What does Qu Yuan's Vanilla Beauty refer to?

"Vanilla Beauty" refers to the idea of loyalty to the ruler and love of the country. It was first mentioned in the Preface to Li Sao by Wang Yi of the Han Dynasty, who summarized the art of Qu Yuan's Li Sao and compared it with Zhou's Poetry, arguing that the artistic techniques of "vanilla" and "beauty" were inherited from Zhou's Poetry and shared the spirit of irony, admonition and similitude of the Poetry. It is said that the artistic techniques such as "vanilla" and "beauty" are inherited from the Zhou Poetry in terms of their origins, and that the spirit of "Poetry" is similar to the spirit of satirizing and admonishing and comparing, so it is said that it is "based on the Poetry and citing the analogy".

But the difference is that Qu Yuan's "Vanilla Beauty" is not only an artistic rhetorical device, but also a narrative story, rendering characters, with its splendid myth, to weave its artistic pantheon, to express its strong feelings, showing the passion of loyalty to the emperor and love of the country, and so it is an important part of the art of its positive romanticism. The myths are the most important part of the art of positive romanticism.

Expanded Information:

Vanilla Beauty The purpose of the satirical admonition, the words of support, along the stream of trace, can be seen in the shadow of the Qu Yuan "Li Sao". For example, in the Qing Dynasty, the Changzhou School of Songwriters often took the words "Vanilla Beauty" and "floating clouds and wind" to say "support", in order to find the subtle meaning of the work.

So gradually from the principle of creative art, extended to the field of literary criticism and aesthetic appreciation. Although it is sometimes difficult to avoid the ridicule of far-fetched, but from the general theoretical tendency, "support" said to open up and deepen the artistic realm of poetry.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Vanilla Beauty