In the history of the development of poetry in Tang Dynasty, especially in the innovation of poetry theory, Chen Ziang is an important and crucial poet and poetry theorist after the "four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty". Yuan Haowen once said in "On Poetry", "Shen Song galloped in calligraphy, and he didn't waste Qi Liang at the beginning of his romantic life. In terms of merits and demerits, if you are on an equal footing with Wu Ping, you will jointly cast gold castings. " He spoke highly of his outstanding historical contribution to the development of Tang poetry.
Chen Ziang's poetic theory is embodied in his Preface to Dong Zuo's Bamboo Slips. Although the preface is short in length, it is concise and insightful, especially the poet's many insights in this regard, which makes it of epoch-making significance in the history of the development of poetry theory in the Tang Dynasty. Xiao Difei and Wu Mingxian called their poetic innovation thoughts anti-Six Dynasties, rejecting Qi Liang, advocating character and reviving faith. In the early Tang poetry world, there is no doubt that it was a deafening and earth-shaking noise. It is not only a battle cry to sweep away the formalistic poetic style, but also a powerful declaration to create new poetry in the Tang Dynasty. "
First, attack the legacy of Qi.
Lu Zangyong called Chen Ziang "Li Zhuo eternal, restraining the ebb and flow of tides" in the Preface to the Collected Works of You Zangyong and Chen Ziang. He was the standard-bearer who opposed the gorgeous and feminine style of the court poems of Qi Liang and the early Tang Dynasty after the "four outstanding figures in the early Tang Dynasty". He made the poems return to reflect the real social life, boldly intervened in current affairs and politics, and paid attention to people's sufferings. Shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China in the early Tang Dynasty, most of the literati requisitioned by the imperial court were former ministers. Inevitably, they brought the exquisite poetic style formed for a long time since Chen Liang, and with their lofty social status and prestige, they had a great and far-reaching influence on the literary world at that time, forming the ethereal and frivolous court poetic style in the early Tang Dynasty, which spread to the whole society. In order to make the early Tang poetry embark on the road of healthy development, we must first remove and sweep away the influence of the palace-style poetry style which was widely popular in the poetry circles at that time. At that time, although Emperor Taizong and his ministers had clearly put forward the idea of opposing extravagant style of writing and integrating the two strengths of North and South literature. However, due to the great inertia and far-reaching influence of traditional habits, Chen Liang's "Palace Style" still pervades the poetry circle. After the appearance of the "four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty" in the literary world, they criticized and criticized the court's brilliant poetry style, and put forward that poetry should have the "backbone" of "just winning the prize". Although the poetic world has been washed away by the storms of the "Four Masters" who are full of passion for change, it has not been greatly improved. The poetry innovation movement initiated by the "Four Masters" also failed to fully achieve the expected purpose. "Shangguanti" still exists and is very popular. Even the poems of the "Four Masters" themselves have not completely shaken off the great and profound influence of the gorgeous and feminine style of palace poetry, and still have the weakness of "extravagant words" (Wang Shizhen's "Yi Yuan Yan", Volume 4).
It is against this background that Chen Ziang put forward his theory and proposition of poetic innovation. This kind of poetics is a complete denial and bold criticism of the gorgeous and feminine court poetry style that pervaded the early Tang poetry world. Chen Ziang believes that the gorgeous poetic style that Qi and Liang followed and prevailed at that time was both "immoral" and "decadent", that is, they unilaterally pursued gorgeous words and piled up a lot of allusions; There is neither substantive social content nor flash of ideas. There is only the rampant wind of palace poetry, full of lifeless decadent sounds, which makes poets often grieve over it and list it as the object of clearing up and making thorough changes. This is another fierce attack on the court's gorgeous and feminine poetic style after the "four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty". Chen Ziang swept through the colorful and feminine poetic style of the Six Dynasties, which triggered a vigorous poetic innovation movement, and then effectively promoted and promoted the development of poetry in the Tang Dynasty in a healthy and correct direction.
Second, advocate "elegance" and "prosperity"
"Xing" means "Emotional Xing", which refers to the development of feelings, which is a full and strong emotion formed on the basis of profound life experience; "Sending" is "sustenance", even though poetry conveys profound and rich ideological content and emotions through vivid images. "Good luck" means doing what you feel and what you want to do. There are both connections and differences between "Jixing" and the traditional "Bixing Theory" and "Yan Zhi Theory", and they have developed.
"Bixing" traditionally refers to artistic expression, but by the time Zheng Xuan explained Bixing in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it already had the meaning of beauty. The continuous development of Confucian scholars in the post-experience generation has become an extremely important category of literary theory. "Bixing" essentially requires writers to express their feelings about the country's political gains and losses and people's livelihood with their works. Chen Ziang's "demanding poetry to have substantial social content" and giving full play to its role of reflecting social reality and interfering in politics is based on the traditional Confucian theory. Obviously, Chen Ziang's theory of "good luck" not only refers to the ways and means of expressing thoughts and feelings, but also contains the meaning of placing allegories. "Xing" is used for sustenance. Obviously, Chen Ziang has developed the artistic expression of "Bi Xing" into a general requirement for poetic expression and ideological content, that is, the sustenance of the theme, rather than the metaphor and origin of a single sentence. Therefore, the connotation has been greatly enriched and developed. "Expressing ambition" is the requirement of traditional Confucian poetics to emphasize the ideological content of poetry, so it is easy to make poetry a tool for political preaching, and "reason is better than emotion" makes poetry lack literary talent and interest, and its spread is not wide. "Ji Xing Shuo" advocates that poetry creation should focus on emotion, which is obviously an effective method to solve the disadvantages of following Qi Liang's poetry style in the early Tang Dynasty. Similarly, Chen's "elegance" refers not only to the system and form of The Book of Songs, but also to its beautiful spirit of reflecting social reality and daring to criticize. Therefore, advocating "elegance" requires that poetry creation should not only boldly reflect and express social real life, but also have bold critical spirit and dare to intervene in social life and social politics. Advocating the spirit of "elegance" is of great guiding significance for reversing the gorgeous poetic style that was full of flattery, carving more chapters and sentences and pursuing algae decoration at that time.
Third, advocating the tradition of Wei and Jin Dynasties.
"Character" is the earliest term as a connoisseur, which refers to the elegant, handsome, incorruptible and resolute personality characteristics of people in manners, temperament, character and morality. Liu Xie once dedicated a chapter in Wen Xin Diao Long, emphasizing its aesthetic significance in literature and art, and Zhong Rong also used "style" to evaluate poetry many times in his poems. Chen Ziang put forward and held high the idea and banner of "Han Wei Style" because he opposed the glitz of the poetic style in the early Tang Dynasty.
"Han Wei Style" refers to the organic unity and perfect combination of the social content reflecting social unrest and people's livelihood and refined, simple and vigorous language forms in the poetry works of "Three Cao" and "Seven Zi" in Jian 'an period, as well as the artistic characteristics of impassioned emotion, majestic momentum, vigorous language and desolate style. Therefore, it can be said that "character" has become the slogan of writers and poetry critics in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and later, opposing the emptiness of poetry content and advocating innovation. Both Liu Xie and Zhong Rong take "character of wind" as an example, from which Chen Ziang's "character of wind" developed. It not only pursues the enrichment, richness and profundity of the ideological content of poetry, but also pursues the strong appeal of artistic expression. In this way, the combination of style and prosperity, the rich ideological content of poetry, the fullness and intensity of emotional sustenance, and the vigorous integration of style and momentum have reached the artistic realm of "gold", which is the essence of Chen's poetry theory and the ideal of his literary creation. Advocating "Jian 'an Style" is a powerful weapon for Chen Ziang to sweep away the decadent poetic style of Qi and Liang Dynasties, change the current situation of "unhealthy literary style" and create a new style of Tang poetry.