During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the appearance of China's first poetry collection, The Book of Songs, was the first major event in the history of ancient literature. The Book of Songs collected 305 poems from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid-Spring and Autumn Period about 500 years ago. According to the music standard, it is divided into three parts: wind, elegance and praise. "Wind" is a local music song outside Kyoto in the Zhou Dynasty, "Ya" is a music song in the area directly ruled by the Zhou Dynasty, and "Ode" is a dance music at the ancestral temple. The ideological content of The Book of Songs reflects a wide range of social life. Some poems, such as Storytelling and Vatan, expose the corruption of rulers and shout out voices against exploitation and oppression. Some poems express their abhorrence of the corvee military service, such as "Bo Xi" and "Serviceman". Some poems eulogize the sincere love between men and women and their yearning for a better marriage life, such as "Quiet Girl" and "Jia Jian". Others show the misfortune of women's marriage, such as self-protection. In short, all aspects of social life at that time, as well as the thoughts and feelings of working people, were truly reflected in the Book of Songs. It has a distinct sense of the times and people's nature. In art, The Book of Songs is fluent in tone and simple in language, which is often expressed by Fu, Bi and Xing. Fu's technique is telling the truth, that is, metaphor. Xing is to feel things, first recite other things to arouse feelings. Later generations regard The Book of Songs as the highest model of learning. (Supplement: The Book of Songs is a collection of poems from1/kloc-0 to the 6th century BC, and it is also the first collection of poems in China, with a total of 305 poems. According to different music, it can be divided into three categories: wind, elegance and ode. "Ode" poems are music songs used by rulers to sacrifice, including ancestors, mountains and rivers and farmers. "Elegance" can be divided into elegance and indecency, both of which are used for banquet ceremonies. The main content is to praise the heroes of the past and satirize the current politics. "Wind" is the essence of The Book of Songs, including 15 local folk songs.
At the end of the Warring States Period, in the 4th century BC, the great poet Qu Yuan was born in the southern State of Chu, with its unique cultural foundation and the influence of the northern culture. Chu poets represented by Qu Yuan, on the basis of studying Chu Ci, created a new style poem with unique Chu cultural brilliance-Chu Ci. The poetic style of Chu Ci is mainly composed of six words and seven words, with different lengths and fleXibility, and the modal particle "xi" is commonly used. Poetry is full of magical and magnificent imagination and unique Chu culture romance. Qu Yuan, a great patriotic poet, used this form of poetry to create the first lyric poem Li Sao, eleven beautiful and moving poems, nine lyrical poems, Tian Wen, and 25 works of Chu Ci in the history of ancient literature. Qu Yuan's successors include Song Yu, Le Tang and Jing Ke. Li Sao, as the peak and representative of the art of Chu Ci, is also called "Sao" with the Book of Songs in the history of literature, setting an example for future generations. It broke the four-word form of The Book of Songs, from three or four words to five or seven words. In terms of creative methods, Chu Ci absorbed the romantic spirit of myth and opened up the creative road of romanticism in China literature.
Following the Book of Songs and Songs of the South, a new form of poetry appeared in the Han Dynasty, that is, the folk songs of Han Yuefu. There are more than 65,438+000 folk songs in Yuefu in Han Dynasty, many of which are five-character poems. Later, the intentional imitation of classical writers became the main form of poetry in Wei and Jin Dynasties. At the end of the Han Dynasty, under the social background of Wei Chu's "chaos in the world, surging clouds and rising public grievances", literati's poetry creation entered a period of great development of "five words soaring". During this period, with Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi as the core, Ye Ren Xia Group was formed with Kong Rong, RoyceWong, Serina Liu, Chen Lin and other so-called "seven sons of Jian 'an", which created the glory of Jian 'an literature. The works of Jian 'an literati have the same style of the times as "generosity". Among them, Cao Cao's poems, such as Hao, Short, Walking Out of Xiamen, which reflect the turbulent social reality and express the poet's ambition to make contributions and unify the world, are all relatively successful chapters. Cao Zhi's literary achievements are the highest, and he is called "the outstanding man in Jian 'an". His poem is "high-spirited, and his words are taken from Hua Mao". "White Horse" and "White Horse Wang Biao" are his representative works in his early and later periods. His prose and ci fu also show high ideological and artistic quality, and the famous "Luo Shen Fu" is beautiful. RoyceWong is the most accomplished writer among the "Seven Scholars", and his Seven Wounded Poems and Loutai Fu are masterpieces with realistic spirit in Jian 'an literature.
At the turn of Wei and Jin Dynasties, with the change of social customs, poetry creation showed a different style from that of Jian 'an era. Ruan Ji and Ji Kang's works are either gloomy and difficult, or sharp-edged. They inherited the excellent tradition of Jian 'an literature and further promoted the development of five-character poems. Poetry flourished in the period of Taikang in the Western Jin Dynasty, and poets were known as "three lands and two lefties". But most of the works are in China, and only Zuo Si's poems are vigorous and powerful, inheriting the spirit of Jian 'an literature. His poem "Ode to History" opens up a new way to combine history with nostalgia. Under the influence of metaphysics in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, metaphysical poems with "tasteless rhetoric" once flooded, and Tao Yuanming was the greatest poet who could transcend the secular world. In Tao Yuanming's era, "Zhen Feng died, and the Great Pseudo prospered". He walked out of poverty and witnessed the darkness of officialdom, unwilling to go with the flow. He is determined to resign and retire, keeping his personal spirit. His pastoral poems depict the beauty of natural scenery, praise the tranquility of rural life, and show the joy and hardship of personally participating in agricultural production and labor. It has created an artistic realm that combines emotion, scenery and reason, and is plain and mellow. Drinking in the Garden is his masterpiece of pastoral poetry. The style of Tao's poetry naturally faded into the mainstream, but reading Shan Hai Jing (Jing Wei Fill Micro Wood) and Jing Ke Fu also showed the poet's "King Kong glaring" side. It can be seen that the poet's heart is not peaceful, and he has not forgotten the world. Tao Yuanming's poems have a great influence on later generations, especially the pastoral poetry school in Tang Dynasty. Tao Yuanming's literary achievements are manifold. Although his prose and words are few in number, they are all excellent. His representative works include Peach Blossom Garden, Gui Qu Ci, and Qing Shi Fu.