The History Of Poetry Theorizing Poetry In Qing Dynasty

The poetry theorizing poetry ,one of the poetical theory forms with national characteristics ,germinated from the Book of Songs and maturated in Tang dynasty. Going though the development of three dynasties—Song,Yuan,Ming,till Qing dynasty,it was coming into its golden period—Qing dynasty phylogeny ,which could be divided into four periods:inherit and revival period,development period,fastigium,transformation period.(1) Inherit and revival period was actually another transformation period. The poetry theorizing poetry of this period directly inherited the producing tradition of Dufu,Yuan Haowen.but had its own development.During this period ,many poets had rather high level of poetry production.So the poetry production presented a prosperous vision.Its representative poet was Qian Qianyi,who was the frontier and founder of the poetry theorizing poetry in Qing dynasty and the artistic form of his poetry and his idea in theorizing.the poetry had a deep effect on later generations and laid a basic mood for the development of Qing poetry theorizing poetry. During this period ,the representatives of carry-overed poets like Gu yanwu,Wu Jiaji also produced a lot of poetry theorizing poetry.They expressed their own opinion about poetry with the poetry theorizing poetry which was rich and deep in thought and various in styles,making the production of the poetry theorizing poetry present colorful views.At the poetry circles of the upper period of the early Qing appeared the transformation of the stytles of poetry from Tang poems till Song poems,which was clearly embodied in the poetry theorizing poetry of Zhu Yizun and Chen Weisong.(2)With the effort of many poets during the transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty till the era of the Qing emperor Kangxi ,the poetry theorizing poetry of Qing dynasty turned into its development period,when appeared a very famous character—Wang Shizhen.He actively publicized his romantic theory with the poetry theorizing poetry.His poems were not only numerous ,but also had high art level,symbolizing that the poetry theorizing poetry had developed into a new stage.His mainly typical poems were Xi Fang Yuan Yi Shan Jueju thirty-two songs,from the title we could see that he was deeply infuenced by Yuan Haowen, but the art level of his poems had a further improvement.Besides,he still produced many single poems which also made great achievements.During this period, the parnassus also had an important phenomenon that was the upsurge of modeling Song poems,which was indicated in the poetry of many poets led by Wu Zhizhen and Zha Shenxing.Wu Zhizhen always clearly presented his opinion of modeling Song poems in his poetry theorizing poetry,but meanwhile he also claimed that we could not simply model the Song poems.From the view of the artistic feature,most of his poetry were seven syllable regulated verses with brilliant argument and definite attitude.Zha Shenxing claimed that in the poetry content, the production of poems should be based on the knowledge rather than the pedantry.He paid attention to the method of"line drawing".His poetry were characterized by the simple and natural language in stytle. At that time, although the romantic theory dominated the parnassus,some of Shangdong poets represented by Zhao Zhixin and Tian Wen objected the romantic theory and some of them kept the dissociation state.All these features were expressed in the poetry theorizing poetry of these poets.(3) During the period of Qianlong and Jiaqing in Qing dynasty, the poetry theory displayed a mutiple-coexistence pattern with various schools such as pattern school, Zhe school, texture school, nature school, Tongcheng school and so on. In addition ,there were also some poets belonging to no schools. Most of the poets from the different schools proposed their own opinions about poetry, so the development of the poetry theory came forth a peak. Then the poetry theorizing poetry also came into its own developing peak. At that time the system of the poetry was the most complete, made up of commenting on poetic genre by poems, commenting on articles by poems, commenting on songs by poems, commenting on poems by poetic genre and so on. Besides ,the traditional style—grouping poems of poetry theorizing poetry also had an increscent trend in length.Shen Deqian ,the representative character of pattern school, indicated his clear concept of returning to the ancients in his poetry with the incorporate of respecting the Tang stytle. While he affirmed the Fugu school represented by seven—son group in Ming dynasty ,he also modified it. Even though he recognized the essence of expressing personal emotions of poems, actually he attached great importance to the political and ethical function of poems.His poetry theorizing poetry were mainly made up of Jue Ju(four-line rhymed poetry),as well as archaism poems. In addition, Wang Chang also belonged to the pattern achool. Even though he inherited the thought of Shen Deqian, he also proposed his own opinion in his poetry theorizing poetry. For example,he claimed the coexistence of various stytles. His poetry theorizing poetry were rich in stytles but the elegance was the main part.Li E, the representative poet of Zhe school, made great contribution to the poetry theorizing poetry—Lunci Jueju twelve songs."Lunci Jueju"was a new system of poetry theorizing poetry ,among which Li E made the greatest achievement. The theory he expressed in the Lunci Jueju twelve songs was abundant and deep.Weng Fanggang and Xie Qikun were the two main representative characters of texture school. Weng Fanggang's poetry theorizing poetry expressed the primary views of texture school. For example,he claimed the unite of morality, knowledge, and words and he also affirmed Song poems.he still modified the romantic theory and pattern theory.his poetry were characterized by the knowledge in stytle and were lack of temperament. Xie Qikun inherited some thought of Weng fanggang and also absorbed some viewpoints of nature school. He was good at producing great Lunshi Jueju and exploited a new area of the poetry theorising poetry—commenting poetic words by poetry.Yao Nai,Yao Ying, these two poets of Tongcheng school also produced a large number of poetry theorising poetry. Yao Nai claimed that the poetry should be commented on by the method of ancient articles and meanwhile he also advocated fresh style of writing.One of the most important points in the poetry of Yao Nai was to express the admiration of femail poets,which enlarged the domains of the poetry theorising poetry. Yao Ying emphasized the tradition of "being elegant" of poetry and the social function of poetry, as well as the stytle of being majestic with certain contemporary characteristics. His Lunshi Jueju sixty songs,with strong system and rich thought, were considered as very influential literary works in the history of the poetry theorising poetry.Nature school were another influential school during that period.The main representatives were Yuan Mei as well as Zhang Wentao, Zhao Yi, Song Xiang and so on.Yuan Mei's poetry theorising poetry could also be considered as the second milestone of the poetry theorising poetry in Qing dynasty.His poetry theorising poetry included Xu Shi Pin, Fang Yuan Yi Shan Lun Shi and some single poems.Xu Shi Pin was the development of twenty-four Shi Pin.Fang Yuan Yishan Lun Shi could make us comprehend the theory of nature school wholely and systematically.His poetry theorising poetry were characterized by popular and lovely language.But meanwhile the poetry of Zhao Yi,Zhang Wentao,Song Xiang also could not be overlooked,as they belonged to the same school of Nature and their poetry theorising poetry also indicated progressive poetics view and its idea value and art value both reached a very high level.Although Jiang Shiquan enjoyed the comparable reputation of Yuan Mei and Zhao Yi,he didn't belong to the school of nature.From the view of his poetry theorising poetry,although he thought the poems should be characterized by expressing temperament ,he paid more attention to the loyalty and faith of poems.He criticized Yuan Mei and other people.Hong Liangji was not one of the nature school,but his poetry view was similar to the school of nature.His poetry Dao Zhong Wu Shi Ou Zuo Lun Shi Jueju twenty songs fully expressed his poetics view.Shuwei not only produced the poetry theorising poetry,but also explained the outer agent and internal agent of the development of peotry theorising poetry.Besides,he also pioneered a new system of poetry theorising poetry—commenting on songs by poetry,so Shuwei was considered to be a poet who made great contribution to the poetry theorising poetry.Zheng Xie's new stytle of poetry—commenting on poems by poetic genre was considered as another deploitation of the poetry system.His poetry theorising poetry were famous for the strong generality and appropriate comment on the writers and works,which reached a high unite of theory and art.In addition,during this period,the female poets were also very active in creating poetry theorising poetry.For example,Fang Fangpei and Zhang Zao both produced poetry theorising poetry with high thought and art in them.They expressed their personal emotions and explained the art discipline and made comment on the writers and works,displaying the wisdom and ability of female poets.(4)During the middle period of Daoguang reign,Chinese society faced an important transformation of social structure,which deeply influenced the development of literature.As a result,the production of poetry also experienced a revolution and transformation in the stytle and theory. The poetry theorising poetry——the combination of poems and comments,experienced another transformation.Gong Zizhen was the representative poet during that period.From the veiw of the content and the form,we could see Gong Zizhen was an outstanding poet of the poetry theorising poetry.He emphasized that poems should be composed with true feeling;there was no need to establish schools and the free production was encouraged;and he also claimed that poems should have the spirit of caring about the real-life.His poetry were characterized by the free rules and forms,vivid structure,popular language and so on. So his poetry had already had the feature of modern poetry theorising poetry.Then we could make the conclusion that Gong Zizhen was an outstanding poet.After him,the poetry theorising poetry developed into a mordern period.