Talk about the combination of realism and romanticism in Bai Juyi's Long Hate Song.

Bai Juyi's theory of realist poetry is centrally discussed in his letter to Yuan Zhen, "The Book with Yuan Jiu". It is also expounded in such poems as Preface to the New Lefu, Sending to Tang Sheng, Reading Zhang Ji's Ancient Lefu, Cailin 68, and Cailin 69. Bai's poetic output was the largest among the Tang poets. In the Book with Yuanjiu, he categorized the more than 1,300 poems he wrote before the age of fifty-one into four categories: satirical oracles, idleness, sentimentality, and miscellaneous rhythms. He attached the greatest importance to the first category of satirical poems,*** one hundred and fifty of them; among them, the fifty poems of "New Lefu" and the ten poems of "Qin Zhongyin" are outstanding groups of poems with clear creative intent. The satirical poems embody his theoretical propositions with distinctive artistic images and poetic language. Bai Juyi's theory of realist poetry is a complete system that unifies clear theoretical exposition and rich creative practice.

The so-called realism, in general, refers to the theoretical proposition about the relationship between a writer's work and reality. Realism can refer to a school of thought in the history of literature and art, or it can refer to a writer's creative method of dealing with the relationship between his work and reality. These two aspects of realism are both related and distinct. A more conscious theory of realism tends to take both aspects into account. This is the case with Bai Juyi's theory of realist poetry, which consists of: (1) an evaluation of the relationship between the works of writers and reality since the Poetry Classic, that is, an assessment of the rise and fall of realist schools in literary history; (2) a proposal of the creative method of realist poetry based on a review of the history of the development of realist poetry. The following is an introduction to Bai's theoretical claims in these two areas and a brief evaluation.

I. Commentary on the History of Realistic Poetry since the Book of Songs

Bai commented on the history of poetry since the Book of Songs from the relationship between poetry and reality. He believes that the Book of Songs best deals with the relationship between poetry and reality, and that later poets have failed to consciously and completely inherit the excellent tradition of the Book of Songs. In his "Book with Yuanjiu", he considered the Poetry Classic to be the first of the six Confucian classics and the most important of the "humanities" because of its essential characteristics of "rooted feelings, seedling words, colorful sounds, and practical meanings", and believed that the "six meanings" of the Poetry Classic (wind, speech, sound, and practical meanings) were the most important of the six Confucian classics. The "six meanings" of "Poetry" (wind, elegance, ode, fugue, comparison, and rise) are the guidelines for poetry creation and criticism, which can "supplement the current government" for rulers and "guide human feelings" for the people. Poetry to communicate feelings can achieve "up and down and a Qi Tai, sadness and happiness together and all the will of the Xixi" of political clarity, peace of mind of the country and the people in a prosperous era. Bai emphasized the importance of inheriting the excellent tradition of Poetry: "How do you mean poetry? The six meanings of each other, style and elegance than outside the Xing, did not write an empty text." ("Reading Zhang Ji's Ancient Lefu") Using this as a criterion, Bai criticized the Li Sao and the five-character poems of the Han Dynasty for attaching too much importance to the expression of personal grudges, and the irony of the poems was only as much as the "Sh Er San" of the Poetry; he was even more negative about the landscape poems of the Six Dynasties; and he was sure that Tang poems were only closely connected with reality and had a strong inclination toward political thought, such as the affirmation of For Tang poems, he only recognized poems with close connection to reality and strong political ideological tendency, such as Chen Zi'ang's "Poems of Feeling" (20 poems), Bao Zhao's "Poems of Feeling" (15 poems), and Du Fu's "Newly-Titled Lefu" (some poems). On the other hand, he deplored the poems of the Tang Dynasty, especially the Ten Scholarly Men of the Dali Dynasty, which were devoted to the writing of flowers, snow, and moon, and to lingering in the light, and called out that "the way of poetry has collapsed." Bai Juyi consciously inherited and carried forward the tradition of realism since the Book of Poetry, and repeatedly elaborated on the methods of realism.

Second, on the method of realism

First, he believed that poetry comes from real life, and poetry must reflect real life. He pointed out in "Cailin sixty-eight": "Where people feel for things, they must be moved by feelings, and then rise in contempt, issued in chanting, and shaped in song and poetry carry on." Poetry expresses human feelings, and human feelings are caused by objective facts in real life. The objective facts that trigger people's feelings are often interrelated with the successes and failures of national politics. Poetry originates from reality and reflects reality, "Therefore, the prosperity and decline of the national style is seen by this; the gain and loss of the king's politics is heard by this; the sorrow and happiness of human feelings is known by this." From the poems of each era, one can see whether the social atmosphere of the time is flourishing or declining, the ruler's politics is gaining or losing, and the people's feelings are sad or happy. Bai cited the works in the Book of Songs as examples to confirm this view. In short, Bai believed that the relationship between poetry and reality is close, and that poetry has the essential characteristics of being rooted in reality and reflecting reality.

Secondly, he believed that poetry must serve the improvement of realpolitik and the consolidation of the existing imperial rule. From the relationship between poetry and reality, Bai believed that poetry must serve the realities of politics, and Bai repeatedly elaborated on this concept. In the Book with Yuanjiu, he said, "Articles are written for the time, and songs and poems are composed for events." The "time" and "affairs" here refer to the realities of politics and the social life that is closely related to it. This criterion was aimed at the lyrical and aesthetic works that attempted to transcend the realities of politics. Bai regarded his satirical poems as poetic advice. According to the Book with Yuanjiu, when he was an admonishing official, he would admonish him every month in an attempt to improve realpolitik. Some of the words "to relieve people's illnesses and to make up for the time", which were difficult to state directly in the Zaoqi, "I always sang and sang", submitting poems instead of Zaoqi. Bai was proud of the strong reaction caused by his poetic advice, such as "He Rain Poem", "Crying Kong Kan Poem", "Qin Zhongyin", "Staying in Zige Village" and other poems caused by the powerful and powerful people, holding the military key people's "eyes and change color", they attacked Bai Juyi "name", They attacked Bai Juyi for "selling his name", "denigrating" and "slandering", and even his relatives did not understand him. However, Bai had friends in the poetry world who shared his passion, such as Deng Bream, who was happy to read Bai's poems, and Tang Qu, who wept when he read Bai's poems, not to mention the like-minded people in the new music movement. Masterpieces such as "Qin Zhong Yin" were also widely circulated among the people. Therefore, Bai firmly and repeatedly expounded the proposition that poetry in question must serve the realities of political and social life: "The upper level can be beneficial to education and culture, and the Shu Zhi can help the ten thousand people" ("Reading the Ancient Musical Works of Zhang Ji"), "But the songs are sick of the people, and I wish to be known by the Son of Heaven" ("Sending Tang Sheng"). "In a word, it is composed for the king, for the people, for things, and for events, not for literature" ("Preface to the New Lefu"). Even that persuade the good and punish the evil to improve the social atmosphere, make up for the loss and improvement of the reality of politics, mainly rely on poetry and literature, "so persuade the good and punish the evil handle, executive in the scribe praise and blame at the time of the Yan; to make up for the loss of the end of the poets in the beauty of the prick between the operation of the Yan." (Cailin 68)

Third, that the relationship between poetry and reality, determines the essential characteristics and social functions of poetry. In the Book of the Ninth Book of the Yuan Dynasty, it is said; "What touches the heart of a person is not preceded by feelings, not begun by words, not cut to the sound, and not deepened by righteousness. Poetry is: rooted in emotion, seedling in speech, gorgeous in sound, and solid in righteousness." Although poetry is a specific poet or a certain era, a region of the collective creation, but can cause the majority of readers **** Ming. The most touching thing is emotion. People communicate with each other, initially through language, and then through rhythmic and musical songs, and then through the cohesion of the deep meaning. This communication of people's feelings "words", "sound", "righteousness" of the collection is poetry. Using the growth process of a fruit tree as an analogy for the creative process of poetry, Bai defines the essential characteristics of poetry: "Poetry is: the root of love, the seedling of speech, the sound of splendor, and the actual meaning". The tree of poetry is able to grow and develop by being rooted in the soil of reality with feelings as its roots. When the tree of poetry breaks out of the ground and sprouts, the expression of feelings relies on language. Language is the most basic element of poetry. As the seedling grows, the feelings have to be expressed in a more perfect and complex way, and the rhythmic and musical singing makes the tree of poetry bloom with flowers. Flowers are beautiful, but the tree of poetry with strong vitality is not satisfied with blossoming; feelings are moving, and beautiful poetry is not satisfied with lyricism. The tree of poetry bears fruits, and realist poems return with the expression of the poet's will to improve the socio-political and real life. Related to this definition, Bai emphasized the cognitive and educational roles of poetry. The Sixty-eighth Book of Ceremonies suggests that poetry mainly plays the roles of "punishing the good and the evil" and "making up for the lost and the gained". The Book with Yuanjiu then elucidated the essential characteristics of poetry, pointing out that "the group is divided but the gas is the same, the form is different but the feeling is the same, there is no one who enters the sound but does not respond to it, and who has feelings but does not feel them." Bai basically denied the expression of personal feelings that were not closely related to real politics. Therefore, Bai's commentary on the history of poetry since the "Classic of Poetry" is relatively narrow in the affirmation of the writers and works. The reason for this is that Bai's discussion of the social function of poetry focuses on the cognitive and educational roles, and the aesthetic role must be premised on the cognitive and educational roles.

Fourthly, he believed that the primary criterion of poetry criticism is truthfulness, and that content is more important than form. Starting from the relationship between poetry and reality and its social function, Bai emphasized that the criterion of poetry criticism is faithfulness, i.e., faithfulness to social reality. The Preface to the New Lefu says: "Its matter is nuclear and real, so that those who pick it will pass on the letter." Therefore, Bai denied writing ideal-oriented and lyrical romantic works, and expressed dissatisfaction and even denial of the works of Qu Yuan and Li Bai. Regarding the relationship between the content and form of poetry, he emphasized the unity of content and form. The so-called "root feelings, seedling words, colorful sounds, and real meaning", in terms of specific works, the starting point is "feelings", and the destination is "reality", which all refer to the content; in the process of writing, the "words" and "form" are the same as the "content". In the process of writing, "words" and "sound" are forms of art that serve the content. In terms of literary style, he advocated simplicity and popularity, and opposed magnificence and content. The Preface to the New Lefu said: "Its words are qualitative and path, and those who want to see it are easy to tell; its words are straight and cut, and those who want to hear it are also y admonished. ...... On the basis of his body's smoothness of experimentation, he further developed his previous theory of realism in poetry and systematized it. In terms of the reality at that time, it promoted the healthy development of the poetry and literature innovation movement. In the middle Tang Dynasty, the surface of the rising, internal contradictions, political darkness, the people's life is painful and unbearable, to the Dali ten geniuses (Lu Lun, Ji Zhongfu, Han Swarm, Qian Qi, Sikong Shu, Miao Fah, Cuidong, Geng Tie, Xiahou trial, Li Rui) out of the political, escaping from the reality of the bad creative tendency, affecting the healthy development of poetry. From the beginning of Dali to the middle of Zhenyuan for more than twenty years, it was the low tide of the development of Tang poetry, the wasp-waist stage. Most of them floated in the upper strata of the society, and seldom reflected the turbulent real life and people's sufferings after the Anshi Rebellion. Many of the poems were composed for each other and presented to officials and dignitaries, and their contents were mostly about the scenery and the landscape, which were seriously detached from the social life. Bai's efforts to salvage the decadent trend and to expound the theory of realist poetry made an important contribution to the poetic and literary renewal movement of the Tang Dynasty. His shortcomings lie in his one-sided emphasis on the relationship between poetry and realpolitik, and the lack of necessary discussion on the figurative, diversified, and tortuous nature of poetry in reflecting reality.

The contributions and shortcomings of Bai Juyi's theory of realist poetry

The contributions include both history and reality. From the history of criticism, it marks the maturity of the theory of realist poetry in ancient literature. From the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, the theoretical proposition of attaching importance to the relationship between poetry and reality arose from summarizing the creative experience of the Book of Poetry and its social role.

Bai, in summarizing the theoretical achievements of his predecessors and combining his own and his contemporaries' knowledge of the creative scriptures, showed narrowness and imprudence towards the works of writers who wrote mainly ideals and lyricism, lacked an impartial attitude towards different styles of poetry, and lacked the necessary understanding of the diversity of poetic artistic styles. As a result, Bai's evaluation of the works of some writers of the previous and Tang dynasties is not fair and comprehensive. His subjective evaluation of most of his own works other than satirical poems, especially of such monumental works as Pipa Xing and The Song of Long Hatred, did not coincide with the objective impact of these works, which were "valued by the times, but despised by the servants" (The Book with Yuanjiu). Because of these obvious limitations and shortcomings, the evaluation of Bai's theory and works of realist poetry has always been a controversy of different opinions.