Tanshi: On Time Consciousness And Life Sentiment Of Poets From Late Han Dynasty To Jin Dynasty

If we use one word to summarize the time consciousness and life sentiment of poets from late Han dynasty to Jin dynasty,it would be Tanshi(sigh for dying).There are four aspects to illustrate:poems about human relations,elegiac poems,poems about Ganwu(interaction between spirits and objects)and poems about immortals.The four aspects imply the poets' views about people,death,nature and transcendence.Poems about human relations demonstrate that poets reluctant to be abandon by the time and hope to stay in secular life.Human relationships,such as homesick husbands and lonely wives,friendships in literary group and the yearning to revive the prominent family,can help poets beat time.Elegiac poems demonstrate poets' views and attitude about death.While writing about human relations shows their own way to beat time,elegiac poems means poets were ready to face the death.It was strange that people from Late Han,Wei and Jin dynasty sing the elegy in banquet.There was a vast amount of elegiac poems at that time.Lu Ji,Tao Yuanming and Bao Zhao all write elegiac poems to express their sigh for dying.Poems about Ganwu(interaction between spirits and objects)demonstrate the connection between poets and the nature.As time goes by,plants withered.As plants perished,poets found out the passing of time.Time is an indispensable part of poems about Ganwu.The theory of Ganwu also developed by Lu Ji,Liu Xie and Zhong Rong at that time.Poems about immortals demonstrate poets' aspiration to be immortal and eternal.Time and space were limited,the secular life was confined,hence,poets were willing to transcend the limitations.However,we could also find the poets' desire of contribution,their expressions of pain and sorrow in this kind of poems.Time consciousness were awakening at that time,poets' views and attitudes towards people,death,nature and transcendence were fully reflected in poems.There are four traits of poets' consciousness of that period: Time was starting point to express one's emotion;Time was full of emotionality and affectivity;Desire of eternity was place in poems about Time;Both beauty and sublimity were present in this kind of poems.