Ci is a new form of poetry that rose in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Originally called "Quzi Ci" or "Quzi". Although the sentence patterns of words are uneven, they are "fixed in tone, word and rhyme." The rise of "Le Yan" in the Tang Dynasty and the social atmosphere of pursuing pleasure led to the popularity of Qu Zi Ci, which aimed at entertaining guests, and attracted literati to participate in creation. Li Bai's "Bodhisattva Man" and "Qin Yi E" are known as "the ancestors of one hundred generations of lyrics and songs". Zhang's Fisherman's Songs and Bai Juyi's Memories of Jiangnan in the Prosperous Tang Dynasty are both masterpieces of ci. After the development of Wen and Li Yuhe, it reached the peak of ci creation in Song Dynasty.
2. The development of Song Ci
In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the ci world continued from the late Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties. The representatives of literati, led by Ouyang Xiu and Yan Shu, mainly reflected the leisure life and wandering scenes of aristocratic literati, as well as their sad feelings.
Liu Yong, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, developed a long tune system, and was good at organizing more complicated contents with folk sayings and narrative techniques to reflect the lives of middle and lower class citizens. His works have a strong civic flavor and are deeply loved by the general public, and have the reputation of "singing willow words when there is well water to drink". Liu Yong is good at turning old songs into new sounds, creating a large number of slow words with long length and complicated sentences, which makes the style of words tend to be complete.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi held high the banner of innovation, first of all, he broke the narrow traditional view of ci, expanded the content of ci, improved the artistic conception of ci, and created a new style of bold ci. Su Shi's "Poetry as Ci" not only uses some expressive techniques of poetry to write Ci, but also regards Ci as having the same expressive function as poetry, which makes it have much wider social functions than before. He paid special attention to the literary meaning of Ci, and did not regard Ci as a vassal of temperament, so as not to damage the ideological content and artistic expression of Ci, which injected new blood into the development of Ci.
Zhou Bangyan, known as "Poet Saint", has a high degree of formal rules. His handwriting is good at morphology, and his brushwork has improved, which has opened up the atmosphere of chanting things in a long tune. Zhou Bangyan is good at temperament and plays a normative role in the style of ci, which makes the language style of ci tend to be elegant and implicit, and is highly praised by literary poets.
Ci reached its peak in the Southern Song Dynasty. The collapse of the Central Plains and the great historical changes in the Southern Song Dynasty inspired the patriotic consciousness of Du Nan poets, and the whole ci world took on a new look. At this time, a number of poets who resolutely resisted the enemy emerged in the literati class, such as Yue Fei and Zhang Xiaoxiang. Their works show patriotic feelings, gain motivation, and contribute to the formation of a bold and bold new style. Xin Qiji and Lu You, two great writers, further developed the Ci in the Southern Song Dynasty, especially Xin Qiji's achievements in Ci creation were more outstanding. He inherited Su Shi's innovative spirit, highlighted his bold style, expanded the connotation of Ci, made it colorful, and pushed Ci to a higher stage. In the way of writing ci, he not only used the syntax of ancient modern poetry to write ci, but also absorbed prose, parallel prose and folk oral words. Xin Ci represents the highest achievement of literati Ci. The words are generous and heroic, expressing the spirit of depression. Sometimes there are too many allusions, which make people hard to understand. The writers who sang with him were Chen Liang, Han Yuanji and Liu Guo. Even Jiang Kui, whose style is quite different from his, writes lyrics in imitation of Jia Xuan's.
In the late Southern Song Dynasty, represented by Jiang Kui and Zhang Qian, in mourning, they described the tragic changes of national subjugation and expressed their inner sadness. They are proficient in melody, pay more attention to the rhythm of words, pay attention to syntax and literalness, and sometimes become a mere formality, which also fetters the content of words.
In a word, Song Ci is undoubtedly a new milestone in the history of China's poetry. In the combination of music and poetry, it has reached a unique aesthetic level that Tang poetry failed to achieve, leaving its own position in the history of literature.
3. Types
Graceful and restrained school: "Poetry has charm" not only refers to the theme of ci, but also refers to the style of ci. Elegance is the authenticity of words.
Liu Yong
Qin Guan
Li Qingzhao
Zhou Bangyan
Jiangkui
Bold school: it broke the narrow traditional concept of ci, expanded the content of ci, improved the artistic conception of ci and created a new bold style.
Su Shi
Xin Qiji