How to Appreciate the Language of Ancient Poetry

The language styles of ancient poems are generally fresh, bright, condensed, subtle, ornate, simple, obscure and other types.

Freshness mainly refers to the language is simple and new. For example, Du Fu's "Absolute Verse": "Two yellow orioles are singing in the green willow, and a line of white egrets is going up to the blue sky. The window contains a thousand snows of the Western Ridge, and the door is moored to a ship of ten thousand miles of the Eastern Wu." In four lines, it describes four kinds of scenery, combining static and motion, and the language is fresh and vivid.

Bright mainly refers to direct, clear, fast, spicy, often decisive, a language style. For example, Bai Juyi's poems and so on.

Condensed mainly refers to the language is simple but rich in meaning. For example, in Du Fu's "A Book of Reminiscences on the Night of a Journey", "The grass is fine and breezy, and the boat is on a dangerous mast at night. The stars hang over the plains, and the moon gushes over the great river. I am not famous for my writings, but I am old and sick. How can I be like a sand gull in heaven and earth?" All eight lines are neatly organized, all using real words and dense with imagery.

Subtlety is sometimes also known as implication, which is characterized by the meaning of the words, often not a direct narrative, but the twists and turns to talk about the words in this and the meaning of the other, or lead to not send, or want to say but not yet, so that the reader to savor. For example, Du Mu's top lines and Li Qingzhao's late lyrics.

Gorgeous mainly refers to the richness of the words, brilliant literary style, fantasy ideas. For example, "Spring Walk on Qiantang Lake": "Several early warblers compete for the warm trees, whose new swallows peck the spring mud." There are also poems by Li Shangyin and Li He.

The simplicity mainly refers to the choice of exact words directly described, all white, without modification, appear to be true and profound, easy to understand. But plain is not the same as simple and rude, it is the use of language on the return to the real, reflecting the writer's real efforts. Such as Tao Yuanming's poems, Li Yu's words.

Obscure mainly refers to the language is difficult, cold, difficult to understand. For example, some of Li Shangyin's misty poems. The "Han and Meng Poetry School" is strange and weird.