After the Tang Dynasty, there was another poetic climax in the Song Dynasty. Although there is not a complete Song poetry yet, there is no doubt that its total amount is several times that of the whole Tang poetry. Most poets in the Song Dynasty worked hard all their lives and created many works, such as more than 2,700 by Su Shi, more than 4,000 by Yang Wanli, and nearly 10,000 by Lu You, far exceeding Li and others in the Tang Dynasty (Li Jin Qian, 1400), which fully demonstrated the prosperity of the Song Dynasty.
A huge number.
Often reflected in a certain quality. As a generation of poetic circles, Song poetry has undergone remarkable new changes and formed its own characteristics on the basis of inheriting Tang poetry. In terms of ideological content, Song poetry has expanded in reflecting the sufferings of people's livelihood, exposing social darkness and reflecting the internal political struggle of the ruling class, but it lacks the positive spirit of pursuing lofty ideals in Tang poetry, especially in its heyday. On the other hand, it is hotter and deeper than Tang poetry in expressing patriotic feelings and worrying about the country in the national struggle. This is determined by the conditions of the times. Compared with the previous unified dynasty, the Song Dynasty was the most centralized dynasty. On the one hand, it played a positive role in consolidating the unity of the Song Dynasty, stabilizing social order, developing economy and resisting the intrusion of a few rulers. On the other hand, the concentration of military forces has brought about poor training in Song Jun and weakened its combat effectiveness. The concentration of political power has brought huge and bloated bureaucracy, corruption and incompetence, and the concentration of financial power has stimulated the extravagance and waste of the ruling class. Then, more than 30 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun's peasant uprising broke out in Song Taizong, with hundreds of thousands of people. It was in the situation of poverty and weakness that the social crisis developed rapidly, and some reformists in the landlord class came out to advocate "political reform" and reform the shortcomings, forming a political reform movement. Wang Anshi is one of the outstanding representatives. The poetry innovation movement in the Northern Song Dynasty, the realistic tendency of reflecting the sufferings of people's livelihood, social darkness and the political struggle of the ruling class in poetry are all related to this social and political situation, and are in the same strain as the political reform movement in spirit. Rumei's "Like a Poor Girl" and "Tianjiayu"; Ouyang Xiu's "Eating Bad People" and "Border People"; Wang Anshi merged with provincial soldiers; Su Shi's works such as Li. However, just as the political reform movement is only a "self-help" movement of the landlord class, it lacks broad political prospects. Song poetry also lacks the positive political enterprising spirit in Tang poetry, which is often more sad than heroic songs. This is a ... Secondly, from the first day of the founding of the People's Republic of China until its demise, the Song Dynasty was constantly harassed and threatened by the rulers of ethnic minorities, and it was the weakest unified dynasty in the history of China. Song Dynasty ceded territory to them for peace many times, lost money and silk, and called himself nephew. However, some patriotic generals and officials in the ruling clique, especially the Han people, could not stand this humiliating and enslaved situation and showed an epic spirit of struggle, so the patriotic thoughts reflected in the poems (including ci) in the Song Dynasty became more and more prominent. In the early Song Dynasty, Lu Zhen lamented the national humiliation and national disaster, and his "Qingzhou defeat" humiliated China in Xixia. Su Shi's determination to "try to deal with the land" expressed in "Hunting in the Long Mountain" and "Seeing the Crane from Bitterness" are all examples. After the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, it became the keynote of poetry in the Southern Song Dynasty. Lu You, a great poet, found his own creative life in Nanzheng's military life and sang for the suffering motherland all his life. Before and after the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, the patriotic poems of Wen Tianxiang, Xie Ao, Lin Jingxi, Zheng Sixiao and Wang Yuanliang added the last glory to the poetry circle in the Song Dynasty. This is not in Tang poetry.
Artistic theme
And style
Song poetry mainly develops in ideological, revealing and refining aspects. Yan Yu's Cang Lang Shi Hua in the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Poetry has words, and reasoning is interesting", "Today people feel reasoning, and Tang people feel reasoning". In the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shen's "Sheng 'an Poetry Talk" said in Volume 4: "The poems in the Tang Dynasty were mainly lyrical, and nearly 300 poems were written; Song people's poems are as far away as 300. " Modern Mr. Qian Zhongshu's Records of Talking about Art said: "Tang poetry is good at rhyme, while Song poetry is good at reasoning with bones and muscles." They hold different attitudes towards praise and criticism, but they all agree that "reason" and "thinking reason" are the characteristics of Song poetry. Those who emphasize rhyme are more subtle, and those who emphasize reason are more exposed. Shen Deqian's "Poems of the Qing Dynasty" said: "Tang poetry is rich, Song poetry is exposed, and it accumulates, and the exposure is to the point." Wu Qiao's "Poems Around the Furnace" also pointed out that there are more Tang poems than Xing, so "his words are gentle and implicit"; There were many poems in the Song Dynasty, "the word is straight". They all pointed out this feature. In addition, Song poetry pursues exquisiteness. Weng Fanggang said in Volume 4 of Zhou Shi Shi Hua: "Poetry became more detailed in the Song Dynasty. Tang people really can't enter the cave. " The so-called "refined" and "incisive" refers to the description of objective things in Song poetry, which tends to be innovative and meticulous, and the description is incisive and subtle, which is different from that in Tang poetry. On the other hand, it also means that Song poetry has made deeper efforts in allusion, antithesis, syntax, rhyme and tone, and has become more and more thorough. In connection with the above points, Song poetry also shows a tendency of discussion, prose and poeticization, which has both good and bad effects on the development of poetic art. Just like writing water quickly, Li Bai's "The Beginning of Baidicheng" contains cheerful and comfortable emotions in the generosity of Jun Fa, while Su Shi's "Hundred Steps of Hong" says: "If a rabbit walks like an eagle, a good horse bets on a steep slope, and a broken string deviates from the column. Huang Tingjian's poem "Zhu Shi Grazing Cattle" is syntactically modeled after Li Bai's "Du Lu Pian". However, Li's poems are completely implicit, while Huang's poems are engraved with new ideas and different tastes. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, there has been a long-standing debate on respecting Tang or Song in the history of poetry. Objectively, it is acknowledged that Song poetry has found a new way out after the peak of Tang poetry, and it has a certain model. The history of poetry also shows that the works of later generations failed to surpass the artistic realm of Tang and Song poetry in general.
Song dynasty prose
Prose in Song Dynasty is an important development stage in the history of China's prose. A large number of prose writers have appeared in more than 300 years. Among the so-called "eight masters of ancient prose in Tang and Song Dynasties", Song people accounted for six (Ouyang Xiu, Su Xun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Wang Anshi, Ceng Gong), and wrote many literary essays and essays, as well as many representative works of argumentative essays.
One of the important achievements of prose in Song Dynasty is to establish a stable and mature prose style: simple and natural, fluent and euphemistic. Han Yu was the leader of the ancient prose movement in Tang Dynasty. In the theory and practice of ancient prose, he encountered the composition problems of "difficult" and "easy" or "strange" and "flat". Although Han Yu tried to unify the two, as the saying goes, "Nothing is difficult, but independence is also" (Answer to Liu), his artistic personality advocated "difficulty" and "strangeness" all the way. However, in the Song Dynasty, ancient writers focused on developing simple styles. We read Han Yu's letter to Li, assistant minister of the Ministry of War, and Su Zhe's letter to Han Taiwei, a Tang Dynasty envoy, all of which were "swearing" articles, targeting senior military officers in charge of the whole country. However, from the beginning, Korean claimed to be "poor in the theory of Historical Records, immersed in training, repeatedly reading sentences, grinding career and practicing articles", pretending to be an economic wizard; Then he said that the other party was a "court minister", and like "the son of heaven was newly enthroned", it was incumbent on him to promote talents. Asking for an extension means aggressive. The language is novel and unique, which conforms to his standard of "words must come out". Su Wen wrote an article about "qi"; In addition, qi depends on increasing experience and expanding friends; Then I came to Beijing from Shu, visited the ancient capital, visited famous mountains and met celebrities, but there were not many celebrities, showing the hope that the other party would introduce me diplomatically. Write slowly and don't rush to talk. The language is easy to understand, and there are few words with bright colors. Su Xun's "The First Book of Ouyang Naihan" comments on the differences between the styles of "difficulty" and "change" between Han and Owen, which can be regarded as a general comment on the prose of Tang and Song Dynasties. The plain style of prose in Song Dynasty is more suitable for reasoning, narration and lyricism than that in Tang Dynasty, and it has become the main model for later essayists to learn. Wen Song has more influence than Tang Wen.
The high achievement of prose in Song Dynasty also brought great influence to other styles. In the literature of Song Dynasty, we can see a general tendency of prose culture. Starting from Mei and Europe, Du Fu and Han developed the tendency of "writing as poetry" in the Song Dynasty, and further applied prose brushwork, composition, syntax and word usage to poetry, gradually revealing their own characteristics. Ci has also added prosaic elements in the hands of Su and Xin. Fu, from Chu Ci, Han Fu, lyric Fu in Wei and Jin Dynasties to practical prose "Law Fu" in Tang Dynasty, has declined and lacks artistic creativity. But in the Song Dynasty, inspired by prose, it regained its artistic life and formed a style similar to prose poetry. Ouyang Xiu's ode to the autumn sound and Su Shi's ode to the red wall are masterpieces that have been read for a long time. Parallel prose in Song Dynasty did not pursue rhetoric and allusions, but adopted the momentum and style of prose, which brought some new features. Ouyang Xiu's Reading Poems on the West Lake by Picking Mulberry Seeds, Su Shi's Living Table of Begging for Changzhou, Wang Zao's Book of Dragon Tour to the World in the Southern Song Dynasty, Fang Yue's Tang Qi in Xie Miao, and Shao Wujun of the two instruments are all excellent parallel essays. The general tendency of this kind of prose is the result of the prosperity of prose in Song Dynasty, which constitutes a major feature of literature in Song Dynasty.
Song ci
As a new form of poetry, Ci began in Sui and Tang Dynasties and reached its peak in Song Dynasty. There are more than 1,000 people and 20,000 poems written by Tang Guizhang in the whole Song Dynasty. Recently, it has been supplemented one after another (for example, Mr. Kong's "Complete Song Poetry Supplement" and so on. Although many ci poems were lost because they were not recognized as "orthodox" literature at the beginning, the results collected so far are enough to reflect the prosperity and richness of song ci poems.
Previous comments on Ci ranged from "graceful" to "bold", and there have always been different lawsuits. This theory was first seen in Zhang Wan's Biography of Poetry in Ming Dynasty. After his "Ordinary Cases", there is a note saying: "The style of words is slightly different: a graceful and unconstrained. Graceful people want their own words and feelings, while bold people want their own magnificent weather. Gai also has unique characters. For example, most of his works are graceful and restrained, while most of his works are bold and unrestrained. In general, the style of words is graceful. " Zhang Wan's definition of graceful and restrained words is based on artistic style, but he regards graceful and restrained words as two "styles" of words, and later generations extended them to two "schools" (such as Wang Shizhen). This is contradictory to the diversity of the actual styles of Song Ci: Song Ci is obviously more than these two styles, that is, as far as the works of Su Shi, the founder of the bold school, are concerned, there are only twenty or thirty people who are truly bold, and the controversy arises from this. In fact, among the specific comments of many poets, the bold and graceful school is not a literary genre in a strict sense, nor a simple classification of artistic styles, nor is it a one-by-one evaluation of specific writers' works, but refers to two basic tendencies in content theme, technical style, especially systematic melody, and two different trends in maintaining or innovating the traditional ci style. Understanding this tendency and trend is of great significance to the in-depth study of Song Ci. Generally speaking, Su Xinhao's school of releasing ci is an innovative school. The difference between Su Xinhao and the traditional school of graceful ci lies in that, in terms of content and subject matter, the graceful school sticks to the barrier of "gorgeous" and "poetic", the lyrical school loves men and women, hurts spring separation, draws on romantic and aesthetic materials, and the unrestrained school expands the subject matter of ci and improves the artistic conception. In Su Shi's hands, all poets can write poems, such as remembering the past, remembering the past, giving answers and seeing off, almost reaching the situation of "unintentional entry, nothing to say" (Yi Jian's Ci Jian); The theme of Xin School poets in Southern Song Dynasty is patriotism, which marks the highest ideological achievement of Song Ci. In terms of technique style, the former is good at comparison and beauty, and the latter is good at expressing one's mind directly, with unrestrained as the main feature. In terms of systematic melody, the former emphasizes harmony. For example, Li Qingzhao's Ci theory demands harmony and melodiousness, and criticizes Su Shi's "constant discord", while the latter emphasizes soft words and refuses to accommodate melody, which hinders the free expression of thoughts and feelings. The so-called "outstanding, naturally can't be tied to the song" ("Notes on Gaizhai", Volume 16). These are two tendencies and trends that actually exist in Song Ci.
It should be pointed out that since the Northern Song Dynasty, it is wrong for many critics to regard bold and graceful as "appropriate cases" and "exceptional cases". Chen Shidao's Poems on the Back Hill said: "It is a masterpiece in the world to retreat to the text as a poem, and Zi Zhan to use poetry as a word, such as thunder making it dance, which cannot be true." Four Treasures of the Study's General Catalogue 198 also says that Ci should be "elegant-oriented", and Su Xin's Ci School's "tracing back to the source" cannot but be called an exception. However, it is impossible to say that it doesn't work. Although they acknowledge the merits of Su Xin's ci, they are limited by traditional stereotypes and regard it as unnatural and special, and they don't know enough about the innovative significance of Su Xin's ci. But since liberation, some commentators have described the two factions as "mainstream" and "countercurrent", which is also wrong. It is generally believed that graceful writers have achieved different degrees of ideological and artistic achievements, and it is obviously unrealistic that the theory of countercurrent leads to total negation; Bold writers not only still have some graceful works, but also their bold words often absorb and melt graceful words, and still maintain the characteristics that words are different from poems and are not assimilated by poems. We are moved by the great emotion of "gone forever", and we can also feel the lingering feelings of the travelers who are "Liu Yang 'an, Xiao Feng Canyue". Zhang's "He Xinlang Farewell Hu Bangheng to NSW", Yue Fei's "Man Jiang Hong", "Song of Six Countries", "Nian Nujiao Deng Duo" and even many of Xin Qiji's masterpieces are of course resounding with cymbals (towers, drums and cymbals), which fully reflect their generosity. Chunlan Qiuju, with their own ingenuity, can meet people's various aesthetic needs. On the premise of fully estimating the innovative significance of bold and unconstrained ci school, the two schools should be unified.
Song Ci is the pinnacle of China's ci history, and its influence has enveloped the whole ci circle in the future. Song Ci is actually the most accomplished lyric poem in Song Dynasty, which makes it as famous as Tang Poetry and Yuan Qu.
Novels and operas in Song Dynasty
The novels and operas in Song Dynasty prepared good conditions for the great development of novels and operas in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The novels in Song Dynasty are mainly "storytelling", which was originally the base of the story told by the speaker, but in fact they are vernacular short stories. There are about thirty or forty kinds of books about the Song Dynasty, which are scattered in Beijing popular novels, Qingping Shantang stories, Sanyan and other books. There are two distinct characteristics of the Matsumoto version: First, the color of civic literature. Storytelling was a kind of "tile shed technique" at that time, and it was a kind of literature and art for urban people to express themselves, educate themselves and entertain themselves. For the first time, the lower class citizens appeared in batches as positive figures, such as Cui Ning, the jade grinder in Mo Yu Guan Yin, John Zhang, the manager in Zhang Zhicheng, and Cui Ning, the silk seller in Wrong Chop, especially Xiu Xiu, Zhou Shengxian, Xiao Nian and a group of rebellious lower class women. The sociality and reality of the novel have been strengthened, which has opened the way for the future development of the novel. The second is the characteristics of vernacular literature. The script language is vernacular, which is more detailed, vivid, tortuous and full of life flavor than classical Chinese novels (such as Tang legends). In particular, the personalization of character dialogue has made great progress. Although there are still classical Chinese novels in later generations, they have to retreat to the second place compared with vernacular novels. As for the long "history-telling" story book, it also provides story material for future long historical novels.
The folk opera in Song Dynasty is still in its infancy. Such as puppet shows, shadow plays, musicals, etc. The first two are not played by people, and the last one is played by people, but it is still a narrative rather than a first-person narrator. However, all these have some dramatic conditions. Although there are no scripts circulating in the Northern Song Dynasty Zaju and the Southern Song Dynasty Opera (some people think that Zhang Xie's top three operas in Yongle Dadian were written by Song people), they are quite complete operas, which have the basic characteristics of China opera art and are the basis and starting point for the future development of operas.
In a word, due to the development of social politics and economy, new requirements are put forward for literature, and also due to the law of literature's own development, China's classical poetry and prose gradually passed the golden age and lost its dominant position in the literary world. Novels, operas and other styles are brewing a greater literary climax, and then become the focus of the literary world. Song Dynasty literature is in such a transitional stage.