Poetic Styles in Different Periods in China's History

Poetry in the history of China has experienced different styles in the following periods:

Sao style

Sao style originated from Chu Ci in the Warring States Period around 300 BC. At that time, Qu Yuan, a poet of Chu, wrote a poem called Li Sao, so some people in later generations directly called Chu Ci "Sao", such as Liu Xie, a poet of Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasty. In Wen Xin Diao Long, he named the article devoted to Chu Ci "Distinguishing Sao". Another example is the Selected Works compiled by Prince Xiao Tong of Liang Zhaoming, and Chu Ci is also listed in the category of "Sao". From then on, the poetic genre of Chu Ci can be replaced by "Sao Style", that is, all poems written in the form of Chu Ci are called "Sao Style".

The form of Sao poetry has several characteristics: first, the sentence pattern is irregular, and the number of words in each sentence can be long or short; Second, there is no limit to the number of sentences in each poem, which can be more or less; Third, the rhyme is not rigorous, and it can be used or not, while a poem has both rhyming sentences and other sentences that don't rhyme; Fourth, add the auXiliary words "xi", "you" and "only" in the sentence or at the end of the sentence. Generally speaking, any work with auXiliary words "xi" and "mou" in poetry is called "Sao Style", regardless of the writing time, the content of the work and whether the author is from Chu.

Suliti

Su Li refers to Su Wu and Li Ling in the Western Han Dynasty. They have an answer poem, which is included in Selected Works edited by Xiao Tong in the Liang Dynasty. Their poems are all five-character poems. Some people think that they are the founders of five-character poems. Others think that the poems of these two men were falsely entrusted by later generations. However, these poems are simple in style and express profound feelings and contents, which are similar to the charm of Nineteen Ancient Poems collected by Xiao Tong in Selected Works, and have always been valued by later poets.

Bailiangti

Bailiang style originated from Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. According to legend, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty built a hundred-grain platform and held a banquet, announcing that every official with more than 2,000 stones would write a poem and synthesize it. So twenty-six people, including Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, wrote a poem "Hundred Good Poems". The form of this poem is seven words per sentence, with rhyming at the end of the sentence and repeated rhyming words. It is the first couplet poem. Later generations called each rhyme seven-character poem "Bailiang Style".

Primitive body

At first, it was the title of ICY, the deposed emperor of the Three Kingdoms. During this period, Ji Kang, Ruan Ji, Dan Tao, Xiang Embroidery, Ruan Xian and other poets emerged. Among them, only Ruan Ji and Ji Kang survived. In Wen Xin Diao Long Ming Shi, Liu Xie thinks that "the purpose is clear and solemn, and the purpose is far and deep". Because of the political darkness at that time, the literati were in danger of being killed at any time, so their poems were characterized by their fear of touching real life and their use of obscure and sad feelings. Ruan Ji has handed down eighty-two poems, most of which are five-character poems, which have a certain position in the history of poetry. Ji Kang has 53 poems handed down from generation to generation. Mainly four-character poems, which are also famous.

Taikangti

Refers to a poetic style or style in the Western Jin Dynasty. Taikang (280 ~ 289) is the title of Sima Yan, the emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty. The name "Tai Kang Ti" was first seen in Song Dynasty's Canglang Poetry. Yan said that this is based on Liang Zhongrong's poem, "In Taikang, there are three (Zhang Zai, Zhang Xie,), two land (Lu Ji,), two pan (Pan Yue, Pan Ni), one left (Zuo Si), the revival of Bohr, following the former prince of Wu, and ZTE articles." Zhong Rong's theory is an overview of the poetic style in the early and middle period of the Western Jin Dynasty. Yan Yu clearly refers to the poetic style represented by Zuo Si and Pan Yue in Taikang period, that is, what he called "discrimination is a language".

Before and after Taikang, the literary world in the Western Jin Dynasty was relatively prosperous, and many writers had many masterpieces handed down from generation to generation. Taikang's poems are generally represented by Lu Ji and Pan Yue. Their poems pay more attention to the pursuit of artistic forms, pay attention to gorgeous rhetoric and neat antithesis, and are "rich in ideas, rich in prose and beautiful in combination" (Song Lingyun Biography). Although the technique of poetry is more exquisite, it sometimes pursues form too much, and often loses itself in carving and becomes sluggish in brushwork. In a word, the general style of poets in this period is "to adopt its beginning, be softer than Jian 'an, or to analyze its writing as a wonderful thing, or to drift away" (Shi Ming, Carving Dragons with Literary Mind). But every writer still has his own uniqueness: "Pan Wen is shallow and clean, Lu Wen is deep and boring" (Shi Shuo Xin Yu Literature). Others, such as Zhang Xie, are famous for their novel words and "clever structure like words", and Zuo Si is unique in Taikang's poetic style. His poems are rich in content, simple in language and powerful in momentum. They are "as beautiful as Meng De, simple and elegant" (Selected Ancient Poems of Caijitang, Volume 11), without losing the legacy of Han and Wei Dynasties.

Pottery blank

Taoti refers to the poetic style of Tao Qian, a poet at the end of Eastern Jin Dynasty and the beginning of Liu Song Dynasty. His five-character poems are good at describing rural scenery and have a beautiful and natural style. Although they inherited the tradition of Han and Wei poetry, they were unique. His poetic style influenced Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and Chu Guangxi in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and Wei and Liu Zongyuan in the middle Tang Dynasty. Most of those who wrote pastoral poems in later generations were cultivated by Tao Shipei.

Yuanjiati

A poetic style formed during the Yuan Jia period in Song Wendi during the Guide Dynasty. The word "Yuanjia Style" first appeared in Yan Yu's Canglang poems in Song Dynasty, which was used to summarize the poetic styles of Xie Lingyun, Yan Yanzhi and Bao Zhao. These three poets have similarities in describing the scenery of mountains and rivers, paying attention to the floweriness of words and the neatness of antithesis. "Wen Xin Diao Long Shi Ming" said: "In the early Song Dynasty, prose was sung because of the change of style, and Zhuang Lao excused himself, while the landscape was graceful and graceful, and the couple used a hundred words to compete for the price. Love must be extremely beautiful to write things, and words must be exhausted to pursue new things. "Today's competition" mainly refers to the works of these three poets. However, the style of Yuan Jiati poets also has its own characteristics. Xie Lingyun is good at writing landscape poems, and is famous for his rich rhetoric and good description of natural scenery. Yan Yanzhi mainly provides services for banquets and work that should be done. It is characterized by elegance and conciseness, and is often over-carved and over-quoted. Although there are also sentences about scenery, they are often "eyeful". Bao Zhao's works are most famous for his Yuefu poems, which reflect the social reality far more deeply than Yan He Xie. Some of his poems outside Yuefu are more rhetorical, similar to Yan and Xie, and are characterized by winning by surprises. The alignment of these three poets and Liang poets all have certain influence. When it comes to Qi Liang's poems, The Biography of Southern Qi Literature points out that there are three schools, one is to learn from Xie Lingyun, the other is to learn from Bao Zhao, and the other is to say that they pay the most attention to antithesis and allusion, obviously referring to Yan Yanzhi and others. It can be seen that these three poets did have a great influence during the Yuan Jia period and beyond. Their poems changed the insipid metaphysical poetic style of most poets in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and formed a tendency of paying equal attention to rhetoric and confrontation. Compared with Qi Liang's poems, their poems are more simple and vigorous.

Qiliangti

The so-called Qi Liang style is synonymous with the same poetic style of Qi Liang poets, which actually includes the Yong Ming style of Qi Dynasty. Yongming style pays more attention to the sound disease, and Qi Liang style pays attention to the elegance of words. It is characterized by pursuing form, advocating rhetoric, paying attention to melody and neglecting content, which is contrary to the simple poetic style of Han and Wei Dynasties, and thus criticized by later poetic theorists. On the other hand, the poems of Qi and Liang poets began to pay attention to the coordination of leveling and wording, and a large number of antithetical sentences were used in poems, which further developed the writing skills of China's poems and led to the formation of modern poems in the Tang Dynasty.