The Tang Dynasty was not only prosperous in poetry, but also rich in poetics. During this period, many literary theorists emerged one after another, and their creative experience was systematically and meticulously summarized. One of the characteristics of literary theory in Tang dynasty is that prose theory and poetry theory are self-contained; The second feature is that the ancient prose movement advocated by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan and the new Yuefu movement advocated by Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi all emphasize retro; The third feature is the theory of poetry and song in Tang Dynasty, which can be divided into two schools according to the different aesthetic values. First, represented by Chen Ziang in the early Tang Dynasty, Du Fu in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Yuan Zhen in the middle Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi and Pi Rixiu in the late Tang Dynasty, they advocated joining the WTO, described the society, criticized the malpractices, and attached importance to the realistic content and social role of poetry; First, represented by Wang Changling, Jiao Ran and Si Kongtu, they advocate seclusion, describe nature, express their feelings about mountains and rivers, and attach importance to the artistic value and aesthetic value of poetry. The former can be called "realism school" and the latter can be called "art school". In the history of poetic theory in Tang Dynasty, these two schools once confronted each other and parted ways. In the literary world of Tang Dynasty dominated by Confucian poetry, "Realism School" dominated. It is extremely unfair that the "art school" is denounced as formalism and aestheticism. This paper mainly evaluates the achievements, shortcomings and influences of Chen Ziang and Bai Juyi's poetics from the perspective of aesthetic value orientation, which is beneficial for us to inherit and learn from excellent traditional poetics.
Chen Ziang and Bai Juyi were both famous poets and poetic theorists in the Tang Dynasty. One was born in the early days of the Tang Dynasty; Born in the mid-Tang Dynasty with internal troubles and foreign invasion. Judging from their origins, experiences and times, they are different, but they have the same literary concept. They are all "realistic" poetic theorists and poets, and they are all engaged in retro poetry under the banner of innovative poetry. They restored the ancient Book of Songs and Six Meanings. What changed was the fate of literature in the Six Dynasties. Therefore, the aesthetic value orientation of poetry is the same-utilitarian irony.
one
Chen Ziang, born in Shehong, Sichuan, is a rich man. 24-year-old Jinshi was appreciated by Wu Zetian. He was a feudal intellectual with progressive ideas. After participating in politics, he went to the northwest frontier fortress with the army, and then marched with the army to resist the invasion of Qidan. Ren Jianan King Wu was the first staff officer. He actively called for political reform, and put forward a series of positive suggestions, such as "selecting talents and appointing people", "tribute punishment" and "raising silkworms by agriculture", demanding that the rulers "conform to public opinion" [1] and oppose exultation and great sorrow, but none of them were adopted by the supreme ruler. He resigned angrily and returned to his hometown, and finally died in prison at the age of 42. Politically, he is a frustrated man without talent. Both old and new Tang books have been circulated. There is a collection of Chen's gleanings. Chen Ziang's poetic theory is mainly embodied in Preface to Zuo's Bamboo Slips in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This is the preface written by the poet friend Dong Fang Qiu for "The Ode to the Lonely Tong". In this short preface, Chen's poetic viewpoint is fully reflected:
..... The article has been rotten for 500 years. Biographies of Han, Wei, Jin and Song Mo, however, these documents can be collected. When servants are free, they look at each other's poems, which are colorful and complicated, but they are never happy to send them, sighing through the ages. Think of the ancients often afraid of stumbling and decadent, elegant and not doing it, but also worried.
Yesterday, I saw the "Three Lonely Tong Fu", which is full of vigor and vitality, full of sound and emotion, brilliant in practice and golden. Then decorate your vision with your heart and play the melancholy down. I didn't think of a good sound. Watching it again can make Jian 'an writers smile at each other. Xie Junyun: "Zhang Maoxian and He Jingzu were born in the east." Servants also think they know what to say. So, I lamented elegance and wrote a poem about bamboo cultivation. When I have a bosom friend, I will convey it.
Chen Ziang believes that "writing harms people for 500 years" is the result of the formalism of Qi Liang's poems, which are colorful but prosperous and precious. It can be seen that his poetic theory was put forward in view of the literary style of poetry in the Six Dynasties, which was divorced from reality and emphasized formalism. Therefore, "Ji Xing" and "Feng Gu" were put forward as the principles of poetry creation. "Xing" in Ji Xing refers to the method of comparison; "Send" means that the content is to be entrusted. That is to say, to express the author's feelings in the way of "supporting things to interest him" and "expressing ambition with things". Judging from his proposition of restoring the voice of truth, the "auspicious star" he advocated is to restore the tradition of "expressing ambition" emphasized by Confucian poetry teaching. He took "good luck" as the content of his poem, reflected real life through the description of social life, and played an active role in intervening in life and educating social politics, which also reflected the author's traditional aesthetic view. Chen Ziang's utilitarian view of aesthetic education requires Qi and Liang literature not to punish evil and promote good, but also to attach importance to individual expression. Of course, it has become the voice of so-called "moral corruption" and "decadence". Therefore, he wants elegance, worships Han and Wei dynasties, and advocates that creation should be "prosperous". Its core is to restore the ancients, that is, to return poetry creation to the track of "the right way from the beginning, the constant foundation" emphasized by Confucianism.
Chen Ziang's literary retro thought can only be properly explained if it is put into the whole retro trend at that time. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, after ending the division of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tang Yi Tong went to China, and the economy of feudal society was rapidly restored and developed. In order to meet the needs of political stability after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the problems of Confucian retro and literary retro were put forward. Li Yuan, the emperor gaozu of the Han Dynasty, deeply lamented that since Wei and Jin Dynasties, "elegance and morality have been exhausted", "Confucianism has not been incited" and "Zhou Li's teaching has been exhausted and not cultivated." [2] Therefore, it is emphasized that "the principal and interest are at the end and Confucianism is advocated". [3] Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong, put forward the requirement of retro more clearly: "Although he thanked the former monarch and loved the ancient, he was hidden in elegance and feared that the gentleman would fall. Therefore, I appointed talents, preserved the past, explored the purpose of the six classics, and adopted three generations of Huaying. " Those who abandon the scriptures now choose good and practice; The new voice is chaotic in elegance, and the violation is corrected. "[4] Due to the repeated advocacy of the rulers, the early Tang literati also advocated retro. Chen Ziang is the representative of this literary retro trend of thought.
Judging from the law of literary development, there is a problem of how to face the literature of the Six Dynasties in the early Tang Dynasty and even in the whole Tang Dynasty. Chen Ziang's attitude towards this issue is: condemning the Six Dynasties and advocating Jian 'an character. In Preface to Planting Bamboo, he praised Dong Fang Qiu's Gu Tong Fu for its "vigorous character, frustrated tone, bright practice and good gold", which is his conscious application of poetic aesthetic standards. He demanded that poetry be generous, solid, sonorous in tone and simple in language, and form a beautiful and vigorous style. Chen Ziang took the orthodox "elegance" as the standard of poetic beauty. Of course, he could not affirm the literature of the Six Dynasties. However, the literature of the Six Dynasties did have a decadent poetic style. In view of this, advocating "style of character" has the function of eliminating disadvantages and supplementing bias, which has a certain positive effect on the transformation of poetic style in the Tang Dynasty. However, the development of literature can't cut off history, and the inheritance of literature as a law is independent of human will. How did Chen Canziang skip or even deny the Six Dynasties and take Jian 'an directly? Poetry in the Six Dynasties is an extremely important stage in the history of China's poetry development. This period produced many writers and works with different styles, which greatly opened up the world of poetry creation. What is particularly commendable is that it has broken through the Confucian principle of poetry teaching since the Han Dynasty, and it is not limited to the purpose of "expressing ambition with poetry", nor does it agree with the function of poetry's prosperity, outlook, group and resentment. They describe nature according to their own aesthetic taste. Beautiful pastoral poems and landscape poems are excellent works of this period. Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun and Xie are outstanding representatives of creating poetic beauty. Metaphysical poems and palace poems in the Six Dynasties were also very popular. However, it should be analyzed in detail in connection with the social situation at that time and cannot be simply denied. Many poets experienced the awakening of people, the discovery and affirmation of people's own value, the expression of people's feelings and the free expression of their own personality in poetry during the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, which led to the prosperity of poetry in the Six Dynasties. As far as metaphysical poetry is concerned, it is also a style of poetry in the Six Dynasties. On the surface, talking about Hyunri seems to be divorced from real life, and it has no effect. However, many metaphysical poems in the Jin Dynasty also express personal thoughts and feelings and express their inner world from their own values, which also shows literary consciousness and is beyond reproach. Although the poems of the Six Dynasties are not as realistic in content and simple in style as the poems, Sao and ancient poems of the Han and Wei Dynasties, they have accumulated a lot of experience in language conciseness, temperament exploration and meticulous expression techniques. Especially in the creation of the Six Dynasties, it is worth learning and affirming. These are by no means the "evil" and "decadent" voices of the Six Dynasties literature, but the development and new changes of the Six Dynasties literature. Therefore, the poems of the Six Dynasties played a positive role in the development of Tang poetry. In fact, although the poets in the early Tang Dynasty criticized the formalism and aestheticism of the Six Dynasties literature in theory, they unconsciously absorbed the artistic nutrition of the Six Dynasties literature in their creation. The achievements of the four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty can illustrate this problem. It can be seen that the prosperity of Tang literature is by no means the result of denying the literary achievements of the Six Dynasties and taking Jian 'an directly. If Tang poetry was directly connected with Jian 'an, we wouldn't have seen the prosperity of Tang poetry today. Therefore, the development of literature must not be divorced from history. Without the important development of the literature of the Six Dynasties in content and form, there would be no prosperity of the literature of the Tang Dynasty.
Since ancient times, the poems of the Six Dynasties have been neglected for fear of being abandoned. Chen Ziang also treated the poetry of the Six Dynasties with orthodox eyes. He held a negative attitude towards the landscape poems, metaphysical poems and palace poems of the Six Dynasties, denouncing them as "colorful" and "decadent". This is the concrete embodiment of his "nice guy stays, pragmatic person goes to China".
As a representative of innovative poetry in the early Tang Dynasty, Chen Ziang really took "Ji Xing" and "Feng Gu" as religions, changed the lyrical atmosphere of the Six Dynasties, wrote many impassioned poems, exposed the reality, and attacked the shortcomings of the times, which brought a new look to poetry creation in the early Tang Dynasty and played a positive role. But he was too persistent to transcend the Six Dynasties and restore the ancient road. Therefore, his poetry emphasizes tradition and lacks innovation. Therefore, it is appropriate for Jiao Ran to evaluate himself as "less and less" in poetic style. Although Chen Ziang denied the poetry of the Six Dynasties, he did not completely deny the artistic achievements of the literature of the Six Dynasties in his creation. Zhang Yi said in the Preface to Collected Works of Ming Dynasty in Chen Boyu: Chen Ziang's works "have the flavor of the Six Dynasties and the Early Tang Dynasty". This is in line with his creative reality.
Chen Ziang's theory of restoring ancient ways in poetry and his creative practice had a great influence in the Tang Dynasty. "The Book of the New Tang Dynasty" says: "Tang Xing, the article inherits Xu and the wind, and the ancestors are still good, and the children are proud and elegant. ..... Zi Ang's works, contemporary thinking methods ". It serves to show the great influence of Chen Ziang. However, he has been praised again and again, not because he has any new construction in poetics, but because he has restored orthodoxy in literature. Literature must keep pace with the times and change constantly, but Chen Ziang practices retro in the name of innovation. Therefore, it has not made much contribution to poetic theory.
two
Bai Juyi (772-846) was born in Weinan, Shaanxi. Zhenyuan Jinshi, tired of the official left gleaning, was demoted to Jiangzhou Sima for offending powerful people, and later served as the secretariat of Hangzhou and Suzhou, and the official was the minister of punishments. There are 20 volumes of Bai Changqing's Collection, Postscript Poetry 17, and 2 volumes of Bieji Supplement. Nine Books with Yuan is a poem written with his good friend Yuan Zhen.
Bai Juyi is another great poet and poetics critic after Li Bai and Du Fu. He lived in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, when the feudal society had reached its peak. In the early Tang dynasty, the problem of literature retro was put forward. By the mid-Tang Dynasty, literary retro had formed a strong literary trend of thought: prose included the ancient prose movement advocated by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan; Poetry has a new Yuefu movement headed by Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi. The former demands to restore the prose style before Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, criticizes the parallel style after Wei and Jin, advocates the style of literary obedience, and emphasizes the relationship between literature and Taoism and the educational role of articles; The latter advocated learning from the elegance of the pre-Qin Dynasty, criticized the poetic style of "mocking snow and gardening" since the Six Dynasties, put forward the creative purpose of "singing only makes people sick and hoping the emperor knows", and emphasized the "beautiful thorn" function of poetry. This is consistent with Chen Ziang's retro thought. But there are more complicated social and political reasons for restoring ancient ways in the middle Tang Dynasty. Since the Anshi Rebellion, social contradictions have become increasingly acute, and court politics has become more corrupt. Political turmoil and war have brought serious economic crisis, and the cruel exploitation of the ruling class has deepened the pain of people's lives. Therefore, more and more scholars emphasize the role of poetry in monitoring current events. For example, in the early years of Yuanhe, Li Hangxiu formally wrote to the emperor, suggesting that "the officials who collected poems should be reinstated to keep the customs". And put forward to attach importance to "singing the voice of resentment", thinking that we can "observe the official's reason and observe things to educate" [5] Obviously, this is not just the opinion of one person, but the opinion of a group of scholars who were concerned about current politics at that time. Bai Juyi's new Yuefu movement rose under this retro background. Nine Books of the Imperial Garden is his theoretical summary of the New Yuefu Movement.
Bai Juyi regards "six meanings" as the highest standard of aesthetic evaluation of poetry, which is the necessity of his retro thought. For the "six meanings", he focused on "beauty is better than pleasure". Taking this as the aesthetic orientation, it criticizes the gradual decline of the so-called "six meanings" from the Warring States to Liang and Chen:
A few weeks ago, the Qin dynasty rose and fell, and poets were abolished. In the world, they don't use poetry to make up for the current politics. Next, they don't use songs to vent their feelings, and there are even things that are flattering and desirable. Only Liuzheng can benefit.
The national wind turned to Sao ci, and the five words began with Su and Li. Su and Li Sao are both strangers, and each department has its own ambition, making it a text. Therefore, the words of the river beam stop at the injury, and the song of the Zepan is attributed to hatred. Confusion and depression are too much for him. However, not far from the poem, the outline still exists. Therefore, when you are happy to leave, you are compared to two geese, and when you satirize gentlemen and villains, you are compared to a hundred birds. Although there is no meaning, there are still two or three things in the wind, so the six meanings are lacking.
In Jin and Song Dynasties, there were few winners. With Aobo's leisure, I am more addicted to mountains and rivers; Far-reaching and ancient, biased towards the countryside. The flow of Jiang and Bao narrows here. For example, there is no knowledgeable person in the "Five Wells". At that time, Liu Yi was a little inflamed, and the paranormal was gone.
As for Liang and Chen, the rate is nothing more than mocking the snow and making flowers and plants ... but I don't know what I mean by "I absorb into beautiful scenery, and Chengjiang is as clean as practice" and "I leave the flowers first, then the leaves first". Therefore, it is only a matter of time before the servants ridicule the snow and do flowers and plants.
-"Nine Books with Yuan"
Bai Juyi believes that after the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, there were very few good poems. During the Warring States Period, Qu and Song made lewd remarks, while Su and Li made five remarks, saying that "all ministries have their own aspirations, which are written by the text" and "not far from the poem, the outline still exists" still has some merits. But "it's just a matter of two or three things." "At that time, the six meanings began to be missing"; After the Jin and Song Dynasties, few people got the purpose of "six meanings", blaming Xie Lingyun for "indulging in landscape" and Tao Yuanming for "focusing on the countryside" and "immersing in the six meanings at that time and making supernatural works"; Between Liang and Chen, "nothing more than sneering at snow and making flowers and plants", "I don't know what it means" and "I lost all my six senses at that time" Bai Juyi also commented on Tang Xing's poems for more than 200 years by saying that they are as beautiful as a fairy:
Tang and Xing Dynasties lasted for two hundred years, during which there were countless poets. To cite just a few examples, Chen Ziang has 20 lyric poems, and Bao Fang has 15 lyric poems. Those who are also poets are called Li and Du. Li Zhi's works are amazing and hard to catch. Very elegant, very elegant, no problem. Du Fu's poems are the most, and there are more than one thousand that can be handed down. As for running through ancient and modern times, □ (two pages) is full of rhythm, perfect workmanship, and too plum. In Xin 'anli, Li Shihao, Tongguan Li, Lu Zi, Liuhuamen and other chapters, there are only thirty or forty sentences about "the wine and meat in all doors stink, and the roads freeze to death". Duchamp is like this, but he can't catch Du! -"Nine Books with Yuan"
Here, Bai Juyi commented on the six meanings from the Book of Songs to Du Fu, and in the six meanings, he particularly emphasized the ironic significance and role of "elegance and vulgarity" in poetry. Based on this understanding, he not only completely denied Liang and Chen's poems, but also denounced them as "playing with snow to make flowers and plants"; It is also attributed to resentment by the great poet Qu Yuan. Tao Yuanming's "In the Country"; Li Bai is also deeply dissatisfied with the lack of "taste both refined and popular". Apart from The Book of Songs, Du Fu, whom Bai Juyi admires most, is not satisfied with his works that reflect reality and satirize the disadvantages of the times. He pushed the role of "beauty is better than happiness" to the limit, completely turned poetry into a tool of political education, and obliterated the artistic characteristics of poetry, which is not worth it.
Bai Juyi examined the poetry since The Book of Songs with the criterion of "beauty is better than prosperity", and felt the pain of "poetry collapse" and wanted to "help it up". How to support Zhenxin? He thinks that the content of the poem is the main thing. Therefore, the creative ideas of "combining articles with the times" and "combining poems with phases" are put forward to "relieve people's illness and make up for the lack of time." "Poetry and song work together" is the core of his poetry theory, which is also the reason why he attaches great importance to satirical poetry. In his Preface to New Yuefu, he said: "In short, it is for the monarch, ministers and people, not for the text", which more specifically showed his views. "Send Tang Sheng" said that "only songs make people sick, I hope the emperor knows"; "On the long-term benefits of education, the plan of Shu is for everyone; The next can be reasonable, and the amount of goodness is one "; [6] "If politics is abolished, it will be repaired, and if politics is insufficient, it will be supplemented [7]". These are the concrete contents of "time" and "thing" emphasized by Bai Juyi. Bai Juyi praised Zhang Ji's poem "elegance wins prosperity and there is no empty talk." I'm sure it was written for "things", so it's not empty. Bai's thoughts of "time" and "thing" are the inheritance and development of Confucian poetics theory, and he thinks that poems and songs that express people's thoughts and feelings will inevitably reflect the characteristics of the social and political outlook of the author's time. Different social and political environments have formed different poetic styles. Through the analysis and investigation of the different characteristics of his works, Chuanmen can realize the social and political environment of the author's time. He said:
World famous musicians are based on sound, sound is based on emotion, and emotion is based on politics. Cover politics leads to emotional harmony, emotional harmony leads to sound harmony, and what is the basis of happy voice? Political loss leads to emotional loss, emotional loss leads to voice loss, and what is the basis of mourning? The so-called way of communication between voice and politics.
-"Celine" and sixty-four "Love Gucci Classics"
Here, Bai Juyi clearly points out that literature and art should reflect the actual political gains and losses, that is, the "way of sound" should be linked with politics, which reflects his strong utilitarian view and his extremely narrow poetic theory. The beauty of nature should have occupied a certain position in the whole literature, but Bai denied all the achievements of the Six Dynasties literature in this respect by "indulging in mountains and rivers" and "ridiculing snow for gardening". He further suggested that even writing landscape flowers and plants should have ironic meaning:
Hey! What are the snow, flowers and grass in 300 Articles? What did you give up? Gu used any ear. Set to "the north wind is cool", and the fake wind is also abused by thorns; "Rain and snow are raining", because of snow, it is also levied; "China in Tang Di", feeling China satirizing brothers; "Pick and choose", beautiful grass has fun. Everything originated here, but justice belongs to another person. On the contrary, what a pity! -"Nine Books with Yuan"
Bai Juyi does not take "snow, flowers and grass" as the aesthetic object, but asks to express his feelings through the things in the Book of Songs. Meaning is not limited to the described thing itself, but plays an ironic role in poetry, that is, "six meanings are transmitted to each other." Because Bai Juyi overemphasized the beauty of poetry content, but downplayed the artistic form and even rejected it. He is willing to adhere to the performance method is:
There are no definite sentences in the article, and the sentences are not fixed. It is based on meaning, not text. The first sentence marks its purpose, the pawn chapter shows its will, and it is poetic. Its rhetoric has quality and path, and it is easy for people who want to see it to distinguish; His words are straightforward, and those who want to hear them are deeply warned; Its business is nuclear and true, so those who hear it can send a message; Its body is smooth and smooth, and it can also play music and songs.
-"Preface to New Yuefu"
Bai Juyi's poetry creation, like writing an enlightening practical article, is just "bound to the meaning, not to the text" and advocates radical and straightforward language. Its political purpose is "those who want to listen to his words must be warned." The language of poetry should be implicit and implicit, and partiality and explicit are taboo in poetry. Confucian poetics should also talk about "praising feelings" and "remonstrating the main text" "remonstration" means remonstrating without revealing or telling the truth. Bai Juyi believes that direct remonstrance is the common feature of the creation of new Yuefu. In Preface to Qin Zhongyin, he advocated "telling the truth" and "telling the truth and deleting it". He also said in "Nine Books with the Same Yuan": "As for the satirist, his intention is exciting and his quality is concerned." In the Ten Prefaces to Answering Poems, he also said to Yuan Zhen, "If you are too anxious, you will be excited." Yuan Zhen also said: Bai Juyi's satirical poems are longer than stimulation [8], which shows that the radical and beautiful satirical poems are the fundamental characteristics of Bai Juyi's satirical poems, and also the biggest drawback of his lack of artistry. He completely abandoned the aesthetic function of poetry. Zhong Xing said, "Bai Yuan is shallow and ill. I hate that he is too straight-eared." . Wang Shizhen also said that Bai Juyi "never dreamed that hundred schools of thought in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was so wonderful." . [9] Judging from the characteristics of poetic art, people's criticism and criticism of Bai Juyi is justified.
Bai Juyi inherited the realistic tradition of Confucianism, so he always paid attention to the relationship between poetry and politics, poetry and reality, and emphasized the social mission and political role of poetry. His ideas of "writing for the time, writing songs and poems for things" and "judging the situation and releasing human feelings" are the inheritance and development of traditional poetry teaching. Before him, from Guofeng, Xiaoya, Han Yuefu to Du Fu and Yuan Jie, there were poems reflecting "human diseases" and "lack of time", and there was a tradition of reflecting social darkness and people's sufferings. But to sum up, emphasize and affirm these in theory, Bai Juyi is the first person. Although his ultimate goal is to maintain "kingliness" and "enlightenment", from a historical perspective, his poetry theory is of progressive significance. What is particularly commendable is that he practiced his theoretical ideas with his own creation and wrote a large number of poems reflecting "prosperity" and "human suffering". His poems make "the dignitaries change their colors", "the rulers feel embarrassed" and "the soldiers gnash their teeth", which plays an ironic role. In Jiu Shu Tong Yuan, Bai Juyi divided his poems into satirical poems, leisurely poems, sentimental poems and miscellaneous poems, and clearly put forward that "if you are poor, you will be immune to it, and if you are up to it, you will help the world". So he thinks that "satirical poetry is also helpful" and "leisure poetry is also good". He also said: "The poems of today's servants are loved by people, but no one cares about miscellaneous poems and songs of everlasting regret. When the time is heavy, the servant is light. " Bai Juyi's poetics is contradictory to his creative practice. His favorite satirical poems are the concrete practice of his theory of emphasizing beauty and stabbing poems, and of course there are many excellent works. For example, watch the wheat harvest, Xinfeng folding arm Weng, red carpet, selling charcoal Weng, Fu Fu and so on. They are all excellent satires. These are inseparable from the poet's creative thought of "helping people's diseases and making up for the lack of time", which embodies the poet's spirit of caring for people's livelihood and daring to expose the shortcomings of the times. This is Bai's early work of "saving the world", which is undoubtedly progressive and should be affirmed. But what is more praised by people is that his "sentimental poems" and "miscellaneous poems" with high artistic attainments, such as Song of Eternal Sorrow and Pipa Xing, are the most beautiful representatives. This is the poet's life sentiment work that got rid of the shackles of current politics, expressing the poet's sorrow and sigh for the world! There is a style of "complaining without anger".
three
Chen Ziang and Bai Juyi's poetic theory of restoring ancient ways is objectively the product of conforming to the political trend of thought of the times. Subjectively speaking, it is to maintain the Confucian orthodox principle of poetry teaching. Their creative achievements are far higher than their poetic theory. This profoundly shows that the development of literature is independent of people's will, and their theories cannot limit their outstanding artistic creation. The achievements and influences of Chen Ziang and Bai Juyi in poetry creation are far above their poetic theory.
Not all the poetic theories of the "Realist School" in the Tang Dynasty emphasized retro and lacked innovation. Not all of them only emphasize utility, but generally deny the poems of the Six Dynasties. Du Fu, who is regarded as a "poet saint" by us, is not only a great realistic poet, but also wrote poems that can win glory with the sun and the moon. Moreover, the comments on poetry have also published many incisive opinions, which has created a precedent for discussing poetry with poetry. His poetic theory is not only "drama is six quatrains", but also manifested in lyric and responsive poems. He likes to talk about artistic papers in his poems, such as Five Poems for Relieving boredom and Memories of Li Bai in Spring, occasionally. However, the most brilliant and concentrated one is "Play is like six quatrains", which is a group of poems composed of six quatrains, and its core is to explore the learning and inheritance of heritage and the creation of poems. Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, in order to meet the needs of the rulers to revive Confucianism, scholars have almost always taken a totally negative attitude towards the literature of the Six Dynasties, denouncing it as decadent and flashy, with Chen Ziang as the representative. What's more, some only recognize the Six Classics, only the works of Confucius and Mencius, and even deny the documents since the Warring States and Song Dynasties. In such a strong retro trend, few people can really examine the literary heritage since Qu Song, especially since the Six Dynasties, and give affirmation, and Du Fu is the most outstanding representative. His "Six Plays" is aimed at this tendency to cut off history and generally deny the poems of the Six Dynasties and the early Tang Dynasty.
Du Fu did not simply deny how to treat the poems of the Six Dynasties. Before him, Li Hua of the Sui Dynasty said: "The left side of the river is in harmony with the beam, so we should restore differences, seek emptiness and refinement, and strive for the strangeness of rhyme and the cleverness of word." There are endless articles, no moon dew, and the boxes are full, but only the shape of a romantic moon remains. " [10] Chen Ziang in the early Tang Dynasty and Li Bai in his contemporaries successively put forward the banner of innovative poetry, put forward the slogan of retro, flaunted the "wind of Han and Wei Dynasties", and tried to correct the flagging tendency of "satirizing the wind and making flowers". For example, if you look at the poems between Qi and Liang, you will find beauty and competition, but they will never be published. . Li Bai said: "Since Jian 'an came, beauty is not precious. ".[1 1] They totally denied Qi Liang's poems. Only Du Fu insisted on carrying forward the "Han Wei style" and inheriting the spirit of elegance and integrity, and made a realistic evaluation of the poems and poets of the Six Dynasties: he affirmed Tao Yuanming and Xie Lingyun; Praise Bao Zhao's poetic style, especially his talent and contribution in the seven-character style; Xie Tiao, He Xun, Yin Keng and other poets have fully affirmed their achievements in poetic rhythm and language. In particular, Yu Xin, who was sneered at by modern people, praised his works in his later years: "Yu Xin's articles are older and more familiar, and his brushwork is vertical and horizontal", and he said in "Yong Huai Bei": "Yu Xin was the saddest in his life, and his poems stirred the mountains and rivers in his twilight years." Yu Xin's poems in his later years fully expressed his yearning for the motherland, which is closely related to Du Fu's feelings of worrying about the country and the people. Du Fu regarded him as a confidant and spoke highly of him. Du Fu hates palace poems most: "I dare not follow in the footsteps of Qi Liang", but palace poems cannot represent all of Qi Liang, let alone all of the Six Dynasties. Du Fu didn't generalize and deny the whole with a defect, but made a concrete analysis, treated it differently, abandoned its shortcomings and took its strengths. The poetry of an era is like this, so should a writer's works. It can be seen that Du Fu's views on the poems of the Six Dynasties are dialectical. Feng Ban, a Qing Dynasty man, said, "I never read Qi Liang's poems. I know its shortcomings as well as its benefits. Others just look at the frame and talk. " [12] Because of this, Du Fu can evaluate the poems of the Six Dynasties realistically.
Du Fu also expressed his own insights on how to correctly evaluate the "four outstanding men" in the early Tang Dynasty: "Wang, Yang, Lu and Luo are contemporary, but they are all frivolous literati." Through the exploration and practice of several generations of poets in Liang, Chen and Sui dynasties, poetry has gradually formed a new poetic style-metrical poetry, which advocates melody and pays attention to antithesis. In the early Tang Dynasty, Song, Shen Quan, Wang, Yang, Lu and Luo made great achievements in the creation of new-style poems. However, due to people's dissatisfaction with Liang's poetic style at that time, some people had the illusion and criticized and denied the new poetry as a flashy work. Therefore, the poems of Wang, Yang, Lu and Luo have been criticized. Du Fu, on the other hand, strongly advocated that "Wang, Yang, Lu and Luo are contemporary", and their poems were produced by constantly refining and completing the rhythm of poetry. Although there is still a delicate style, it expands the writing scope of poetry and lays the foundation for the formation and development of five-character poems and seven-character poems. Their poetry is the expression of the fashion at that time, and it is also the inevitable development of poetry history. Du Fu advised those who didn't stop to say, "Er Cao's name is dead, so he won't waste the rivers and mountains." Your body and reputation will die with the passage of time; The poems of the "Four Masters" are like rivers flowing forever. Du Fu's evaluation of the new-style poems in the early Tang Dynasty from the development trend of literary history can fully affirm the position of the four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty in the history of literature.
In the face of the phenomenon that there was no past in the literary world at that time, how should we correctly treat the problems of the past and the present? Du Fu's attitude is that "people love the ancients, and beautiful words and sentences must be neighbors." He is sure of his poems as long as they are clear words and beautiful sentences. Du Fu learned from his contemporaries, both former sages and later generations. His attitude towards Yu Xin and the four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty is a good example. For the inheritance of literary heritage, Du Fu's principle is "never be vain and elegant, and turn to your teacher." For the literary heritage of the past, we should not be eclectic and completely positive, but should be critical and selective, that is, learn from others with an open mind. Taking the poems of the Six Dynasties and the new style poems of the early Tang Dynasty as examples, he explained the importance of "never imitating the style" and "learning from the same family". The two are interrelated. "Don't cut off your fake body" is to distinguish the essence from the dross; "Learning from many teachers" means learning from the strengths of many families and learning all the excellent things. The former is to discard the false and retain the true, while the latter is omniscient. Therefore, the treatment of literary heritage must be based on eliminating the false and retaining the true. Du Fu is a great poet who learns from his predecessors with an open mind. His ability to climb the peak of poetic art is inseparable from his "multi-teacher". Yuan Zhen, a poet in the middle Tang Dynasty, said: "As for the beauty of children, it is called frivolous and coquettish. It is when Shen, Song, Gusu and Li seized Cao and Liu, they hid their faces and thanked them for their loneliness, and made every effort to find their place." [13] He integrated the strengths of various schools and formed his own unique style. This just shows that Du Fu is a model of "multi-teacher".
Although Du Fu is a descendant of Confucian poetics, he is not confined to the reasons of Confucian poetics, but keeps pace with the times and develops innovatively. Although Du Fu was a "realistic" poetic critic in the Tang Dynasty, he also attached importance to the issues of literature and reality, literature and politics, literature's inheritance, literature's social function and so on, and he could handle these issues with a correct attitude and dialectical point of view. Therefore, in the aesthetic value orientation of poetry, we should never be paranoid about utilitarian irony. Du Fu's realistic poetry theory, like his poetry creation, is the peak of the prosperous Tang Dynasty and has far-reaching influence.