A Study Of Zheng Xiaoxu's Poetics

Zheng Xiaoxu was an important poet of Tongguangti in the late Qing Dynasty.He was called "Chen Zheng" together with Chen Sanli.In the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,Zheng Xiaoxu had a high reputation.However,due to Zheng's becoming a traitor to China in his later years,his poetry has not received due attention and in-depth study for a long time.Based on the standpoint of not rejecting saying because the speaker is what or who he is,this paper makes full use of Zheng Xiaoxu's Diary and other relevant materials to probe into the origin of his poetry,the source of his poetic style in his family and literary history,his theory of creation and the similarities and differences with other poets in Tongguanti.It also makes a detailed text analysis of the important themes of The Collection of Poems of Haizanglou,and comprehensively investigates its melting of Tang and Song Dynasties into one style and its unique personality in his own poetics approach.This paper is devoted to summarizing Zheng's poetics system in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding and fair evaluation.The paper is divided into six chapters.The first chapter is the theory of poetry,which outlines the origin of feng-ya trasition(????)in Zheng's poetry,and focuses on the analysis of his two major propositions,which are based on true temperament and must embody historical events in poetry,and thus reveals defects of losing placid temperament and making full use of temperament.Its poetic origin and creative theory are also rooted in these two propositions.The second chapter is about the style of poetry.Zheng Xiaoxu's style of poetry is changeable.Chen Yan's evaluation of qingcangyouqiao and kangshuang style is more important,but not enough.Zheng's style of poetry has several characteristics,such as sincere,broad-minded,powerful in strength and impetus.The first section of this chapter investigates Zheng Xiaoxu's family background and family tradition,focusing on the analysis of the impact of his qingcangyouqiao and kangshuang style of poetry.The second section analyses the literary history origin of his style of poetry,combs his teaching objects in detail,and grasps the versatility of his style of poetry in an all-round way.The third chapter is the theory of creation,which mainly investigates Zheng's unique aesthetic approach of melting Tang and Song Dynasty.The first section analyses the clear and meaningfull significance(????)and craggy tendons(????)of Tang and Song poems,the second section studies its clear and thorough propositions,and the third section explores its creative aspirations of advocating strength and the techniques of barehanded fighting(??).Chapter Four analyses five representative themes in The Collection of Poems of Haizanglou.To investigate the diversity of his creative style,the five themes are:poems of pure and pithy tendresse,poems of sincere lamentation,poems of quiet and magnificent scenery,poems of elegant chanting of flowers,and desolate and magnificent poems of the Double Ninth Festival.This paper studies the reflection of his theory of poetry and creation in his poetic creativity,and finally makes a reasonable evaluation of his achievements and shortcomings.Chapter Five makes a deep study of Zheng Xiaoxu's exchange of poems and poetic similarities and differences with the Tongguangti poets,choosing four poets,Chen Baochen,Chen Sanli,Chen Zengshou and Chen Yan,as comparative objects,in order to highlight the uniqueness of Zheng's poetics through comparative study.Chapter six discusses the influence of Zheng's poetics.The first section explores the Haicang School of Poetry(????),mainly analyzing the influence of Zheng's poetry on Li Xuanggong and Zhou Da.The second section explores the influence of Zheng's poetics on Xueheng School(???)poets,mainly analyzing Hu Xiansu's praise of the techniques of barehanded fighting and Wu Mi's praise of his Qingqie proposition.