On the development of poetry in the new period.

A Brief History of China's Poetry Development

China is a country of poetry.

China's poems came into being before the invention of writing, and gradually formed and developed in people's labor, singing and dancing.

The Book of Songs is a collection of poems from the 1l century to the 6th century BC. It is also China's first collection of poems, with 305 poems. According to different music, it can be divided into three categories: wind, elegance and ode. Ode poems are music songs used by rulers to sacrifice, including ancestor worship, mountain worship and so on.

In the 4th century BC, the great poet Qu Yuan was born in Chu State during the Warring States Period with its unique cultural foundation and the influence of northern culture. Influenced by him, Qu Yuan, Song Yu and others created a new poetic style-Chuci. Qu Yuan's Lisao is an outstanding masterpiece of Chu Ci. Chuci developed the form of poetry. It broke the four-word form of The Book of Songs, and developed from three or four words to five or seven words.

Following the Book of Songs and Songs of the South, a new form of poetry appeared in the Han Dynasty, that is, the folk songs of Han Yuefu. Up to now, there are more than 100 folk songs in Han Yuefu, many of which are five-character poems. Later, the intentional imitation of literati became the main form of poetry in Wei and Jin Dynasties. The famous chapter in Han Yuefu is the "fifteen-year military service system", which reveals the war disaster. Of course, the most famous is the long narrative poem Peacock Flying Southeast. This poem tells a sad love story. Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi fell in love deeply because Jiao Mu and Liu Jia forced them to break up, which led to the human tragedy of Where Are You Going? The most important artistic feature of folk songs in Han Yuefu is narrative, and Peacock Flying Southeast is the highest peak of narrative poems in Han Yuefu. Folk songs in Han Yuefu mostly use colloquial and simple language to express characters, so the characters are vivid. Sincere feelings. Although most of the folk songs in Han Yuefu are realistic descriptions, there are different degrees of romanticism in many places, such as the last paragraph of Peacock Flying Southeast, which shows the ingenious combination of romanticism and realism.

Five-character poetry is the main form of China's classical poetry. It took a long time from folk songs to literati writing. By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the literati's five-character poems were becoming more and more mature. The sign of maturity of five-character poems is the appearance of Nineteen Ancient Poems. Nineteen Ancient Poems is not written by one person, and the contents of the poems are mostly parting, lovesickness and short-lived feelings. They are better at expressing their feelings and making good use of them.

During the Jian 'an period at the end of Han Dynasty, "Three Caos" (Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Cao Zhi) and "Seven Sons" (Kong Rong, Chen Lin, RoyceWong, Xu Gan, Ruan Ji, Ying Chang, Serina Liu) inherited the realistic tradition of folk songs in Han Yuefu and adopted the form of five-character poems, which set off the climax of poetry creation for the first time. Their poems show the spirit of the times, generous and sad. His masterpiece Seven Wounded Poems is a portrayal of the reality of the war in the late Han Dynasty. Cao Shi and his son are the most important figures in Jian 'an literary world, among which Cao Zhi has the highest artistic achievement. Cao Zhi's poems (192~232) are magnificent, detailed, flowery and figurative, so they have the artistic style of "vigorous and flowery" and are representative poems.

Ruan Ji (2 10-263) was a representative poet in Zhengshi era after Jian 'an. His love poems further laid the foundation of lyric five-character poems. He often uses tortuous poems to express his concern for the country, his fear of disaster and his avoidance of the world. Ji Kang (224-263) was also present, and his poems were cynical.

During the Jin Dynasty, poetry creation gradually embarked on the road of formalism, and the content of poetry was vague. The poet who inherited and carried forward the tradition of "Jian 'an Style" and enriched his works was Zuo Si (about 250-305). His eight epic poems satirize current events through ancient events, which is very thoughtful, but such poems were not mainstream after all, until Tao Yuanming at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were fewer and fewer.

Tao Yuanming, who lives in seclusion and is not an official, regards pastoral life as an important creative theme, so people have always called him an "pastoral poet". At that time, Tao Yuanming inherited the realistic tradition of Yuefu, formed his simple and natural combination of landscape and pastoral poetry, and created a new realm of classical poetry. Five-character poetry was highly developed in his hands.

Xie Lingyun (385-433), who was about the same age as Tao Yuanming, was the first person to create the school of landscape poetry. His landscape poems are characterized by his own feelings, but some of them are too elaborate, lengthy in description and unnatural in allusion and arrangement.

The Southern and Northern Dynasties is another development period in the history of China's poetry, which is manifested by the appearance of another batch of Yuefu folk songs. They not only reflect the new social reality, but also create new artistic forms and styles. The general characteristics of folk songs in this period are short space and more lyrical than narrative. There are more than 480 Yuefu poems preserved in the Southern Dynasties, which are generally five-character and four-sentence poems, almost all of which are love songs. The number of Yuefu in the Northern Dynasties was far less than that in the Southern Dynasties. However, the rich content, simple language and vigorous style of Yuefu in the Southern Dynasties are beyond the reach of Yuefu in the Southern Dynasties. If Yuefu in the Southern Dynasties is a romantic song, Yuefu in the Northern Dynasties is a veritable "military music" and "battle song". In terms of genre, Yuefu in the Northern Dynasties created seven-character four-sentence quatrains and developed seven-character ancient poems.

The most outstanding poet in the Southern and Northern Dynasties was Bao Zhao (about 465,438+00-466). Bao Zhao inherited and carried forward the tradition of Yuefu in Han and Wei Dynasties, and created a large number of excellent Yuefu poems with five words and seven words. 18 The poem "Difficult to Imitate" is his outstanding masterpiece. He used the seven-word method maturely, showing his personal misfortune and protesting against social injustice.

During the Yongming period of the Southern Qi Dynasty, the theory of "temperament" prevailed, and poetry creation paid attention to the harmony of temperament. In this way, a new poetic style of "Yongming style" gradually formed. This new poetic style is the beginning of the appearance of metrical poetry. The famous poet in this period was Xie Tiao (464~499). Xie Yuezhao is famous for his landscape poems, which are fresh and beautiful. His new poetic style contributed to the formation of metrical poems and quatrains in Tang Dynasty.

The development of poetry in the Tang Dynasty ushered in a highly mature golden age, which was divided into four stages: early prosperity, middle period and late period. Nearly 300 years ago, the Tang Dynasty left nearly 50,000 poems, and there were about 50 or 60 famous poets with unique styles.

Four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty were the main poets in the pioneering period of Tang poetry. These four outstanding poets are (649-676), Yang Jiong (650-693), Lu (637-689) and Luo (646-684). Although their poems inherited the spiritual temperament of Qi and Liang.

Following the "Four Masters", Chen Ziang (66 1-702) explicitly opposed the poetic style of Qi and Liang and advocated "Han and Wei style". There are 38 lyric poems, which are his representative works with distinctive innovative spirit.

The Tang Dynasty was the peak of poetry prosperity. During this period, besides Li Bai and Du Fu, there were many accomplished poets. It can be roughly divided into two categories: one is an idyllic poet represented by Meng Haoran and Wang Wei; The other is frontier poets, among whom Gao Shi and Cen Can have the highest achievements, and Wang Changling, Li Jie and Wang Zhihuan are also outstanding frontier poets. Most of Wang Changling's frontier poems show soldiers' feelings of homesickness and meritorious service in Yuefu, while his Joining the Army and Leaving the Frontier has always been regarded as the representative works of frontier poems. Li Jie's frontier poems are few in number.