Wang Wei was born in a feudal bureaucratic landlord family and had a natural tolerance for the feudal ruling class. And in his life, although there were times when his official career was frustrated, on the whole, his life was relatively leisurely and happy. Especially after he was about forty years old, he began to live a semi-official and semi-secluded life. He "associates with Taoist friends, is honest, plays the piano and writes poems", and serves Buddha with food. "After retiring from the DPRK, sit alone and burn incense and concentrate on meditation" (see also Old Tang Book). As he himself said, "with the passage of time, what he gave me was peace and freedom from 10 thousand things." So he basically has an indifferent attitude towards real life. In his later years, he even said that "there are many sad things in life, and we won't let them go anywhere" ("Sighing White Hair"), and he became a Buddhist who "takes meditation as a thing". It is for this reason that Wang Wei's poems are full of emptiness and nothingness. For example:
In the countryside where the sun is setting, cattle and sheep go home along the path. And a rugged old man in a thatched door,
By waiting for Fei Jing. Pheasants and wheat seedlings show, silkworms sleep, and mulberry leaves are peeled.
God bless you, and you are as close as brothers. No wonder I long for a simple life,
I sigh that old song, oh, back to the past! .
-"Weishui Farmhouse"
Li Bai was the most controversial poet in ancient China. He is the greatest romantic poet in the Tang Dynasty with a wide range of interests and brilliant literary talent. When he was a teenager, he went to many places. He is "indomitable and unwilling to be left behind", hoping to "make a blockbuster" and "soar to the sky". Because of this, he has a romantic feeling in his bones, which is reflected in his work "Xing Han puts pen to paper to shake the five mountains, and poetry becomes Xiao Ao to sing Cangzhou". Du Fu once said that he "shocked the wind and rain with his pen and wept with his poem". Li Bai is not an infallible poet. On the contrary, he seems to care about everything. He has experienced and shown a lot of life. Although he can't satisfy his life forever, his passionate feelings and strong personality left an indelible mark on the poems expressing various lives, leaving a strong subjective color of self-expression everywhere. "Wandering for nine days, dreaming back to the eight wild places." For example:
The purple mist is illuminated by sunlight, and the waterfall hangs in front of the mountain.
On the high cliff, it seems to be thousands of feet high, which makes people think that the Milky Way has fallen from heaven to earth.
-"Looking at Lushan Waterfall"
Du Fu is different from the above three. Born in a feudal bureaucratic family, he had a series of "strong travel" experiences since he was 20 years old. After the "An Shi Rebellion", due to the ups and downs of life and disillusionment of ideals, he also thought about retiring. However, his strong sense of responsibility and mission to the country and people made him embark on the road of realistic creation. "The great man of chivalry is for the country and the people." Du Fu is such a chivalrous poet. Even when he was down and out, he didn't forget the sufferings of the people. He said in the song "The Hut was Blown by Autumn Wind": "There are thousands of spacious buildings in Ande, which greatly protect the poor in the world. The wind and rain are calm as a mountain. Oh! Suddenly seeing the mountain in front of me, it is enough for me to freeze to death alone. " Therefore, Du Fu's landscape poems always naturally reveal a pity for people's livelihood. For example:
Good rain knows the season, when spring comes. Sneak into the night with the wind, moisten things silently. How wide the world is, how close the trees are to heaven, and the boats on the river are full of fire. Look at the red and wet place, the flowers in Jinguancheng are heavy.
-"Delighting in Rain on a Spring Night"
If the image is a little better, Wang Wei is "Shi Fo", and his landscape poems are filled with a little leisure that is not surprised by honor and disgrace, forgetting everything; Li Bai is a "poetic fairy", and his landscape poems have a natural beauty and leisurely meaning and temperament; Du Fu, on the other hand, is like a "chivalrous poet". His landscape poems do not forget the sufferings of the people and the vicissitudes of the world. If we analyze it concretely, we can have a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences of its internal emotions.