In Du Fu's middle age, his poems were called "History of Poetry" because of his gloomy poetic style and his concern for the country and the people. His poems are good at ancient style and rhythmic poetry, and have diverse styles. He accurately summarizes his own work style with the word "depressed and frustrated", and mainly focuses on depression. Du Fu lived in the historical period when the Tang Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline. His poems mostly involved social unrest, political darkness and people's sufferings. His poems reflected the social contradictions and people's sufferings at that time. His poems recorded the historical changes of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, and expressed the lofty Confucian spirit of benevolence and strong sense of hardship, so they were called "the history of poetry". Du Fu was concerned about the country and people, with noble personality and exquisite poetic skills. Du Fu wrote more than 1,5 poems in his life, many of which are famous works that have been praised through the ages, such as "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells". Among them, the "Three Officials" are Shihao Officials, Xin 'an Officials and Tongguan Officials, and the "Three Farewells" are Newly Married, Homeless and Farewell to the Old. The poems handed down by Du Fu are the most extensive in the Tang Dynasty and one of the most outstanding poets in the Tang Dynasty, which have a far-reaching influence on later generations. Du Fu's works are known as the scars in the world and the sages in poetry. The people are suffering, and the bottom of the pen is turbulent. It is a masterpiece of realistic poetry.
By the time of Song Dynasty, the conclusion was reached, but the meaning of poetry history was different. Some people pay attention to Du Fu's poems with historical events, and think that Du Fu's poems are documentary poems, which can supplement the history and prove the history, so it is called the history of poetry. This statement only pays attention to the truth and falsehood of historical events, but ignores the emotional characteristics of poetry. Some people think that Du Fu is knowledgeable about history and his brushwork is strict, which can be compared with Sima Qian, a historian of Han Dynasty. And poetry has critics, who can all be "not empty beauty, not hidden evil", so it is called the history of poetry. This is advisable. On the other hand, the reason why Du Fu's poems are called the history of poetry is that they are sympathetic to others and feel sad at times, which is also desirable to some extent. But there are also people who don't like Du Fu's poems. Yang Yi doesn't like Du Fu. Liu Fang's "Zhongshan Poetry" says: "Yang Danian doesn't like Du Gongbu's poems, and he is called a village master."
Poet Saint
Du Fu became China's "Poet Saint" for many reasons. To explain it, everyone may have his own unique views. Personally, I think that Du Fu, as a great poet, has three characteristics, which are also important factors that make Du Fu respected as a poet by future generations.
★ Du Fu's first characteristic is that, from a purely historical point of view, he is the most important poet in the development and evolution of China's poetry.
Looking forward in the era of Du Fu, Du Fu collected the essence of all previous poets, and he became the highest peak beyond all previous poets; Looking back from Du Fu's time, few poets after Du Fu were not influenced by Du Fu and did not regard Du Fu as a mentor, so Du Fu was also the highest peak to enlighten all poets in future generations. Du Fu's uniqueness as a link between the past and the future makes him the most historic poet in the history of China's poetry. To be sure, his position is unparalleled.
The prosperous Tang Dynasty, in which Du Fu lived, was a comprehensive era, which gathered all the experiments of poets in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties in the form and content of poetry and integrated them into a whole. The most concrete manifestation of this kind of work is that in this era of integration, there have been integrated poets, and his overall works are the best examples of integration, and Du Fu is such a integrated poet.
Li Bai, another great poet in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, was also such a great poet, but his work in this field was not as thorough as that of Du Fu. As long as we compare their contributions in this respect a little, we can see the characteristics of Du Fu more clearly.
In the form of poetry, Li Bai prefers the classical style to the prosaic style, which is not suitable for his unrestrained personality. It can't be said that Li Bai hasn't made any achievements in law, and his five laws and seven verses are still considerable, but he hardly writes seven laws. On the whole, his achievements in law are still not as good as his ancient style. This is not the case with Du Fu. Du Fu's efforts in the aspect of law are by no means inferior to those in the ancient style. He developed in a balanced way in both ancient and legal aspects, while Li Bai was partial to one side. Therefore, it can be said that Du Fu is better than Li Bai in form.
secondly, the content. It is quite obvious that Li Bai inherited the theme of the previous generation of poets. He learned Ruan Ji's poems about nostalgia, Guo Pu's poems about immortals, Tao Qian's and Xie Lingyun's natural poems, and Qi Liang's poems about palace style. His achievement is that he is good at every subject, and he writes with great personality. However, his inheritance of each theme is also obvious. On the contrary, Du Fu also learned expression skills from every previous theme, but he combined these expression skills and these themes, thus showing a brand-new face. Therefore, the relationship between the content of his works and previous poets is not as obvious as that of Li Bai. It can be said that Du Fu is more creative than Li Bai in summarizing previous themes.
To sum up, Du Fu's achievements in this work are as follows: in form, he developed the ancient style that predecessors have achieved considerable results to the extreme, and vigorously developed the legal style that predecessors have just tested; In content, the subject matter and expressive skills of predecessors are used flexibly, so as to bring forth the new and present a new look. Therefore, Du Fu made some innovations in the process of synthesis. He not only summed up the achievements of his predecessors, but also created something new in the process of summing up. In this respect, Li Bai can't compare with Du Fu. Li Bai's summary work is excellent, but the new things he created in the summary are far less than Du Fu's.
This can explain why Du Fu's influence on later generations of poets is far greater than that of Li Bai. Because, when future generations of poets want to find some inspiration from Li Bai and Du Fu, they can find much more new things in Du Fu than Li Bai. This situation was clearly manifested in the second half of the Tang Dynasty: the four most important poets in the second half of the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu, Bai Juyi, Du Mu and Li Shangyin, all studied Du Fu. In the Song Dynasty, it was even more one-sided. Almost all the great poets in the Song Dynasty were influenced by Du Fu more than Li Bai. They were inspired by Du Fu either directly or indirectly through others (such as Han Yu).
Therefore, we can clearly see that Du Fu not only summed up the achievements of his predecessors and became a master poet, but also created something new in the master, thus having a strong influence on many great poets in future generations. This kind of importance in the history of poetry is unique, which has become one of the important factors for Du Fu to occupy a unique position in China's poetry circle.
From the above explanation, we can see that Du Fu can play a connecting role in the history of China's poetry, mainly due to his constant experiments on the forms of poetry, his constant innovation and change in the content of poetry, that is to say, his persistent pursuit of artistic perfection.
★ Du Fu's second characteristic as a great poet is his ever-growing and ever-changing artistic creativity.
Du Fu's life is in a critical period of the Tang Dynasty. Such a historical era has made his life drift from place to place and tasted all kinds of pain. Personally speaking, this is really a great misfortune. However, this great misfortune has become the great fortune of Du Fu's artistic life. Because, whenever Du Fu's life has undergone great changes and faced with new situations, Du Fu, as an artist, can feel this new situation of life, then ponder over it and express it in his poetry creation. As a result, with the constant change of Du Fu's life experience, the content of Du Fu's poems and the poetry skills that followed changed accordingly. Therefore, on the whole, the content of Du Fu's works is extremely rich, and Du Fu's poetic skills are also varied. Du Fu's multifaceted works, which emerged with the growth of the times, can be said to be unparalleled in the history of China's poetry. Therefore, no one can surpass his great achievements.
When he was young, Du Fu was an ambitious poet. At that time, he didn't see that the politics of the Tang Empire had gradually declined. He was confident that with his talents, he would definitely get ahead, make a difference in officialdom, and "be loyal to the monarch, and then make the customs pure". Therefore, when he looked at Mount Tai, he couldn't help shouting:
once climbing to the top of the peek, one would see, the other mountains all appear dwarfs under the sky..
fully shows the young heroism that is arrogant. However, with the passage of time, his frustration grew bigger and bigger. After a long period of decline, he finally realized the hardships of life. He couldn't help complaining and said,
Is Confucianism useful to me? Kong Qiu's shoes are stolen!
However, this purely personal complaint didn't last long. He finally realized that his frustration was not his personal affair, but the result of the political corruption of the Tang Empire. Because the people who are in the upper echelons are enjoying themselves, ignoring the state affairs and not promoting talents, talented people who are reduced to the people like him are everywhere, and the lives of ordinary people are becoming more and more painful. As a result of his awakening, he was finally able to turn his personal frustration into political concern, thus creating his early political satires two for the road and The Car Shop. Moreover, on the eve of the Anshi Rebellion, he was finally able to anticipate the inevitability of national unrest with his intuition, thus writing one of his greatest poems in his early days: "From Beijing to Fengxian County, chanting 5 words". In this poem, he said with great indignation:
The wine and meat in Zhumen stink, and the road has frozen bones.
He has become a people's poet to the core.
In the Anshi Rebellion, on the one hand, he was extremely concerned about the development of the rebellion and eagerly hoped that the government troops could quell the rebellion as soon as possible, but on the other hand, in his personal real life experience, he saw how the people struggled to survive in the war. As a result, his works during the An Shi Rebellion were full of state concern and descriptions of people's sufferings. On the one hand, famous works such as Ai Jiangtou, Mourning the King's Sun, Mourning Chen Tao, Mourning Qingban, Spring Hope and Sailuzi have been produced. On the latter hand, there are well-known works such as Xin 'an Official, Tongguan Official, Shihao Official, Newly Married, Farewell to the Old and Homeless. It can be said that Du Fu developed himself into a mature social realistic poet at the climax of An Shi Rebellion.
During this period, Du Fu, like ordinary people, experienced the most vagrant days. After a short but extremely hard flight, Du Fu was finally able to settle down in Sichuan. Compared with the life in the previous stage, Du Fu enjoyed the most stable life in Sichuan. With the change of life, his works have become another way. For example,
Qingjiang River embraces the village, and everything in Changxiajiang Village is quiet.
Go to the church and visit the swallow, and make a blind date with the gull in the water.
the old wife draws paper for the game, and the young child knocks the needle for the hook.
medicine is the only medicine needed for many diseases, so what else can you ask for?
—— Jiangcun
north of me, south of me, spring is in flood, but the flock of gulls comes every day.
my path is full of petals -- I have swept it for no others, my thatch gate has been closed -- but opens now for you.
it's a long way to the market, I can offer you little, yet here in my cottage there is old wine for our cups.
shall we summon my elderly neighbour to join us, call him through the fence, and pour the jar dry?.
-
From these works, we can see Du Fu's relaxed side during his settlement in Sichuan. Compared with the blood and tears of the previous period, the chic and comfortable nature of this period also has its charm.
It was during this period that Du Fu began to turn his attention to the style of the most rigorous seven-rhythm, because his life was relatively leisurely. He made various experiments on this kind of poetic style that has yet to be developed from various aspects, thus laying the foundation of the seven laws. It is also because of his efforts to "gradually refine the poetic law in his later years" that he is respected as a "saint of law" by future generations.
However, although life in Sichuan is relatively stable, it is always a "foreign land", not a place of permanent residence. Therefore, Du Fu finally decided to leave Sichuan and go east along the Yangtze River with the goal of returning to his hometown of Luoyang. Unfortunately, due to various factors, he had to stay in Kuizhou of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River for nearly two years. These two years may be the loneliest period of his life, because he lives in a remote mountain city and has few friends to associate with. Under such circumstances, Du Fu began to recall his life, and also began to think about the future of the Tang Empire. He used the results of his review and meditation to write three great works, namely, Autumn Prosperity (eight), Memorizing Historic Sites (five) and Generals (five). The artistry and contemplation of these groups of works have become another peak of his life's works, which proves that his artistic sensitivity and creativity have not declined in the last few years of his life.
Above, we briefly described Du Fu's life experiences and the relationship between his artistic growth and these experiences. From these brief narration and analysis, we can specifically understand why Du Fu is a growing poet and why Du Fu's works are so rich and varied in subject matter and skill.
apart from saying that Du Fu has a persistent spirit of pursuing perfection in art, we also need to admit that his sensitivity to new life experiences is beyond the reach of ordinary people. He will always be a person facing life, and he will always welcome every brand-new life experience with an open mind, so the theme of his poems can be continuously expanded with the change of his life experience. In this respect, Du Fu is also a poet with the most extensive mind.
▲ Du Fu's calligraphy "Yan Gong Jiu Tian Nan Shan Poem"
★ This kind of mind enables him to accept everything and sympathize with everything, which is the third characteristic of Du Fu as a great poet.
the most obvious manifestation of this trait is his care and sympathy for people. One of his best poems is his nostalgia for his friends and brothers. Almost every one of his good friends, he has written sincere and touching poems. For example, Zheng Qian, a friend in need, wrote such a sentence when he sent him away:
You should make a farewell with your husband forever, and make the delivery under the nine springs.
if you don't have an extraordinary friendship with your friends, who can speak so poignantly?
Du Fu's feelings for Li Bai are particularly touching. He has only met Li Bai twice in his life, but every time he recalls Li Bai, he writes extremely touching works. His two poems "Dream of Li Bai" can be said to be the most memorable poems describing the feelings of friends throughout the ages.
Family ties are the foundation of all human relationships. China people say, "There is no love without words". Perhaps because of this, ancient poets in China did not write about affection easily. In this respect, Du Fu is a rare exception. It is easy to find his wife, children, brothers and sisters in his works. In his famous Moonlit Night, Qiang Village and Northern Expedition, the sentences about his wife are unforgettable. In his later years in Sichuan, when he drifted between Zizhou and Langzhou, and briefly left his family, he also said, "When an old wife counts papers, she should know that she has not returned to her feelings" ("Guest Night"), "When a sick wife is worried, who can count the autumn flowers and brocade stones? Don't come to the book on March 1, when will you avoid sorrow? " ("Langzhong") are written simply and moving (see Xia Chengtao's statement)