The Art Of Couplet: A Study Of Du Fu’s Poems

"Couplet" is a cultural expressing method in Chinese language.This unique expressing method is derived from the characteristics of Chinese words and the ways of thinking by ancient Chinese.Date back as far as the pre-Qin Dynasty,the naturally using of couplet has first appeared in the poems.Since the Wei&Jin dynasties,couplet was already required in poems composing.With the maturity of Tang poetry,the art of couplet was reaching to its extreme.Throughout Song Yuan and Ming Qing dynasties,couplet became widely used and popular to ordinary people,it was applied in many kinds of Chinese literature such as poems,odes,songs and novels.As the successful practitioner,Du Fu made outstanding achievements by applying couplet in his poems composing.The couplet art of Du Fu’s poems is the inevitable result of the comprehensive effect of the poet’s composing and the development of poetry.He used couplet in various types with rich content to enhance the expressive effect of his poems,in his old style poems as well as modern style poems.This article contains four chapters,apart from the introduction and conclusion.The first chapter is an overview of the development of couplet art.This chapter including four sections.The first section clarifies the concept of couplet and couplet art,the reasons of the formation of the couplet.The second and the third section put the evolutionary process and the theoretical development process of couplet in order.In the last section,this study analyzes the foundation background of the couplet art,which combines with the reading and writing methods in Tang Dynasty,the prosperity,the exploration performance and the theory of couplet art.The second chapter is about the types of couplet in Du Fu’s poems.It contains four sections,which analogizes the types of couplet in Du Fu’s poems from four levels: sounds,words,sentences and chapters.The first section divides the couplet from the phonetic level into twelve types,the second section divides it from the words level into five types,the third section divides it from sentence level into six types,and the last from the chapter level into ten types.In the third chapter,this study discusses the characteristics of couplet of Du’s poems,contains five sections.In the first three sections,discuss with the intricate and changeable scenes,completeness,sensual and harmonious of the characteristics.The fourth section analyzes the four main rhetorical methods in Du Fu’s poems.The fifth section analyzes the theory of couplet in Du Fu’s poems.The fourth chapter,in three sections,is about the influence of the couplet in Du Fu’s poems.The first section analyzes the influences on the poetry in Tang Dynasty,examples as Jiadao,Yuanshen,Bai Juyi and Li shangyin.The second section analyzes the influences on the poetry in Song Dynasty,examples as Wang Anshi,Huang Tingjian,Chen Shidao and Chen Yuyi.The last section is about the influences of Du Fu’s poems on education and couplet composing.