Lu Farming Poem Study

LU YOU (1125-1209AD) was a famous writer in Southern Song Dynasty, who had the biggest amout of poems in Chinese literature history. In his poem colleted edition Poetry Manuscripts of Jiannan there were 9,000 poems left till today,in which about 500 ones described the agriculture activities,agriculture production conditions,agriculture techniques and the farmers' living conditions that he was aquainted with.Text researches on those poems mainly focus on their historical values,while those analysis from literature point of view will always treat them as pastoral poetry.This article bases on the analysis of those poems from the farming poetry point of view to illustrate the artistic features and the faming thoughts those poems reflected in order to form a systerical case study on LU YOU'S farming poetry.This article is divided into four parts:The first part is about the definition of farming poetry and LU YOU'S production of farming poems:Farming poetry are those poems which circle about farm work,farming techniques and the farmers' living conditions.The main difference between farming poetry and pastoral poetry is that the main characters in the former are the farmers.And the former reflects not the scholars'leisurely and carefree mood but the farmers bitterness and happiness.Most of his farming poems were written during his long-term inhabitancy in his hometown Sanyin,which coverd from about the second year of Qiandao(1166) when LU YOU was first deposed to the second year of Jiading(1209) when he died, except that few of them were written when he repeatedly went out to be an official.The second part is the analysis of LU YOU'S farming poetry:there were about 500 farming poems which can be divided into five parts according to their contents:poems on farmers' happiness,poems on farmers' bitterness,poems on taxes,poems on the good relationships between the farmers and their neighbourhoods and poems on agriculture techniqhue and farming proverbs and so on.In poems on farmers'happiness the poet described the farmers happiness got from festivals,harvests and contentment saturated which was very rare at that time.In poems on farmers bitterness the poet described the boundless bitterness brought by the doubled disaster from nature and the press and the exploitation of the ruling class;Poems on taxes can be divided into three parts:poems that exposed the disadvantages of taxes and the farmers's unbearable situations,poems that agreed even actively urged the farmers(sometimes including the poet's own family) to pay taxes enough and on time and poems that showed the farmers'enjoying the ease and peace after paying taxes.In poems on the good relationships between the farmers and their neighbourhoods the poet enthusiasticly praised the deep sincere feelings between the simple and honest farmers no matter in years of famine or not.In poems on agriculture techniqhue and farming proverbs the poet recorded the farming techniques,production experiences and the farmers creations he saw and seen in person which has very important historical values.In these poems there were also some birds word poems,which also circled about farming techniques.The third part is about the artistic features of LU YOU'S farming poetry:The main character of LU YOU'S artistic feature is simple smooth and natural.The poet not only employed the expression skills of folk songs and verses which showed a kind of simple and straightforward style of writing,but preferred to contrast,of which there is no lack of imagination.He liked to employ bright colors and the images were vivid and he preferrd to discuss with sincere feelings.The fourth part is about LU YOU'S farming thoughts:His farming thoughts mainly inherited the emphasis on agriculture in ancient China and reflected in his poetry and colleted works and in his teachings to his offsprings,which reflected the poet's patriotic affection of restoration and his loyalty to the monarch as well.