An Appreciation of the Works of Mei Sheng Yu's Preface to his Poetry Collection

The article is divided into three parts. In the first part, the author refutes the world's claim that poets are fewer and more poor. The article began with a rhetorical question: "I heard that the world says that poets are less powerful and more poor. The beginning of the writing is abrupt, superb, and y awakening. Then, the author put forward his own views: the above kind of view, mainly because the world's poems, mostly from the ancient ancient literati. The author believes that: all of the chest of talent, ambition, but not in the world to show their talents, most of the scholars like in the cliffs and waterfronts to let loose, indulgent roaming, through the mountains to play in the water to amuse themselves, they see insects, fish, grass, trees, wind, clouds, birds and beasts of the thousands of forms, they deliberately explore their peculiarities. This is the reason why the fish, trees, insects and grass, wind, clouds, birds and animals in their writing are so realistic and vivid. These poets, because of their lack of talent, were filled with sadness and indignation. Therefore, they could write poems of resentment against fate, satirizing the times, and pouring out the lamentations of those officials who had been deported to remote areas and women who had to stay alone in the house. The more difficult the situation is, the better the poem is written. Here the author puts forward the idea that a poem should be "poor and then work", and that "the poorer the poem, the better it is". This point of view itself is the negation of the traditional view that "poetry can be poor". The fundamental error of the argument that "poets are less accomplished and more poor" lies in the inversion of the cause and effect relationship. This passage of the author's discussion seems to have nothing to do with Mei Shengyu, but in fact it is a pretext for the following. It is because only when the relationship between poverty and poetry is corrected can one understand how Mei's poetry can be so skillful. This is the mastery of the author's conception. The author's theory that poetry should be "poor before it can be perfected" is the same as Sima Qian's "300 poems are mostly composed by sages who are furious", and it is also the inheritance and development of Han Yu's "When there is injustice, there will be an outcry". It is also the inheritance and development of Han Yu's "When there is injustice, there is an outcry". The phrase "poor and then work" created by Mr. Ouyang Wenzhong has become an unchanging theory of poetry for the ages.

The second part of the book introduces the poet Mei Shengyu's life story and his poems.

The second part of the book introduces the poet Mei Sheng Yu and his poems. Mei Sheng Yu had a difficult career, and he was not successful in many exams due to the suppression of the examiners, and he accepted the offer of a job at the age of fifty as a member of someone else's staff. He was full of talent and ambition, but could not realize them in his career. The author y regretted this. This is the introduction of Mei Sheng Yu's person. The author then moves from Mei Sheng Yu's person to his poetry. Sheng Yu practiced composing poems since he was a child, and before he was old enough, his poems already amazed his elders. When he grew up, he studied the Six Classics of the Book of Changes, and "his writings were simple and pure," but because he could not meet the needs of the times, he did not receive much attention from the world. Therefore, the world only knows Mei Poetry, but not Mei Wen. Here, the author is to take the plum as a companion, reflecting the plum poetry by the world's attention and love. At that time, no matter whether it was a wise man or a fool, as long as they talked about poetry, they all had to ask Mei Sheng Yu for advice, and Mei Sheng Yu was happy to use this to express his feelings of disappointment in his poems, so his life's creations, especially in poetry, were more. The world knew of Mei's great name, but no one was willing to recommend him to the emperor. The author deplores this. Wang Wenkang, who was the prime minister of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, once praised Mei's poems, "There is no such work in two hundred years!" He knew the poem very well, but even he did not recommend Sheng Yu to the emperor. The author lamented that Sheng Yu's talent was not used by the world. He couldn't make poems for the court to glorify the emperor's achievements or to honor his ancestors' temples, but could only write poems about "insects and fish, and sadness and lamentation". The world only knew that they liked his poems, but they did not know that the poet would also age after a long time of poverty. The author expresses his deep sympathy for the poet's difficult situation and his lack of talent, and at the same time expresses his heartfelt feelings for the world's ignorance of how to cherish talent.

The third part of the article mainly explains the compilation of the Collected Poems of Mei Shengyu. Fifteen years later, when Sheng Yu died in the capital, the author went to pay his respects, asked his family for his poems, and received more than a thousand of them. He added the poems he had previously collected, and from them he chose more than 600 good poems and compiled them into fifteen volumes. This was the process by which the Collected Poems of Mei Shengyu came to be written. This is an indispensable part of the preface of a poem. Regarding the achievements and characteristics of Mei poetry, Ouyang Xiu discussed them many times in his "After the Book of Mei Sheng Yu's Manuscripts" and "Sixty-first Poetry Talks", so he only made a point of saying, "I have discussed the poems of Mei Sheng Yu in detail, so I will not repeat them". There is no need to repeat the many features of Mei's poems, so let the reader imagine and savor them for himself.

The whole text is centered on the idea of "poetry is poor and then work". The first paragraph refutes the idea that "poets are less accomplished and more impoverished" in order to build up the argument that "poems are poor and then work". In the second paragraph, Mei Sheng Yu's life experience, encounters, and his poems are used to illustrate the theory of "poor and then work" with concrete facts. Although the third paragraph does not explicitly write "poor and then work", it still implies this meaning. It is precisely because of "poor for a long time and will be old" that Sheng Yu "died in Beijing with illness", and it is precisely because of Mei's poetry that the author can "taste Sheng Yu's poems and suffer from not being able to get all of them", and compile a collection of poems for him. It was precisely because of Mei's poetry that the author was able to "taste Sheng Yu's poems, but was unable to obtain all of them" and to compile a collection of his poems. Ouyang Xiu's point of view that "poems are poor and then work" is undoubtedly one of his outstanding contributions to the theory of poetic creation in China. This fully reflects the author's exquisite conception and skill in structuring the article. When showing the poet's poetic skill, the author mainly adopts the way of side accent, instead of focusing on the front performance. For example, the author uses Mei Wen's "simple and ancient purity" to reflect ****'s poetic skill, and then uses the people of the time to ask for poems from him, as well as the praises of celebrities to set off his poetic skill. This flexible and varied means of expression makes the article lively, vivid and not dull.

As a preface to a collection of poems. This article reflects the "preface" of this style of content should be elements: first, the basic situation of the book should be explained. The three or four paragraphs of the article accomplishes this task. Secondly, it introduces the author and the book about the ideological and creative situation, commenting on the main features of his work. This is the main content and task of the preface, so the second paragraph of this article with more ink. Third, there should be a preface to the dominant idea, and this dominant idea to be closely related to the book and its author, so as to form a coherent whole preface and even the soul of the book. The article at the beginning of the exposition of the "poor and then work" idea, played the role of the soul. Ouyang Xiu this preface has been respected, mainly because the author put forward the "poor and then work" idea of creation. Wu Chuzai and other in the "Guanzhi" said: "'poor and then work' four words, is Ou Gong original words, is not easy for the ages." Ouyang Xiu's "poor and then work", and Sima Qian's "anger and work" and Han Yu's "injustice will be heard", a lineage, *** with the same play of a universal significance of the The theory of the origin of literary creation is of universal significance.

The phrase "written in anger" originates from Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" (史记-太史公自序), in which he argues that "Zhou Yi" (周易), "Spring and Autumn Annals" (春秋), "Li Sao" (离骚), "Guoyu (国语), "Sun Tzu's Art of War" (孙子兵法), "Lü Duan" (吕览), and "Poetry and Scriptures" (诗经), "were written by the sages and saints in anger. This is the inheritance and development of "expressing anger to express emotion" in "Qu Yuan - Drawing Thoughts". Li Zhi in the "loyal water Margin preface", this idea is more concise: "Ancient sages, not angry is not made. Not angry and made, such as not cold and trembling, not sick and groaning, although made any view! The Water Margin", the work of anger." Pu Songling also called his own work "Liaozhai Zhiyi" as "the book of loneliness and anger". From this we can see that "written in anger" is a traditional idea in Chinese literature.

"Unevenness is sound," said Han Yu, "send Meng Dongye preface": "All things are not its peace is sound,......, people's words are also true, have no choice but to speak, its song also have thought, its cry also have Huai. The song is also a thought, and the cry is also a wistfulness." Han Yu's "if you can't get even, then you'll sound" is a further play on Sima Qian's "what he did in anger", which had a great influence on the later generations. He Yisun said in "Shuitianju posthumous book" anthology volume three "poetry from the preface": "wind and elegance of all shi, since today recited as peace, if in the author of the purpose, the beginning of all are not flat also! If they were peaceful, how could beauty and irony be born, and how could Xing, Guan, Qun, and Grievance arise?" Wang Guowei's "Words on Earth" also said, "Ancient poetry says: 'Who can think without singing, who can hunger without eating?' Poetry is the sound of things that are not at peace with themselves. Therefore, 'the words of joy are hard to work, and the words of sorrow are easy to be skillful'." From this, we can see that "if you are not at peace, you will be heard" is also an important idea in traditional Chinese literature.

The first paragraph of Ouyang Xiu's Preface to Mei Shengyu's Poetry Collection explains the idea of "poor and then work" at three levels: first, he thinks that "the poems handed down by the world are mostly based on the words of the ancient and poor". The first is that "most of the poems handed down in the world were written by the poor people of old". The word "poor" here refers to the difficult career paths and difficult lives. It is true that poets are born out of hardship and poets are born out of difficulties, and this is true from the point of view of probability. Secondly, it is emphasized that a poem can only be written when there is "an accumulation of thoughts, feelings and anger within". Because of the "poor", in order to feel the true, deep thoughts, intense feelings, which is the necessary motivation and source of literary creation. Thirdly, I am sure that "the poorer you are, the more skillful you are". Work is also good and beautiful. This reminds us of the words of Mencius: "When the heavens are about to send down a great task to a man, he must first suffer his heart and mind", "Stuck in his heart and weighing his thoughts, he will then create". The above three levels are linked together, that is, the "poor" is "depressing" deep, "superior indignation" strong, so hair and more can become "the more work! "This is in line with epistemology, pragmatism, and theories. This is in line with the basic principles of epistemology, pragmatism, and the theory of creation.

From the point of view of the focus, the "anger and make" said to emphasize the need for a strong passion for creation, "injustice will be heard" said to emphasize that this passion comes from the heart of the injustice, and "poor and then work" said to emphasize that this passion, the passion, the passion, the passion and the work. The "poor and then work" theory emphasizes that this passion and inequality are originated from the poverty and accumulation of life. In fact, these three sayings are consistent in spirit, they complement each other, play with each other, **** with the construction of a systematic doctrine on the origin of literary creation. What is the driving force and source of literary creation, especially poetry? These three doctrines all focus on the inner accumulation and emotion of the creative subject. It is inevitable that only when there is something in the chest can there be something in the pen. However, these three sayings do not exclude the original significance of objective reality: where does "indignation" come from? Where does "injustice" come from? Especially Ouyang Xiu emphasized the "poor", the "indignation", "inequality" and the social reality of life are closely linked together. Therefore, the theory of the origin of traditional Chinese literary creation, which centers on the three doctrines of "to write out of anger", "to cry out when one is not peaceful", and "to be poor and then to work", is a doctrine that not only captures the essentials but is also quite comprehensive. It is a doctrine that should be fully recognized and carried forward.