Seven sons of Jian' an.
Jian 'an style, as one of the important categories of China's classical poetics, not only refers to the vigorous, profound, bold and sad literary style in the Han and Wei Dynasties, but also is the main criterion for critics to evaluate literature from the Southern Dynasties to the Song and Ming Dynasties. For thousands of years, this vivid and true cultural seed has undergone changes from narrow sense to broad sense, and from morality to aesthetics, which has deeply influenced China people's national identity and life imagination, and has become an indispensable symbol for understanding our cultural characteristics, reflecting the complex relationship between the changes of the times and poetic concepts.
From the end of the Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was a long period of pain in the history of China. Social unrest and division, the disintegration and collapse of political power, the decline of Confucianism and the prosperity of metaphysics, and the isomorphism of * * * have become the main reasons for the split personality and spiritual transcendence of scholars. The criteria for talent selection are quietly changing. Virtue is no longer the only criterion, but talents or the physical, mental and spiritual beauty accompanying talents are valued. This is obviously the background of the times when the characters are prominent.
This is recorded in Liu Yiqing's Shi Shuo Xin Yu and Shen Yue's Song Shu. Wind refers to charm, charm and verve, which is used to taste the figure's posture and temperament; Bones and phalanges are used to appreciate the figure and image of characters. Once this perspective and standard were formed, it quickly affected the aesthetic consciousness in Wei and Jin Dynasties and had a far-reaching impact on the appreciation and creation of calligraphy and painting literature. For example, squatting on the back of an old horse aims at a thousand miles. Cao Cao, a martyr in his late years, is looking forward to making a name for himself and making great achievements. Although in Shu, Cao Zhi (Seeking Self-Test Table) in his thirties and Cai Yan, a contemporary poet and seven sons of Jian 'an, the so-called Cao Wei Group is one of the most outstanding.
Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi in artistic images.
Liu Xie, a literary theorist in the Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, first summed up Jian 'an style and refined its aesthetic spirit. As we all know, the basic position of Wen Xin Diao Long is to examine the origin and creation of literature from the perspective of Confucian ancient prose school. Taking this as a starting point, Liu Xie first extended the concept of characters from the metaphysical function of characters and algae to the literary criticism scale of Ming Dow and Jing Zong.
Secondly, he inherited Cao Pi's idea that literature is based on qi (a classic essay). On the one hand, he emphasized the key role of a writer's understanding of life in his creation, on the other hand, he clearly highlighted the internal relationship between literature and the times: observing the current literature, it is elegant and generous, good at leaving the world, popular and resentful, and has a deep ambition, so it has a rich outline. (Wen Xin Diao Long Tai Ning) Here, he combined the theory of expressing ambition in poetry since the pre-Qin period with Lu's view of love, and combined a profound sense of the times with spiritual care, which not only attached importance to the works of ancient simple writers, but also did not belittle the innovation in wording and sentence making in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Its pattern and bearing make a theoretical footnote for the era of literary consciousness.
On this basis, Liu Xie summed up the aesthetic characteristics of Jian 'an literature with a generous and open attitude, highlighted the tragic consciousness of life in the great pulse of the times, and then introduced Jian 'an style as a model of aesthetic criticism of China's poetry.
The Picture of the Goddess of Luo is a famous painting by Gu Kaizhi, a painter in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, based on the implication of Cao Zhi's Goddess of Luo. Luo Shen Fu is a romantic masterpiece written by Cao Zhi in the Three Kingdoms period, formerly known as Ganzhen Fu.
This perspective of thinking and Liu Xie have been continued in Zhong Rong's poetic theory at the same time. It is generally believed that Zhong Rong's poems have obvious traces of Confucianism, which is in line with the worship of elegance, although it is not explicitly said to be classics. For example, the preface to poetry emphasizes the spirit of animals and touching things, so it shakes the temperament and forms various dances, which is the refinement of Xunzi's Theory of Music, Han's Yue Ji and Mao's Preface to Poetry. It can be seen that Xunzi, Wang Chong and others' theory of cosmic composition with qi as the material gene has actually become the theoretical cornerstone of Shi Pin. The discussion on Jian 'an literature is mainly reflected in the aesthetic tendency of advocating elegance and integrity, emphasizing style and restraining coquettish.
Especially Cao Zhi's praise is hard to see: Hehe! Chen Sizhi's article also compares human relations to Kong Zhou, scales and feathers to dragons and phoenixes, music to the sound of a piano, and female workers to embarrassment. Those who suck lead ink in their arms admire the chapter and reflect the afterglow like a candle. Therefore, if poetry is used in the door of Confucius, the merchants will ascend to the hall and the king will enter the room. Jingyang, Pan and Lu can sit between the cloisters. (On Poetry) This style of criticism, which takes the past as a mirror, closely responds to the call and desire of this era for elegant and resentful style, and is close to what Liu Xie really thinks, further establishing the important position of Jian 'an style in the history of classical poetics.
Li Shimin, king of the Tang Dynasty, acceded to the throne after pacifying the social unrest in the late Sui Dynasty, and gradually established a unified, stable and powerful new dynasty. Undoubtedly, the prosperity of the empire had a decisive influence on poetry creation and evaluation. Hua Mao's vigorous, majestic and lyrical poetic style has become the poet's conscious pursuit, which can be seen in Wang Bo's Preface to Thinking of Friends in the Mountain Pavilion: opening a Han Garden, sweeping the literary field, gaining the right method from the palace merchants and gaining the spirit of mountains and rivers. Although the land plain and Cao Zijian are enough to carry a bucket; Xie Lingyun and Pan Anren are good enough to walk on their knees. (Selected Works of Wang Zian, Volume 4)
Accordingly, in the history of Jian 'an style, two iconic figures in the Tang Dynasty were Chen Ziang in the early Tang Dynasty and Yin Kun in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Chen Ziang was the first to raise the banner of Han and Wei characters and shouted loudly: Articles have harmed people for 500 years. Han Wei's character, Jin Song Mo Chuan. The poems between Qi and Liang Dynasties are colorful and complicated, but they are absolutely popular. (Preface to Zuo's Bamboo-repairing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty) Linking prosperity with character, flaunting character, making the voice frustrated, training talent and brilliance, and having a golden aesthetic, reaching the realm of smiling at each other with Jian 'an authors. Mr. Luo Zongqiang believes that this makes the personality theory he advocated not only inherit the generous and desolate style of Jian' an poetry, but also enrich the lofty and broad spirit (page 84 of Literary History of Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties).
He Yue Ling Ying from Yin Kun's collection.
Yin Kun's "Heroes of Jiangyue" theoretically summarizes the pursuit and creative practice of poets such as Li Bai, Gao Shi and Cen Can in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and points out that Jian 'an will be the only choice when it comes to spirit, while when it comes to palace merchants, it is too healthy to grasp the aesthetic propositions such as inspiration, affection and spirit, which can be said to echo the banner of Chen Ziang's theory. Some scholars have pointed out that the poets in the prosperous Tang Dynasty creatively transformed the tradition here, replacing the Jian 'an style with the style or weather in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which made Liu Xie's style full of vitality, but also changed its connotation (Meng's Liu Xie's Style and its Changes, Journal of Southeast Shanxi Teachers College, March 2000 15). In the author's view, this change is not only a shift from words and rhetoric to images and realms, but also a shift from morality and aesthetics, reflecting the profound influence of changes in the current situation on the poetic style.
However, it is worth noting that if the construction of characters before the Tang Dynasty is mainly characterized by interpretation and invention, then its functional value is more prominent after the Song Dynasty. In other words, when the so-called prosperous Tang Dynasty disappeared with the decline of the Tang Empire, the call of critics for Jian 'an's character actually had an obvious tendency to set things right and evoke the past. For example, Yan Yu's retro banner points directly to the literary world dominated by Jiangxi poetry school; However, the first seven scholars emphasized that literature must be in Qin and Han Dynasties and poetry must be in Tang Dynasty. What they want to treat is also the ruling and opposition parties and examination rooms where Taige style and stereotyped writing prevail. More importantly, in Yan Yu's view, learning poetry must be in the right direction and ambitious; Learn from the Han, Wei and Tang Dynasties, and don't be a figure below Kaiyuan Tianbao. If poetry is said, it is the first meaning ("Canglang Poetry"). It can be seen that through conscious retro behavior, the connotation of Jian 'an style is no longer just a poetic style or a style worthy of emulation, but a carrier of profound national spirit, which has been cherished by scholars for thousands of years.
In this sense, it is necessary to review Mr. Lu Xun's words: according to my meaning, even in the past, there were no so-called pastoral poets and mountain poets, and their poems were completely above politics. Nothing is completely beyond the human world. Since beyond the world, of course, there is no poetry. Poetry is also a personnel issue. If you have poems, you can know that you have not forgotten the world. The historical changes of the relationship between Jian 'an demeanor, articles and medicinal liquor in Wei and Jin Dynasties, on the one hand, accurately explain the internal relationship between the changes of the current situation and the literary pattern and tolerance, on the other hand, remind us that we should treat the ancient proposition of the relationship between literature and politics more objectively. The participation and understanding of politics deepened the poet's understanding of life; The warmth and romance of literature endows politics with a different kind of emotion. When Jian 'an literature goes out of Jian 'an, when Jian 'an figures are no longer just symbols of a certain era, but become the magnificent and lofty life imagination of the whole nation, we will have a deeper insight into the profound significance of literary reform. In the tension between the times and literature, an aesthetic spirit deserves eternal hope and expectation.