Si Kongtu (837-907) was a poet and poetics critic in the late Tang Dynasty. His main achievement is poetry criticism, including Twenty-four Poems, which divides the artistic style of poetry into twenty-four types, such as bold, implicit, unique, natural and refined, and emphasizes the implication beyond rhyme, which has a far-reaching influence on later literary criticism and creation.
"Meaning beyond rhyme" and "meaning beyond taste" mean that a good poem will have a charm and lasting appeal, which can make the human body feel the aesthetic feeling with endless aftertaste, thus causing readers to sing, and so does the so-called "endless words and endless meanings".
Si Kongtu's Aesthetic Thought
Si Kongtu's aesthetic thought contains many levels. In his aesthetic masterpiece "Twenty-four Poems", there are not only explanations of various styles, but also explorations of creative methods, and more fans of the poet's own cultivation. These also have a strong guiding role and reference significance for contemporary aesthetics.
Si Kongtu's artistic style embodies various styles of beauty developed from two basic styles of masculinity and femininity. The summary of Four Treasures of the Study's General Catalogue says that it "lists all the styles, but does not focus on the whole", and Xu Yinfang also said in the postscript that "its teacher is poetry, with a wide range of portals and eclecticism".
The greatest contribution of Shi Pin to the theory of artistic style is to study the artistic style of literature from the general discussion of literary language style. In the Tang Dynasty, the theory of poetry and prose began to divide, and the style theory in poetry theory gradually turned to the artistic conception style of poetry, which can be clearly seen in Jiao Ran's 19-character style theory, while Shi Pin is a pure poetic artistic conception style theory. This is very different from Liu Xie.