Zhang Wentao has no monographs and articles on poetry, but there are dozens of poems in his Poems on a Boat Mountain, which can provide us with a glimpse of the theme of his poems. Looking at Zhang Wentao's poetics, we can see that his poetics corresponds to Yuan Mei's theory of soul, and there is no lack of originality. Zhang Wentao can be said to be a unique poetic theorist in the spirit school.
Zhang Wentao repeatedly praised "the spirit of nature" in his poems, which showed its main idea. For example, "I write my soul in a poem" (the 18th day of the first month), especially the sentence "I'm ashamed of my soul" ("I'm ashamed of my soul"), is the connotation of Yuan Mei's theory of "expressing my soul alone", which emphasizes that the creative subject should have three subjective factors: true feelings, personality and poetic talent. On the one hand, the essence of Zhang Wentao's poetics is connected with this, on the other hand, it is a supplement and development to it.
Yuan Mei's theory of spiritual nature emphasizes the truth, and the so-called "the truth is what you get" (the fish gate of sending tourists) and "the more sincere you are" (the answer to Yin). Zhang Wentao attached great importance to nature and took the real nature as his creative theme. First of all, he stressed that creators should have true feelings and true temperament to express. Therefore, it is called "the poet once had a lover" (Tu Qin's Theory of Poetry and Painting, No.6) and "A Good Bird Singing in Spring and Still Feeling" (No.8 of Poetry), because real poetry can only be written with emotion, and the so-called "love poem gushes from the heart" (Xu Wei) is a vivid explanation of the causal relationship between emotion and poetry. Secondly, he pointed out that expressing the true nature is the essence of poetry, saying that "a good poem is unreasonable" (the twelfth quatrain of poetics), "writing innocence with pen and ink" (Dai Qi answered Mr. Bi Qiufan and wrote a volume of modern poetry), and "a poet is inferior to grass from now on without writing a clever heart" (a picture of a poem niche of a good predecessor when writing a topic), so-called ". Because of his main feelings, he criticized the textual research for sending Weng Fanggang as Yuan Mei, taking textual research as a poem, and said, "Why bother to write a few words without comments" (the eighth of On Twelve Poems). Weng's "misreading a book as a poem" (Yuan Mei's imitation of Yuan's poems and leaning on a mountain) has deviated far from the right track of lyric poetry. Zhang believes that poetry is not derived from "ancient books", but from life experience and social practice, so there is a saying: "It is better to write an ancient book than to write this real experience." ("On Twelve Poems" Part III) The cloud says: "Concerned about current affairs, the writing is naive." (Scheerer by Chen Yinque ... limited to the Five Dynasties) This view is a remedy for Yuan Mei's subjective idealism factors, which are "verve is innate true nature" (Answer to Li Shaohe) and "If you are willing to find poetry, you will learn from it" (Jixing). In addition, as far as "love" itself is concerned, Yuan Mei emphasizes its truth, especially "love comes first, nothing more than men and women" ("A Garden in Poetry"), which is divorced from rationality. This has the significance of emancipating the mind, but it also has the disadvantage of ignoring the beauty and goodness of love. Zhang Wentao is in charge of emotion and pays attention to the truth and goodness of emotion. Therefore, it is said that "the ancients have true beauty in their arms" and "the evil poems have true feelings, so delete an example of forbearing the wind flowers" ("Re-examination of Japanese Poetry Manuscripts"). This view is more reasonable and comprehensive than Yuan Mei's.
While emphasizing true temperament, Zhang Wentao also praised "Qi": one is true qi, and the other is strange qi. "Chengdu Summer and Tianqiao Drinking Miscellaneous Poems" says: "Love has no true spirit?" That is, clearly put forward the view that true qi and true feelings complement each other. If true feelings are the flesh and blood of poetry, true qi is the bones and muscles of poetry, and it is also the spiritual strength of poetry. Without affection and qi, it is still difficult to see the poet's true colors. From the poet's point of view, this "qi" is what Mencius called "expensive qi" (Mencius Gongsun Chou), which has a healthy temperament and personality strength. From the perspective of poetry, it has a strong character and magnificent momentum. Zhang attaches importance to "Qi", that is, attaches importance to the cultivation of the poet's character and temperament, thus giving his poems momentum. "I read Shi Ge's poems at night and cherish my childhood" is also marked as "strange": "When I die, my poems are full of strangeness." "Strange spirit" refers to the poet's extraordinary wild temperament, a romantic spirit. This is related to Zhang Wentao's personality characteristics. Zhang Wentao's poetics emphasizes "Qi". Influenced by his best friend, Hong's Poems on Beijiang equate Qi with sex and affection. As one of the important factors of "poetry can be handed down from generation to generation", it is intended to criticize the shortcomings of some poems of spiritual nature, such as frivolity, lack of verve and backbone, and also to remedy Yuan Mei's theory of spiritual nature.
Zhang Wentao particularly emphasized that "my soul will always be me", which is the same as Yuan Mei's "I can't write a poem without me" (Volume 7 of Suiyuan Poetry Talk), and advocated the originality of creation. To this end, Zhang Wentao declared: "If you spit out what you want in your chest, you will win through the ages from gains and losses." "A floating name is not a poem biography, but is willing to bow to the portal!" (The Poem of Yuan Yi of Fangtie Shipbuilding Department also presents the wine sacrifice of the ancient warrior), which means that the poet should express his spirit alone, he has his own ideas and there are characters in the poem. To this end, it is emphasized from the opposite side: "It is better to delete the poem without me, and it is idle to make a bed." (Seven of Eight Essays) The so-called "no self in poetry" means lacking individuality and following others. The imitator of Ganjia's poetry in Qing Dynasty is a typical example of "poetry without me". Because of this, Zhang Wentao sneered: "Mo Song cured the disciples of the Tang Dynasty, and the ancients died without fighting" ("On Twelve Poems"), "It's like the Tang Dynasty released a few residual flowers. Zheng Gongfu's little slave has a good family background and is afraid of getting ahead all day long. " (On Tu Qin's Poetry and Painting) pointed out that Shen Deqian, Li E and others regulated the Tang Mo and Song Dynasties and thought that relying on the portal would not get ahead. Contrary to imitators, spiritualism was created by masters to express their true feelings and personality. Zhang Wentao: "The soup of earth, rice and dust suddenly takes on a new look, and the words of Jews are not Jewish." Fairy Shadow can't win Xiao Shao, and it won't be bad when it reopens. The so-called "cutting new" and "re-opening the true colors" are the creative spirit advocated by poets. Only by "not being Jewish" can we write the "spirit" of "I" and get married.
Zhang Wentao's emphasis on spirituality, like Yuan Mei's, emphasizes the poet's spirituality, or poetic talent, and briefly expounds it. One of the spiritual manifestations of the poet is that it is easy to generate inspiration when creating, and it is not necessary to carve the liver and kidney. The fourth and fifth clouds of On Twelve Poems: "Where to create love articles out of thin air, it depends on inspiration to help. Strange sentences suddenly came to the soul, really like a general falling from the sky! " "Yue Yue's poems are just around the corner, gathering like wind and rain. It's easy to talk about a common language, and it's natural to do a hundred exercises. " This paper uses vivid metaphors to vividly describe the inspiration phenomenon in the poet's creation. I have quoted Zhang Wentao's view that creation should have "one's own real experience", that is, "it is not out of nothing"; But creation also needs the help of "light", which is inspiration. The second poem describes the suddenness of inspiration, the transience of sudden acquisition and the activity of thinking. "Poetic leap" refers to emotional excitement and rich imagination. The so-called "When writing, there will be dreams in the sky, and Long Lin surprises" (On Tu Qin's Poems). In addition, inspiration is innate and cannot be forced. As the saying goes, "Poetry is picked up unintentionally" (Miscellaneous Notes on Drinking in Chengdu Summer and Tianqiao). It can be seen that Zhang Wentao's understanding of inspiration is comprehensive and in-depth.
As far as the aesthetic characteristics of poetry are concerned, Yuan Mei's theory of soul requires agility, interest and humor, while Zhang Wentao advocates ethereal and true interest. They are quite close, but there are also differences. Zhang's "On Tuqin's Poetry and Painting" says: "The divine light moves the soul, and the emptiness is not clever." Yuan Meizhi pays attention to the agility and interest of images, which is close to "cleverness", while Zhang Wentao's emphasis on "emptiness" has a wide range of connotations. It requires vivid image, deep artistic conception and long lasting charm, which is a high realm, so it is also called "Poetry begins with ethereal art" (Jin Meng County sends it to Chen Litang). In order to achieve the ethereal realm, in artistic expression, we should pay attention to sketching the image without piling up allusions; In the creative state of mind, it requires the innocence of nature and freedom from interest. The sixth cloud in "On Twelve Poems": "I am naive at the thought of the beginning of the ethereal pen. Laugh at his elegance, surrender to the crown and face the beauty. " It shows that the ethereal realm cannot be achieved by those who talk about elegance blindly, but must come from the "innocence" of nature. In addition, "natural interest" and "true interest" have nothing to do with carving, antique and textual research. The language of poetry is a "common language" that emphasizes nature and simplicity. As the saying goes, "Everything you say is a common language, and everything you practice is natural" (the fifth part of On Twelve Poems), which has something to do with Yuan Mei's "Homely language is the best in poetry" (supplemented by accompanying poems) and "Spoken language is natural" (supplemented by accompanying poems).
Due to the limitation of forms of expression, Zhang Wentao's poetics is sketchy, far less detailed and comprehensive than that described in Yuan Mei's Poems with the Garden and Preface to Poetry, and its scope is not as extensive as that of Yuan Mei's theory of soul. But its essence is in tune with Yuan Mei's theory of spiritual nature, and its basic spirit is also possessed. However, Zhang Wentao's theory of spiritual nature was a poetic theory during Jiaqing period, and Zhang Wentao also had his own unique personality and thoughts, which made him different from Yuan Mei. What is commendable is that this difference is actually a kind of compensation for the deficiency or malpractice of Yuan Mei's theory of spiritual nature, thus making the theory of spiritual nature develop. This is a new contribution of Zhang Wentao's poetics.
In Pengxi County, Sichuan Province, in order to promote the poetry style of Tao Wen, the Tao Wen Poetry Society was established, with more than 100 members, and the new rhyme of Tao Wen was published regularly.