Research On The "Scenery" Category Of Wen Xuan·Fu

Wen Xuan is the oldest collective works of Chinese poems and articles now exiting which was compiled by Xiao Tong, who was also called Prince Zhaoming in Liang Dynasty. It excerpted more than 700 pieces of works from Zhou Dynasty to Liang Dynasty, which has always been regarded as the large gathering of articles and has far-reaching impact on Chinese Literature. "Scenery" is one of the subclasses in fu class of Wen Xuan. The research on the "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu can help the academic circles deepen the overall understanding of Wen Xuan as well as the "scenery" category in Pre-Tang Dynasties, because the "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu can mostly reflect the development law of scenery fu from Warring States to the early Southern Liang Dynasty, which had continued to the Sui Dynasty.The academic circles keep various opinions on the meaning of "scenery" appearing in the existing variety of literature in Southern Dynasties, among which Li Shanzhu's interpretation may be the closest one, though it still need further prove. In Southern Dynasties, there were four kinds of interpretations on "scenery", which could not only accord with the "scenery" in Qin and Han Dynasties, but also well explain the meaning of "scenery" appearing in various literatures at that time. The connotation of "scenery" in Wen Xin Diao Long·Scenery, the "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu and some poems and articles in Southern Dynasties refers to "the natural objects changing with time", while its extension include weather phenomena such as wind, rain, thunder and lightning, sceneries changing with the four seasons, as well as the astronomical phenomena such as the sun, the moon and stars. Prince Zhaoming's so-called "scenery fu" refers to some fu works named after sceneries such as weather phenomena (Wind Fu by Song Yu and Snow Fu by Xie Huilian), astronomical phenomena (Moon Fu by Xie Zhuang), and seasons (Autumn Fu by Pan Yue).Some people believe that the "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu includes vegetation fu. This opinion is specious. There may be three reasons causing the misunderstanding:not clear about the meaning of "scenery"; there is "scenery" category but no "vegetation" category in Wen Xuan·Fu; consider that corresponding relationship exist between the fu works respectively involved in Preface of Wen Xuan and Wen Xuan. The "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu does not include vegetation fu. According to the meaning of "scenery" in Southern Dynasties, "scenery" category does not include vegetation fu; the reason why there is no vegetation fu in Wen Xuan·Fu is not that "scenery" category has included vegetation fu, but there were not vegetation fu that Zhaoming regarded as good works in Pre-Liang Dynasties. There is not corresponding relationship between the fu works respectively involved in Preface of Wen Xuan and Wen Xuan.Four pieces of works namely Wind Fu by Song Yu, Autumn Fu by Pan Yue, Snow Fu by Xie Huilian and Moon Fu by Xie Zhuang were selected in the "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu. Xiao Tong selected the four from all the works of fu in Pre-Liang Dynasties. According to the existing fu of Pre-Liang Dynasties, the four have outstanding artistic qualities such as rich implications, strong feelings about life, striking literary talent and ingenious structure. They were widely praised by the scholars in Pre-Liang Dynasties. All these met Zhaoming's requirements of selecting works, so the four were selected in Wen Xuan and "scenery" fu could form a category in Wen Xuan.The works selected in the "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu can mostly reflect the basic process of the development and evolution of "scenery" theme in Pre-Tang Dynasties. Wind Fu by Song Yu was identified as the representative of the scenery fu in Warring States and Han-Wei Dynasties, most of which took the sympathy to people's hardships as the theme and had quite strong political functions; From Jin Dynasty to Sui Dynasty, Autumn Fu by Pan Yue, Snow Fu by Xie Huilian and Moon Fu by Xie Zhuang were identified as the representatives of the scenery fu, which gradually weakened the theme of sympathy to people's hardships and manifested the grief of individual life. The evolution of the theme of scenery fu in Pre-Tang Dynasties had a close relationship with the different scholar ethos and different ideas on fu in different times.As a kind of object-chanting fu, the theme of scenery fu must be demonstrated by handling the relationship between scenery and human beings. The different ways of disposing scenery-human relationship will inevitably lead to different types of work structure. Therefore, there are basically two types of structure in the works selected in the "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu and other scenery fu in Pre-Tang Dynasties, one is structured by subjective emotion and the other is structured by the spatial distribution of description object. From the aesthetic point of view, the scenery fu structured by the spatial distribution of description object lack of exciting strength of emotion and are not successful. The reason why it has come down the ages does not lie in aesthetic value. On the other hand, the scenery fu structured by subjective emotion possess eternal vitality of arts. The structure types of the works selected in the "scenery" category of Wen Xuan·Fu are all structured by subjective emotion, which fully describes the unusual artistic vision of Prince Zhaoming.