01 Frontier Poetry School
During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, there was a group of writers who mainly wrote frontier poetry.
It is mainly a group of people who have a relatively long experience of military life and experience of military life, while others have only a short experience of military life, and some even They had no experience of military life at all, that is to say, they had never been to border military camps, but they were fascinated by border life and the scenery of the frontier fortress, so they also wrote some frontier fortress poems.
So, among this group of poets, their poems all write about the life of military expeditions, the scenery of the frontier fortress, the customs of some border areas, and the deep thoughts of the soldiers and their wives.
Because the ideological content of the poems of these writers are generally the same, and the poetry styles are generally similar, so people call this group of writers in the prosperous Tang Dynasty the "Frontier Poetry School", among which the representative figures are Gao Shi and Cen Shen.
Of course, in addition to these two, there are a large number of writers, such as the familiar Wang Changling, Wang Zhihuan, Cui Hao, etc. In this way, a relatively powerful frontier poetry school was formed.
It should be said that frontier poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was quite prosperous, which is reflected in the following aspects.
Let’s discuss why such a frontier poetry school appeared during the prosperous Tang Dynasty?
We can also look at it through the two aspects of social reasons and literary reasons.
02 The social reasons for the prosperity of frontier poems in the Tang Dynasty
The first social reason is the actual social situation. During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty was at its peak and its military strength was very strong. There are many, and side things are constantly happening.
Then, the second social reason is that as the country is prosperous, the mental state of the literati is high-spirited.
Therefore, it should be said that the emergence of masters of frontier poems during the prosperous Tang Dynasty had a lot to do with the mental state of the literati. Some writers have not lived in the military for a long time, or even have no military life experience, but they also yearn for the frontier fortress and the military, and they have written many frontier fortress poems.
03 The reasons of literature itself
This is from the perspective of social reasons, and then from the reasons of literature itself.
China's frontier fortress poetry has a long history. Although there was no frontier poetry school before the prosperous Tang Dynasty, frontier poetry has existed since ancient times. For example, the "Book of Songs" and "Chu Ci" of the pre-Qin Dynasty all have content about military campaigns, describing the characters' ideological states and their actions. The spirit of sacrifice for one’s country.
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were chapters describing wars in the Han Yuefu; during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were more and more frontier fortress poems, among which the more famous ones are Cao Zhi's "White Horse", Bao Zhao's "North Gate Journey", etc.; In the Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty, frontier poems became more prosperous and mature, such as "On the Military March".
It can be said that from the beginning of the Book of Songs to the early Tang Dynasty, the content about frontier life, the content about military life and battles, the content about describing the ambitions of conquering people and sacrificing their lives for the country, but It is said that it is endless.
These all contributed to the prosperity of frontier poems in the Tang Dynasty, accumulated experience and provided reference. This is where we discussed why frontier poems were so prosperous in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. In the past, there were frontier poems, but there was no frontier poetry school. During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, a group of such writers emerged at the same time and achieved high achievements, thus forming a poetry school with great momentum and far-reaching influence.
Above, I briefly introduced what frontier poems are and the reasons for their formation. Next, I start to talk about one of the representative writers of frontier poems in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Cen Shen.
04 Cen Shen, an outstanding representative of frontier poets
Let’s first briefly introduce Cen Shen’s family affairs and life.
Cen Shen (715-770), a native of Nanyang, was the prime minister. It was also said that his family had been high-ranking officials for generations. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and uncle all served as prime ministers.
However, Cen Shen people are not willing to climb up from scratch and become a small official like ordinary literati. They do not make mistakes, work steadily, step by step, a small promotion in three years, a large promotion in five years, slowly. Climb up slowly. As for him, he does not want to follow the old path of official career, but is willing to go to the border to make contributions. So he took the initiative to serve in the border areas. In this way, he had the experience of serving in the Northwest Army twice. All in Xinjiang today.
For the first time, in the eighth year of Tianbao (749), he went to Anxi and stayed for about two years before returning to the capital; three years later, in the thirteenth year of Tianbao, he served as Feng Changqing, the governor of Anxi Beiting. Shogun judge (deputy, similar to an adjutant in the military). His eight-year military camp life experience in Xinjiang provided him with unique conditions for the creation of frontier poems.
After returning to the dynasty, he held some official positions on the recommendation of Du Fu and others. Yu Baoying served as the judge of the Kansai Festival in Yuanzai to help quell the rebellion, and later defeated the rebellion of the Anshi Army. Later he served as the governor of Jiazhou, known as Cen Jiazhou in the world.
05 Cen Shen’s poetry creation
Cen Shen has rich military life experience, which has accumulated rich creative materials for him. At the same time, Cen Shen loved military life and devoted himself to it with sincerity.
The poem "On the way to Longshan for the first time, presenting to Judge Yuwen" he wrote expresses his mood at this time. He wrote that for the sake of the king, he did not consider personal interests or his wife's high-spirited mental state, which also had an important influence on his writing of frontier poems.
06 The content of Cen Shen’s frontier fortress poems
Let’s take a look at the main contents of so many frontier fortress poems. The content of Cen Shen's frontier fortress poems probably has three aspects. The first one expresses the ambition to join the army to serve the country and make contributions to the country. It not only reflects his own mental state, but also reflects the healthy mentality of the poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty who were vigorous and not afraid of hardships.
This content is unique to frontier poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and Cen Shen is particularly outstanding.
He once said repeatedly, "
The wind is like an arrow at Yinshan Qikou, and the moon is like a drill in the west of Iron Gate Pass.
Both of them are sad and stained with horse hair. , the rustling Husha burst into the face.
The husband is not rich in his thirties, and An Neng keeps a pen and inkstone all day long." ("Yinshan Qixi Pavilion").
"The volcano will be even hotter in June, and there will be no pedestrians at the Chiting crossing.
If you know how accustomed you are to Qilian City, how can you worry about seeing the Luntai moon?
He took off his saddle and entered the restaurant for a while, and sent you thousands of miles west to attack Hu.
He only takes credit for his horse. He is truly a heroic husband." ("Sending Deputy Li to the Qixi Army").
This all shows that he wants to gain fame on the frontier, on the war horse, and on the battlefield. This is what a hero and a husband are.
After the Anshi Rebellion broke out, he organically combined the two aspects of joining the army and fighting the bandits. For example, in his two songs on the march, he talked about this aspect:
I regret that I studied more in my early years. If I had learned how to bow and arrow, I could have killed the enemy myself. Therefore, such an ambition and a healthy and upward mentality are prominently reflected in his frontier poems.
The second one is a detailed and true description of military life. For example, "Wuwei sent Judge Liu Shan off to Anxi", "Luntai Song sent off the official Feng to go to the Western Expedition", "Zou Ma Chuanxing sent the army to the Western Expedition", etc.
These poems not only describe the soldiers' ambitions to achieve great achievements, but also reflect some of their inner sorrows and injustices. They include soldiers' praise of the fiery military life and the horrific experiences of military battles. description.
These ambitions, lamentations, praises, and terrifying experiences all provide readers with real and legendary fresh content.
In other words, on the basis of traditional frontier poems, some fresh content is added.
The third one is the description of the scenery of the frontier fortress and the customs and folk customs of the border areas.
This is very distinctive in Cen Shen's poems, and even some of it can make up for the shortcomings of the history books. Cen Shen's main military life was in the northwest border area of ??Xinjiang, so his frontier fortress poems contain a large number of descriptions of the frontier fortress scenery of Xinjiang.
For example, write about the magnificence of volcanic clouds (Fire clouds are all over the mountains and have not yet bloomed, and birds flying thousands of miles away dare not come), and the scorching heat of hot sea water (Steaming sand sparkles and rocks burn to the clouds, and the boiling waves scorch the Han moon) ), the snow in the Tianshan Mountains never melts all year round (the snow clouds in the Tianshan Mountains never bloom, and the snow on thousands of peaks and ridges is Cuiwei), the early wind and snow are severe and cold (the north wind blows the white grass on the ground, and it snows in August), and the soldiers in the army Banquets (pipa and flute music harmoniously, Qiang children and Hu Chunqi singing together), songs and dances of foreign races (the sleeves turn like flying snow, a whirlwind arises from left and right.), harmonious exchanges between people of all ethnic groups (the army sets up wine and drums at night, brocade Feast with red candles (the moon is not yet noon).
"A Long Sentence to Say Goodbye to Dugu Jian and Yan Ba ??Shiyu":
These rare scenery and exotic customs cannot be seen by us mainlanders, which give frontier poems It brings new content, which makes readers feel fresh and new.
In addition, there are some works that express friendship and homesickness. For example, "Bai Xue Ge (Sending Magistrate Wu Back to Beijing)", his "Envoy to Beijing", and a large number of farewell poems all express nostalgia and friendship.
07 The artistic characteristics of Cen Shen’s frontier fortress poems
It can be said to be very unique in art.
In form:
The most important feature of Cen Shen's frontier fortress poems is the magnificent and unbridled romanticism. In terms of form, Cen Shen mostly adopts free-form singing style, which means that the form is relatively free, and he is especially good at using seven-character singing style (bai, walking, wheel).
Because this form is long and flexible, it is suitable for expressing rich content and complex thoughts and emotions. Pay attention to the expression of content, immediate propositions, and is highly creative. The lines are full of strange emotions. Magnificent, he artistically expressed his ambition and high feelings in the poem.
Judging from his main expression techniques, there are three main aspects.
The first is the rich imagination, the second is the strange exaggeration, and the third is the changeable rhythm.
For example, the poem "Walking to the West to Send Off the Army" is not just a record of the life of accompanying the army on the expedition, sending his commander to fight against the enemy, but the poem describes the environment of the expedition and the hardships of life in the army. , the high fighting spirit of the soldiers, this poem is not a documentary, but the author combined with the environment and added his own rich imagination.
It is entirely out of imagination. The environment and battle conditions at that time are all written very vividly, with rich imagination, strange exaggeration, and exquisite metaphors.
For example, everyone is very familiar with the poem "Suddenly a spring breeze came overnight, and thousands of pear blossoms bloomed" in the poem "Baixue Ge Sends Magistrate Wu Back to the Capital", which is also a metaphor for the grand imagination. Subtle.
In terms of changes in rhythm:
"Zou Ma Chuan Xing Feng sent the troops out for the Western Expedition" is unusual, with three sentences changing rhyme, galloping and jumping, like a rushing wind and rain; "White Snow" The song "Send Judge Wu Back to the Capital" may be two lines with one rhyme, or four lines with one rhyme. The rhyme changes the meaning, and the song jumps flexibly.
The artistic style of Cen Shen’s frontier fortress poems:
Vivid sceneries, strange imagination, novel metaphors, rich colors, magnificent pictures, lofty artistic conception, and blending of scenes form a magnificent artistic style. .
Du Fu said: "Both Cen Shen's brothers are curious." This shows that beauty is the main feature of Cen Shen's poems. However, this kind of imaginary beauty is not just an exaggeration, but close to real life, and the writing is vivid. It's emotional and makes people feel real and believable.
Of course, he also wrote very distinctive quatrains about scenery, such as his famous works "Spring Dream" and "Meeting the Envoy Entering the Capital".
In addition, although he is a representative writer of frontier poems, he also wrote many landscape poems. The number of his landscape poems is second only to that of Wang and Meng, and he is famous for his "qingli".
Cen Shen's poems enjoyed a high status both at that time and in later generations.