The Tang Dynasty (AD 6 18-907) was the heyday of the development of classical poetry in China. Tang poetry is one of China's outstanding literary heritages and a bright pearl in the world literature treasure house. Although it has been over 1000 years, many poems have been widely circulated by us.
There were many poets in the Tang Dynasty. Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi are of course world-famous great poets. Besides them, there are countless other poets, like the stars all over the sky. There are more than 2300 famous poets today. More than 48,900 of their works are preserved in the whole Tang poetry. Tang poetry has a wide range of themes. Some reflected the class status and class contradictions of the society at that time and exposed the darkness of feudal society; Some praise the just war and express patriotic thoughts; Some depict the beauty of the motherland's rivers and mountains; In addition, some people express their personal ambitions and experiences, some express their children's love, some tell the friendship of friends, the joys and sorrows of life and so on. In short, natural phenomena, political dynamics, working life, social customs and personal feelings can't escape the poet's keen eyes, making their writing the theme. In terms of creative methods, there are both realism and romanticism, and many great works are examples of the combination of these two creative methods, forming an excellent tradition of China's classical poetry.
There are various forms of Tang poetry. There are basically two kinds of ancient poems in Tang Dynasty: five-character poems and seven-character poems. There are also two kinds of modern poems, one is called quatrains, and the other is called metrical poems. Quatrains and metrical poems are five words and seven words respectively. Therefore, there are basically six basic forms of Tang poetry: five-character archaic poetry, seven-character archaic poetry, five-character quatrains, seven-character quatrains, five-character rhythmic poems and seven-character rhythmic poems. Classical poetry has a wide range of requirements for rhyme and meter: in a poem, the number of sentences can be more or less, the chapters can be long or short, and the rhyme can be changed. Modern poetry has strict requirements on rhyme and meter: the number of sentences in a poem is limited, that is, four-line quatrains and eight-line meter poems. The words used in each poem have certain rules, and the rhyme cannot be changed; Rhyme also requires that the middle four sentences become antithesis. The style of ancient poetry is handed down from the previous generation, so it is also called ancient style. Modern poetry has strict rules, so some people call it metrical poetry.
The forms and styles of Tang poetry are colorful and innovative. It not only inherited the tradition of Han and Wei folk songs and Yuefu, but also greatly developed the singing style. It not only inherited the five-character or seven-character ancient poems of the previous generation, but also developed into a long and huge system of narrative romance; It not only expanded the use of five-character and seven-character styles, but also created modern poems with particularly beautiful and neat styles. Modern poetry was a new style of poetry at that time, and its emergence and maturity was an important event in the history of Tang poetry development. It pushed the artistic features of China's ancient poems with harmonious syllables and refined words to an unprecedented height, and found a typical form for ancient lyric poetry, which has been especially loved by people so far. However, the metrical poems in modern poetry are easy to be bound because of their strict metrical restrictions, which is a major defect brought by their advantages.
Song ci
Song ci
If the ancient and modern poetry of the Song Dynasty is not as good as the Tang poetry as a whole, then another poetry genre of the Song Dynasty, Ci, has made great achievements and shined brilliantly.
Ci originated from the folk in the Tang Dynasty and was called "Quzi Ci". Later, it was accepted by literati and transformed into lyric poetry. After the Five Dynasties, this poetic genre gradually matured. The most famous poets in the late Tang and Five Dynasties were Wen, Wei Zhuang, Ji and Li Yu. By the great development of the Song Dynasty, famous artists came forth in large numbers, which was a great spectacle. There are many famous poets in Song Dynasty, such as Zhang Xian, Liu Yong, Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, Yan, Su Shi, Qin Guan, Huang Tingjian, He Zhu, Zhou Bangyan, Li Qingzhao, Zhu Dunru, Zhang, Xin Qiji, Chen Liang, Jiang Kui, Liu Kezhuang, Wu Wenying and Zhang Yan. Tang Guizhang, a close friend, edited songs throughout the Song Dynasty, with nearly 20,000 works by more than 1000 authors. Before talking about specific works, let's briefly understand the metrical characteristics of words.
There are other names such as "Yu Shi", "Yuefu" and "Qin Qu". It is a style of metrical poetry, which is characterized by irregular sentence patterns, so it is also called "long and short sentences". It is customary to divide words into three categories: those with less than 58 words are called Xiaoling, those with 59 to 90 words are called Zhongdiao, and those with more than 9 1 words are called Longdiao. What is not segmented is called single tone, what is divided into two segments is called double tone, what is divided into three segments is called three tones, and what is divided into four segments is called four tones. The latter two are rare. Every word has a epigraph, such as dream, butterfly lovers, magnolia slow, He Xinlang and so on. It used to be the name of a song, but later the word was separated from music, and these inscriptions only became the format of lyrics. According to its format, the author can fill in any content, so the epigraph is not a title and is not necessarily related to the content.
Yuan zaju
Yuanqu is another literary prosperity after Tang poetry and Song poetry, which has unique charm: on the one hand, Yuanqu inherits the beauty and grace of poetry; On the one hand, in the Yuan Dynasty, the soldiers and soldiers were placed in the position of "eight prostitutes, nine men and ten beggars", and the political monopoly and social darkness made Song Yuan radiate extremely dazzling fighting brilliance and reveal rebellious feelings; Sharp-edged pointed at the drawbacks of society, denounced the society that "not reading is the highest, illiteracy is the best, and people who are not sensible are bragging", and pointed at the world trend that "everyone is embarrassed to live, and no one can see the money". The works describing love in Yuan Qu are also more inflammatory and bold than the poems of past dynasties. All these are enough to keep the artistic charm of Yuanqu forever.
But in contrast, the spread of Yuanqu is by no means as wide as that of Tang poetry and Song poetry. This is because people are not familiar with the style of Yuanqu. Here is a brief introduction.
Yuanqu can be divided into zaju and Sanqu. There are several sets of Sanqu, and poetry takes the difference between songs.
Han Chinese clothing, Hanfu
Fu in Han dynasty. Fu is a literary genre between poetry and prose, which pays attention to literary talent and rhyme, and "writes articles with things" through "passing on articles". Xun Kuang, a native of Zhao in the Warring States Period, was first famous for fu, but most Han people used fu words together, which was called Ci Fu. This is because Han Fu mostly imitates the works of Qu Yuan and Song Yu of Chu State. The Han people collected the works of Qu Yuan, Song Yu and others into an episode called Songs of the South. The combination of Ci and Fu shows the inheritance relationship between Han Fu and Chu Ci. Due to the advocacy of the upper ruling group in Han Dynasty, the creation of Fu was in full swing. According to Ban Gu's Preface to the Ode to Two Capitals, in the world when he proclaimed himself emperor, "there were more than a thousand works of emperors", especially in the late Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Early Han Fu, such as Qu Yuan Fu written by Jia Yi and Hermit Fu written by Xiaoshan in Huainan, is no different from Chu Ci in form. Mei Cheng's "Seven Hairstyles" written during the reign of Emperor Jing created a new style of fu with the function of luxury. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, with the development of famous Fu writers such as Sima Xiangru, new style Fu flourished and became the mainstream of Han Fu. Generally speaking, the new style of Han Fu can be divided into two categories: big Fu and small Fu. From the content point of view, Dafu mostly describes the scene of boasting about the prosperity of Beijing, palaces and gardens and the emperor's large-scale hunting, aiming at praising virtue, whitewashing peace, catering to the rulers' exultation and pursuit of pleasure, and the end of the article contains irony and exhortation. His main works include Sima Xiangru's Preface Fu, Yang Xiong's Yang Changfu and Feather Hunting Fu, Ban Gu's Du Liang Fu, Zhang Heng's Tokyo Fu and Xijing Fu. These great poems are magnificent and magnificent, which, to a certain extent, reflect the prestige of the unified Han empire and the extravagant and vigorous style of the feudal ruling class in the rising period. However, in order to achieve formal splendor, Dafu often exaggerates and piles up a lot of words, likes to use cold words to show off his wealth and seek novelty and difference. At the same time, Dafu imitates more than innovates in the later period, and his writing is dull, which affects the artistic appeal of his works. Fu Xiao is short in length, lyrical and allegorical, extensive in content and fresh in style, which was mainly popular in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Famous works include Zhang Heng's Return to Tian Fu, Zhao Yi's Stabbing the World with Illness Fu and Mi Fei's Parrot Fu.
Han Fu was lost in the process of spreading, and the existing works include some fragments of about 200 pieces, which were included in Historical Records, Hanshu, Houhanshu and Selected Works respectively.