A Study Of Guo Fen’s Poem And Poetics Theory

Guo Fen was a poet,calligrapher and official in the early Qing Dynasty,and a native of Qingyuan(now Qingyuan in Hebei Province).There are many vague and even contradictory records of Guo Fen’s life in existing literature.According to textual research on documents such as Xue Yuan Tang Ji,Qing Bei Zhuan He Ji and Ji Fu Tong Zhi,some key information about Guo Fen’s life has been clarified.Guo Fen was born in the second year of Emperor Tianqi(1622)and died in wenty-nine-year(1690)of Emperor Kangxi.His style name is Zhi Xian and his pseudonym is Kuai Pu or Kuai An.The reason why Guo Fen was demoted to Shanxi Province was that "the poor examination scores of Manchu language ",rather than the " disobedience to the powerful" written in the Da Qing Ji Fu Xian Zhe Zhuan and Shang Gu Zong Bo Xue Shi Guo Wen Qing Gong Fen Zhuan.During the demotion period,Guo Fen served as the officer of judicial organ in Shanxi Province,and returned to the capital eight years later as the "deputy of Dali Temple".In the 26 th year of Kangxi’s reign(1687),Guo Fen was dismissed from office and returned to his hometown because of being impeached.Guo Fen’s friends can be roughly divided into two categories: "colleagues in the court" and "bosom friends out of power".The main contents of Guo Fen’s poems include reflecting the people’s livelihood and paying attention to themselves,traveling in exile and miserable demotion life,serving the monarch and returning to hometown,hating the world and caring for relatives and friends.The content of his poetry pursues "life style",expresses ordinary people’s perception in poetry,and constructs a realistic artistic conception picture.The artistic form of poetry is exquisite,with distinct characteristics among different genres.Guo Fen’s poetics is based on Confucian poetics,but it is also influenced by Lao Zhuang’s theory to some extent.In terms of the cultivation of poets,Guo Fen believed that poets should have both "temperament" and "family learning",and should also "keep simple".In terms of aesthetic concept,Guo Fen put forward the idea of " nature is the best",and believed that poetry creation should be "natural".Taking "nature" as the criterion of criticism,Guo Fen,to some extent,broke away from the stereotype of "worshipping the Tang Dynasty" and "worshipping the Song Dynasty",and returned the focus of poetry criticism to poetry itself,which has certain positive significance.Guo Fen’s works basically carry out his poetic theory.In the history of poetry in the Qing Dynasty,Guo Fen’s reputation is not prominent.On the one hand,Guo Fen’s involvement in poetry is relatively small and his influence is limited.On the other hand,his achievements in poetry are not enough to match the first-class poets at that time.Even in the Zhili region,he could not stand up to the He Shuo Poetic School,he represented a large number of mainstream poets.However,Guo Fen’s considerable achievements in writing,excellent poetic character and unique poetic ideas are also worthy of more recognition from later generations.