Zhang Conducted In The Right Poetry Study

As one of the most important poets of Chen Dynasty, Nanchao period, Zhang Zhengjian leaves us 91 poems which consists of one fifth of the remaining poetries wrote during Chen Dynasty. According to historical books, Zhang Zhengjian is best known for his five-word line, which once enjoyed an extreme popularity in his time. The poet wrote poetries of various subjects. Different from the writing style of his days with emphasis on tenderness and luxury, the poetries by Zhang Zhenjian put emphasize on rules, forms, subjects, power and novelty. The poetries by Zhang Zhengjian plays an important role in the development of poetries of Nanchao period and makes a great contribution to the development of the poetries of Tang Dynasty and neoteric poetries as well.Suffering from the criticism on the imperial poetries of Liang and Chen Dynasty, Zhang Zhengjian and his poetries have long been neglected. Though critics of Ming and Qing Dynasty spoke highly of these poetries, no studies so far have been conducted to detect their values due to the fact that short-lived and turbulent Chen Dynasty leaves very little historical materials for study.Based on both literary and historical data, the study collects and analyzes the poetries by Zhang Zhengjian to make an objective and thorough description of the poetries; the methods used in this study are as follows: textual research, intensive reading, classification and comparison. The thesis is made up of six chapters.Chapter one serves as the introductory part of the thesis. It introduces Zhang Zhengjian's personal life, including the history of his kindred and his personal information.Chapter two describes the historical background of Liang and Chen Dynasty, and analyzes the historical background and unique poetic properties of Zhang Zhengjian's poetries.Chapter three provides an overall picture of the poetries. This chapter studies the poetries as a whole with emphasis on how the poetries are coming down and collected, and concludes that the poetries by Zhang Zhengjian serves as a bridge to the development of the poetries of Tang Dynasty.Chapter four first classifies the poetries into four poetic styles, namely, poetries singing of nature and poetries describing city, sceneries and frontier fortress; and then generalizes four chrematistics of the poetries, uniqueness, splendor and grandness.Chapter five generalizes three characteristics of the poetries as a whole, which are tonal patterns, centralization and uniqueness, reasons for which are also provided in this chapter.Chapter six is about the poetic significance of the poetries, which mainly refers to the influence on the formation of the poetry of Tang Dynasty and that of Japan. The thesis ends with the appendixes concerning Zhang Zhengjian's kindred, his birth and death day, his life and the historical data of his poetries.In the field of literature, with the shifting of the aesthetic standard, academe becomes more and more interested in poetries of Liang and Chen Dynasty. The fact that Zhang Zhenjian is one of the most important poets of that time contributes to the significance of this study. The significances of this study lie in:1) The study helps to describe an overall picture of the poetries of Chen Dynasty.2) It is of significance for the study on the poetic development from the ancient poetry to neoteric one.3) The classification of the poetries by Zhang Zhenjian is of poetic significance for the study on poetries of Tang Dynasty.4) It provides more information for the research into poets and poetries of Six Dynasty period.Suffering from various limitations, the research results of this study should be treated tentatively; further studies are needed to detect the beauty of the poetries by Zhang Zhenjian.