A Brief Exposition Of The Artistic Dialectics Of Classical Chinese Poetry

Traditional Chinese mode of thinking belongs to plain dialectics which puts emphasis on harmoniousness and unity. Chinese ancients regarded all things as one unity containing contradictory opposites and harmonious agreement. Therefore in classical Chinese poetry there exists corresponding artistic dialectics, such as the dialectical unity of active and still, visionary and real, beautiful and ugly, firm and gertle, hidden and revealing, sparse and dense etc.This paper will take up the following four aspects one by one.I:the dialectical unity of active and still.This is reflected in various art forms. In classical Chinese poetry there are three writing techniques. One is using the achieve to set off the still, another is turning the still into the active , the third is converting the beautiful to Charming. So achieving the results of active and fluent, beautiful and charming is the important way we aim for the unity of active and still of Chinese poetry. II: the dialectical unity of visionary and real.Classical Chinese poetry pays much attention to the mood of art. And it emphasizes on mingling the visionary with the real, the hidden and the revealing to develop the aesthetic conception of poetry, we should specially notice the unity of the direct and indirect messages conveyed by the lines when we appreciate the poetry.III: the dialectical unity of beautiful and ugly.The concept of beautiful and ugly is unity of opposites. They are interdependent and interchangeable. They are reflected in Chinese poetry in three aspects. One is turning the ugly into beauty, another is using beauty to set off the ugly, the third is regarding the ugly as beauty. No matter what technique we use, the emphasis of this pair of concepts still lies in beauty.IV: the dialectical unity of firm and gentle.This can also be found in many literary works. In classical Chinese poetry the concept of firm and gentle can be interchanged, and the gentle is often described with firm writing techniques, They are opposite but do not repel each other for bothof them belong to the concept of beauty.In conclusion, these factors in classical Chinese poetry are interdependent, interchangeable and in a harmonious unity. When we appreciate Chinese poetry we should grasp the inner aesthetic meaning, seek the inside aesthetic message and explore the true essence of sensuous poetry.