Research On Tian Wen's Travel Poem

The poems of Tian Wen,a poet of the early Qing dynasty,are rich in composition,recording Tian Wen’s travels,showing the local customs of the places he visited,and reflecting his state of mind during his eunuch travels.This paper examines four aspects of Tian Wen’s poems: the background of travel,the narrative nature of travel poetry,the temporal consciousness of travel poetry,and Tian Wen’s travel poetry in a comparative perspective,and consists of an introduction,a body,a conclusion,and an appendix.The introduction introduces the concept of travel poetry,the current state of research on Tian Wen’s poetry,the ideas of Tian Wen’s travel poetry,and the significance of Tian Wen’s travel poetry.The first chapter analyzes the background and reasons for the occurrence of Tian Wen’s travel and his creation.Political stability,evasion system,ordered sacrifices and water and land transportation provided the possibility for literati in the Qing Dynasty to go further afield.The Qing literati’s attitude toward poetry and the method writing a record of their travels led them to create more poems about their travels.Tian Wen’s experience of his career and travels also influenced the creation of his poems.The second chapter examines the narrative nature of Tian Wen’s poems about his travels,focusing on the poet’s self-image,his travels with friends,the suffering and happiness of the people,and the poem’s title,preface and notes.It is pointed out that the poet’s self-deprecating and arrogant image is related to his experience as a scholar in the Chinese Academy,the Commander of the Jiangnan Academy and the governor of Jiangning;his experience as a scholar in the capital and his dealings in Jiangnan make the connection between the "Ten Sons of Jintai" even stronger;the poem reflects the folk customs and hardships of the lower class in the early Qing Dynasty;the preface and the note have more distinct narrative features than the content of the poem.The third chapter examines the temporal consciousness of Tian Wen’s travel poems,starting with the four seasons and the twilight,pointing out that Tian Wen’s four seasons travel poems do not fully conform to the tradition of sadness for spring and autumn,while the twilight travel poems express the poetical proposition of zongtang and song,expressing subtle and delicate emotions.The fourth chapter compares Tian Wen’s poems with those of Wang Shizhen,Zha Shenxing,Song Wan,and Zhao Zhixin.A comparison with Wang Shizhen shows that Tian Wen excelled in the ancient style of poetry,with an outstanding style of strange and beautiful poetry;a comparison with Zha Shenxing shows that Tian Wen had strong emotions and was deeply influenced by Han Yu;a comparison with Song Wan shows that Tian Wen’s work in his later years tended to be more Bai and Lu,with some of his poems retaining their strange characteristics;a comparison with Zhao Zhixin shows that Tian Wen did not make a major breakthrough in the subject matter of his poems about his travels.The appendix is part of Volume II of the Yan Family Collection,which is a collection of thirty letters written by Tian Wen to Yan Guangmin,reflecting the deep friendship between "Ten Sons of Jintai".