The Western Zhouyouwang Dynasty Poetry Study

The time ruled by the King You of Zhou plays an essential role in the whole history of Western Zhou Dynasty and enjoys a unique position in the poetic development history. Poems in this stage are mainly featured by Ya. Obviously political nature are embedded in the creation of the poetry of Ya from the very start.As a literary genre carrying on the ruling class' s spirit, the changes in the poetry of Ya are closely connected with political ups and downs. Within the specially political,social and spiritual environment during the time governed by the King You, evident features of the times would inevitably be imprinted in the poetry of Ya in terms of themes, styles, language, lyric protagonists and writers. Meanwhile,distinctive social environment also offers a new direction for the poetic development itself. Therefore,it is necessary to study the poems in this age.This thesis has been divided into four sections. The first section references Mao Shi Foreword, Collection of Commentaries on Poetry and other books to define and explain the poems including their themes in this time. The later analysis of poems is based on it.Starting from the point of social transformation and the changes of the variation of ya, the second section analyzes the creation background and status quo of the poetry of Ya. It also discusses the influence on poem creation in terms of politics,nature and border. At the same time, in this chapter the course of orthodox school and variation of poetry will be recalled and the meaning of the variation of ya will be discussed and analyzed. Based on this, this section studies the relationship between the rise and fall of politics and the wax and wane of poetry. It also pays close attention to numerous political satire poetry, produced by the particular social environment in the time of the King You of Zhou.The third section mainly investigates the changes of the poetry of Ya under the circumstances of the national power decline of Zhou Dynasty. Such changes are reflected by two aspects. One represents the shift of poetic expressions which transfers from gentle, implicit praises to great, frank compliments. The other is that the social ladder of writers in the creation of the poetry of Ya goes down from thearistocracy class. Compared with the previous time, the proportion of poetry created by aristocracies in this age is decreasing. Besides, the poetic creation in this stage is not only limited to nobles and a number of common poets and poetry taking the populace as lyric protagonists were springing up. The status of poets are diversified including vassals and nobles like Wei Wugong and Fan Bo, as well as people in the lower social ladder like soldiers on expedition, monks and even women.The fourth section focuses on the tendency of Feng poems in the poetry of Ya within the spiritual system of propriety disintegration at the end of Western Zhou Dynasty. In this time, because of the fall of politics, the themes in Ya shift from praising the achievements of monarchs to feeling sad about one's own experiences.The identity of lyric protagonists in poems changes with the poetic themes. Previous dukes and kings are replaced by writers. Apart from that, poems of this stage reflect life in a more comprehensive way including political satire poems about the central government,poems demonstrating one's own worries and anger as well as lyric poems describing daily life. The changes of poetic nature will definitely have influence on poetic forms.Poems enjoy a sense of ceremony before, but in this time they are widely accepted by the populace. It is specifically represented by the changes of poetic structure in the poetry of Ya. The previous long poems have been changed into short chapters. The poetic language frees from formula pattern and gradually develops into colloquialism, easy to express real emotions.We can see from the above three-part discussion that influenced by social environment and other factors, poetic creation in the time governed by the King You of Zhou have gone through disruptive changes in themes, styles, expressions, lyric protagonists and writers. Such changes result in fundamental shifts in poetic nature and form. Poems serve as the carrier of expressing sincere feelings and depicting social life instead of the tool to compliment politics and carry on the consciousness of the ruling class. From this time on, poetry began to go back to its nature.