao is a witness of this great change. He narrated this historical event with his own experience, which made the two poems resound, almost without any source, and became "a record of the end of Han Dynasty".
Another kind of Cao Cao's works express his desire to recruit talents for the great cause of reunification, and vividly and generally reflect his words and deeds, opinions and minds in this regard, which can be represented by "Wine Short Song". There are also some poems about his political ideals, such as "Dujiu" which depicts a picture of peace and prosperity, and "Duguan Mountain" which puts forward the idea of national unity, frugality of the monarch, and abiding by the law and loving the people. These feudal societies are naturally utopian dreams, but at the same time, we can see that they are not unreasonable. On the one hand, these concepts compare with the political corruption and social chaos at that time; On the other hand, they are indeed the goals pursued by Cao Cao, and some ideals can be found in his political and military practice.
In a word, Cao Cao's poems are closely related to his personal life, experiences and experiences to reflect his times. Most of them are written in real situations, with high authenticity. Reading Cao Cao's poems is like reading a brief history of the late Han Dynasty, which is prosperous and vivid. We can see the evolution of some major historical events, the actions and activities of some historical figures, and thus feel the pulse and voice of the times; He also directly provided us with some information about Cao Cao's ideas, political opinions, social ideals and attitude towards life as a politician and strategist.
Cao Cao's poems not only show social unrest, but also reveal the root of chaos. Fundamentally speaking, the unrest in the late Han Dynasty was caused by the increasingly intensified class contradictions in the feudal system itself. Constrained by class prejudice, Cao Cao naturally didn't realize this, but he grasped the direct cause of the unrest quite accurately. The value of Cao Cao's poetry lies in his sympathy for suffering, lashing out at the darkness, "worrying about the world and dying", and at the same time full of "fearless" positive enterprising spirit. In Out of Xiamen, watching the sea and turtles is an exciting swan song, although it is a long life. In Looking at the Sea, the journey between the sun and the moon is unexpected. Xinghan is brilliant, if you take it by surprise. ""Although the tortoise lives a long life, ""An old horse crouches tiger, aiming at a thousand miles. The martyr's next year is full of courage. "The heroism of self-improvement and vigorous old age is exciting. The spirit of struggle for thousands of years undoubtedly contains the motivation of personal achievements, and to some extent, it is also an indispensable spiritual force to pursue the ideal of social life, inspire people to pay attention to reality, intervene in reality and actively change reality.
Cao Cao's poems are full and vigorous realism, and Cao Cao pays attention to drawing nutrition from poetry, especially the folk songs of Han Yuefu, which is also an important reason why his poems can be full and vigorous realism. Its basic idea is to inherit the folk songs of Han Yuefu, which are "felt by sadness and joy and originated from fate". Some poems are directly inspired by folk songs, and even directly born out of them.
Cao Cao's poems are also deeply influenced by the folk songs of Han Yuefu in artistic form, with outstanding performance and wide popularity. Secondly, Cao Cao's newly developed five-character miscellaneous writing among the people also adds a popular color to his poems, which is particularly prominent in five-character poems. In terms of expression, Cao Cao inherited many folk songs of Han Yuefu. Of course, Cao Cao's research on the folk songs of Han Yuefu is universal, but it is only inspired by similar themes, not nostalgia and narration. Although the chapters written with the old theme of Yuefu are more or less related to the old theme in content or emotion, they are generally self-written poems, such as Lu Luxing and Hao.
Finally, it should be pointed out that Cao Cao's poems not only reflect reality through personal experience, but also have high artistry. Generally speaking, his poems have achieved the unity of authenticity and typicality. Cao Cao pays attention to the record of life, and his poems reflect the directness of life, but it does not mean copying life. Cao Cao also realized the unity of authenticity and abundant feelings and momentum. Autumn Journey and Hao express their sadness through narration, and Looking at the Sea expresses their heroism and chic through description and reasoning. Rich emotions bring abundant motivation and form a major feature of poetry. Cao Cao's poems also achieved the unity of authenticity and image. Reflecting the real social content with images and letting people appreciate the essence of objective things from images are the characteristics of all literary forms, even works called "the history of poetry".