Four people have bad careers, one in the Jianghu, one in the mountains, one in rebellion and one in exile. On the contrary, the ups and downs of officialdom and life make their literary works soar artistically and become unique. However, due to the different times, the changes in material life, the continuous enrichment of language and writing, and the increasing expressive ability of literary works, it is unfair to compare only from the height of works.
Let's peel something off, from the perspective of literary history.
As the champion of the most economically developed Song Dynasty, Su Shi was not only proficient in poetry and calligraphy, but also left many legends in his life, such as Dongpo Meat, Su Xiaomei and Fo Yin, which made him very high in the hearts of ordinary people. His most important achievement in literature is to help Ci get rid of the limitations of the theme of singer and wanderer, and to create an uninhibited school. After the efforts of later generations, Song Ci was finally placed in the same glorious position as Tang Poetry. Su Shi played an important role in the heyday of Song Ci, and he was the first person in the history of Ci development.
Li Bai's prosperous Tang Dynasty was also a prosperous time. The Qi-Liang style of the previous dynasty was severely criticized in the early Tang Dynasty, and this style developed extraordinary poetry. The theme is no longer limited to the decadence of the previous dynasty, but full of thoughts and high spirits. Li Bai is in this era of great development of poetry. On the one hand, the official imperial examination promoted the prosperity of poetry, on the other hand, the poetic theory was retro, anti-archaic, metrical and full of flowers. With his personal literary talent, romantic imagination, Taoist thought and pioneering career, he showed the world the strangest and greatest side of poetry. Be honored as "Poet Fairy".
Tao Yuanming's Eastern Jin Dynasty was terrible. He came out as an official for several years. Because of disagreement with his boss, he resigned and went home in a rage. Later, he came back, and after a few years, he was worried about his mother's death. By the time he came out of the mountain again, the Eastern Jin Dynasty had already perished. As a famous minister in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Tao Kan became an official, chose "picking chrysanthemums under the east fence" and lived a poor life until his death. His achievements in the history of poetry are mainly to open up the pastoral school, inject the spirit of seclusion, and provide a kind of sustenance and a direction of expectation for the down-and-out literati in later generations. However, in the eyes of Confucian scholars who govern the country, Tao Yuanming's living method is just an unexpected choice in officialdom. I think of learning from Tao Yuanming when I'm not happy. When my career is successful, I want to make a portrait on Lingyange.
The last appearance of the most heavyweight. We don't talk about politics, only about literature and art. Qu Yuan is a great poet, the first poet in the history of literature that you can remember. He created a precedent of personal chanting, which made literature progress from oral creation of literati to personal creation, which was a watershed, if not absolute creation. In other words, Qu Zi is the first person in China's poetry for thousands of years. He also pioneered the naming of poems in Chu Ci. Do the poems in his previous Book of Songs have names? None; At the same time, in terms of artistic techniques, the structure of seven-character miscellaneous language was opened up, which laid the foundation for later five-character poems and seven-character poems; In terms of ideological creation, due to the wildness of Chu State and the rampant witchcraft, Qu Yuan's creation is full of absurd imagination, which is a precedent of romanticism.
The imaginations of Li Bai, Li He and many later literati are inseparable from the manuscripts written by Qu Zi for them.
Qu Yuan's poetry creation is the blue sky of China for thousands of years, and it is also the inexhaustible creative source of romantic poets in China.
So, is there an answer?