China's poems came into being before the invention of writing, and gradually formed and developed in people's labor, singing and dancing.
The Book of Songs is a collection of poems from 1 1 century BC to the 6th century BC. It is also China's first collection of poems, with a total of 305 poems. According to different music, it can be divided into three categories: wind, elegance and ode. "Ode" poems are music songs used by rulers to sacrifice, including ancestor worship and heaven worship.
In the 4th century BC, the Chu State in the Warring States Period, with its unique cultural foundation and the influence of northern culture, gave birth to the great poet Qu Yuan, and Song Yu and others who were deeply influenced by it created a new poetic style. Qu Yuan's Lisao is an outstanding representative of Chu Ci.
Chuci developed the form of poetry. It broke the four-word form of The Book of Songs, from three or four words to five or seven words. In terms of creative methods, Chu Ci absorbed the romantic spirit of myth and opened up the creative road of romanticism in China literature.
Following the Book of Songs and Songs of the South, a new form of poetry appeared in the Han Dynasty, that is, the folk songs of Han Yuefu. Up to now, there are more than 100 folk songs in Han Yuefu, many of which are five-character poems. Later, the intentional imitation of literati became the main form of poetry in Wei and Jin Dynasties.
The famous chapters in Han Yuefu include fifteen enlisting in the army, Mo Shang Sang and Lin Yulang, which reveal the war disaster, and other chapters that show that women don't like wealth. Of course, the most famous one is the long narrative poem Peacock Flying Southeast. This poem tells a sad love story. Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi fell in love deeply, but they broke up because of the persecution of Jiao Mu and Liu Jia, which led to the human tragedy where are you going? The most important artistic features of folk songs in Han Yuefu. Peacock Flying Southeast is the highest peak of narrative poetry in Han Yuefu. Most of the folk songs in Han Yuefu use colloquial and simple language to express characters, so the characters are vivid and sincere. Although most of the folk songs in Han Yuefu are realistic descriptions, there are different degrees of romanticism in many places, such as the last paragraph of Peacock Flying Southeast, which shows the ingenious combination of romanticism and realism.
Five-character poetry is the main form of China's classical poetry. It took a long time from folk songs to literati writing. By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the literati's five-character poems were becoming more and more mature. The sign of maturity of five-character poems is the appearance of Nineteen Ancient Poems. Nineteen Ancient Poems is not written by one person, and the contents of the poems are mostly parting, lovesickness and feelings about short life. Good at lyricism, good at using metaphors and clever techniques.
During the Jian 'an period at the end of Han Dynasty, "Three Caos" (Cao Cao, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi) and "Seven Sons" (Kong Rong, Chen Lin, RoyceWong, Xu Gan, Ruan Ji, Zuo Ying and Serina Liu) inherited the realistic tradition of folk songs in Han Yuefu, and generally adopted the form of five-character rhythmic poems, which set off the climax of literati poetry creation for the first time. Their poems show the spirit of the times, generous and sad. His masterpiece Seven Wounded Poems is a portrayal of the reality of war in the late Han Dynasty. Cao Shi and his son are the most important figures in Jian 'an literary world, among which Cao Zhi has the highest artistic achievement. Cao Zhi's poem (19-232) is magnificent, detailed, flowery and good at metaphor, so it has the artistic style of "extraordinary strength and flowery words" and is a representative poem.
Ruan Ji (2 10-263) was a representative poet in Zhengshi era after Jian 'an. His love poems further laid the foundation of lyric five-character poems. He often uses tortuous poems to express his concern for the country, his fear of disaster and his avoidance of the world. Ji Kang (224-263) was also present, and his poems were cynical.
During the Jin Dynasty, poetry creation gradually embarked on the road of formalism, and the content of poetry was vague. The poet who inherited and carried forward the tradition of "Jian 'an Style" and enriched his works was Zuo Si (about 250-305). His eight epic poems satirize current events through ancient events, which is very thoughtful, but such poems were not mainstream after all, until Tao Yuanming at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were fewer and fewer.
Tao Yuanming, who lives in seclusion and is not an official, regards pastoral life as an important creative theme, so people have always called him an "pastoral poet". At that time, Tao Yuanming inherited the realistic tradition of Yuefu, formed his simple and natural combination of landscape and pastoral poetry, and created a new realm of classical poetry. Five-character poetry was highly developed in his hands.
Xie Lingyun (385-433), who was almost contemporary with Tao Yuanming, was the first person to create the school of landscape poetry. The characteristic of his landscape poems is that he can concentrate his feelings, but some poems are too elaborate, lengthy in description, and unnatural in allusion and arrangement.
The Southern and Northern Dynasties is another development period in the history of China's poetry, which is manifested by the appearance of another batch of Yuefu folk songs. They not only reflect the new social reality, but also create new artistic forms and styles. The general characteristics of folk songs in this period are short space and more lyrical than narrative. There are more than 480 Yuefu poems preserved in the Southern Dynasties, which are generally five-character and four-sentence poems, almost all of which are love songs. The number of Yuefu in the Northern Dynasties was far less than that in the Southern Dynasties. However, the rich content, simple language and vigorous style of Yuefu in the Southern Dynasties are beyond the reach of Yuefu in the Southern Dynasties. If Yuefu in the Southern Dynasties is a romantic song, Yuefu in the Northern Dynasties is a veritable "military music" and "battle song". In terms of genre, Yuefu in the Northern Dynasties created seven-character four-sentence quatrains and developed seven-character ancient poems.
The most outstanding poet in the Southern and Northern Dynasties was Bao Zhao (about 465,438+00-466). Bao Zhao inherited and carried forward the tradition of Yuefu in Han and Wei Dynasties, and created a large number of excellent Yuefu poems with five words and seven words. 18 The poem "Difficult to Imitate" is his outstanding masterpiece. He used the seven-word method maturely, showing his personal misfortune and protesting against social injustice.
During the Yongming period of the Southern Qi Dynasty, the theory of "temperament" prevailed, and poetry creation paid attention to the harmony of temperament. In this way, the new poetic style of "Yongming Style" gradually took shape. This new poetic style is the beginning of the appearance of metrical poetry. The famous poet in this period was Xie Tiao (about 464-499). Xie Tiao is famous for his landscape poems, and his poetry style is fresh and beautiful. His new poetic style contributed to the formation of metrical poems and quatrains in Tang Dynasty.
Poetry developed into the Tang Dynasty and ushered in a highly mature golden age. Nearly 300 years ago, the Tang Dynasty left nearly 50,000 poems, and there were about 50 or 60 famous poets with unique styles.
Four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty were the main poets in the pioneering period of Tang poetry. These four outstanding poets are (649-676), Yang Jiong (650-693), Lu (637-689) and Luo (646-684). Although their poems inherited the spiritual temperament of Qi and Liang, the theme of their poems was expanded in their hands.
Following the "Four Masters", Chen Ziang (66 1-702) explicitly opposed the poetic style of Qi and Liang and advocated "Han and Wei style". There are 38 lyric poems, which are his representative works with distinctive innovative spirit.
The Tang Dynasty was the peak of poetry prosperity. During this period, besides Li Bai and Du Fu, there were many accomplished poets. It can be roughly divided into two categories: one is an idyllic poet represented by Meng Haoran and Wang Wei; The other is frontier poets, among whom Gao Shi and Cen Can have the highest achievements, and Wang Changling, Li Jie and Wang Zhihuan are also outstanding frontier poets. Most of Wang Changling's frontier poems show soldiers' feelings of homesickness and meritorious service in Yuefu, while his Joining the Army and Leaving the Frontier has always been regarded as the representative works of frontier poems. Li Jie's frontier poems are few in number.
Poetry in the middle Tang Dynasty is the continuation of poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The themes of the works in this period are social unrest and people's suffering. Bai Juyi was the most outstanding realistic poet in the middle Tang Dynasty. He inherited and developed the realistic tradition of The Book of Songs and Han Yuefu, and set off the climax of realistic poetry in literary theory and creation. That is, the new Yuefu movement. Yuan Zhen, Zhang Ji and Wang Jian are all important poets in this movement. Yuan Zhen's main works (779-83 1) 19 ancient Yuefu poems and 12 new Yuefu poems. Yuan poetry is very close to Bai Juyi in both content and form. This is due to the consistency of their literary views. Although Wang Jian in Zhang Jihe had no clear literary ideas, they became the backbone of the New Yuefu Movement with their rich creations. Sympathy for farmers' sufferings is the theme of Zhang Ji's Yuefu poems, especially wild old songs. Although there are not many Shen Li's poems with similar styles to the above-mentioned people, two poems of "sympathy for farmers" have won him wide readers.
Besides the New Yuefu Movement, there were other poets in this period, namely, Han Yu, Meng Jiao, Li He and others. Their poetic art is different from Bai Juyi's and forms its own school. Han Yu (768-824) is a famous essayist. He is good at writing poems, which brings new language style and creative skills to the poetry circle, expands the field of poetry expression and brings new influence. Meng Jiao (75 1-8 14) and Jia Dao (779-843) are both famous for their "bitter songs", and their * * * feature is that they are hard to think about pursuing strange risks. Liu Yuxi (772-842) is a conscious composer of folk songs. His poems and quatrains are also famous. Liu Zongyuan's poems, like his prose, express personal grief and depression. His landscape poems are euphemistic and concise, showing his sober and noble personality everywhere, such as Jiang Xue, which has always been told by people. Li He (790-86544)
Poetry in the late Tang Dynasty has a strong sentimental atmosphere. Representative poets are Du Mu and Li Shangyin. Du Mu (803-852) was good at seven-character quatrains. Jiang Nanchun, Mountain Trip, Bo Qinhuai and Guo Huaqing Palace are his representative works. These poems show handsome talent in beautiful words and vivid pictures. His seven-character quatrains are also very skillful, among which Notes for Northern Friends on a Rainy Night and the Goddess Chang'e flying to the moon are both famous works.
In the late Tang Dynasty, a group of realistic poets represented by Pi Rixiu, Nie and Du Xunhe inherited the spirit of the New Yuefu in the middle Tang Dynasty. Their poems are sharp-edged, pointing to the disadvantages of the times.
Poems and songs in Song Dynasty are not as brilliant as those in Tang Dynasty, but they have their own unique style, that is, reducing lyrical elements, increasing narrative and discussion elements, emphasizing description, and using prose syntax extensively, which alienates poetry from music.
The poems by Su Shi and Huang Tingjian (1045- 1 105) best reflect the characteristics of the Song Dynasty. Huang Tingjian's poetic style is strange and abrupt, and his influence is wider than that of Su Shi at that time. Together with Chen Shidao, he founded the most influential Jiangxi Poetry School in Song Dynasty. Mei (1002- 1060) and (1008- 1048) in the early Song Dynasty were also called "Samui". The poems by Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi (102 1- 1086) played a great role in laying the foundation of the Song Dynasty and swept away the glory of Kunxi style. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the national disaster was deep, and poetry was often full of melancholy and anger. Lu You is a representative figure of this era. At the same time, he is also famous for his pastoral poems, including Fan Chengda (1126-1193) and Yang Wanli (165433).
Ci originated in Tang Dynasty and flourished in Song Dynasty. Wen (8 12-870) was the first specialized poet in the late Tang Dynasty. His words are flowery, describing the feelings of women's parting and lovesickness, and are called "Huajian School" by later generations. Li Yu (937-978), the empress of Southern Tang Dynasty, occupies a very high historical position in the history of Ci. male
In the early Song Dynasty, poets such as Yan Shu (99 1- 1055) and Ouyang Xiu all had excellent works, but they still remained under the influence of the Huajian School. When they arrived in Liuyong, they began to write long and slow words, and the scale of words changed obviously from then on. In Su Shi's works, the theme of ci has been further developed. The content of remembering the past and hurting the present entered his ci. Su Shi's contemporary Qin Guan (1049-1kloc-0/00) and Zhou Bangyan (1056-11) are also excellent ci works. His representative works include Huanxisha, Walking on the Sand, Queqiaoxian and so on. It conveys sad feelings through lyrical scenery writing. Zhou Bangyan is not only good at writing lyrics, but also good at composing music. He wrote many new songs and made great contributions to the development of Ci. Influenced by Liu Yong, his ci is rigorous in rhythm, suitable for singing, delicate in words and meticulous in description. Representative works include Crossing Qin Lou and Man Fang Ting.
In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, in the face of the crisis of national extinction, most poems expressed the patriotic feelings of writers. Xin Qiji is a famous patriotic poet and a representative figure in this period. Influenced by Xin Ci, Chen Liang, Liu Guo, Liu Kezhuang, Liu Chenweng and others formed the most powerful patriotic ci school after the mid-Southern Song Dynasty.
Jiang Kui (about 1 155- 1235), a poet in the late Southern Song Dynasty, was the most famous. Most of Jiang's ci poems are chanting things. In his poems, he mostly lamented the drifting of life experience and the frustration in love, and his masterpiece is "Long Pavilion Complain". His ci follows the style of Zhou Bangyan.
Ci reached its peak in the Southern Song Dynasty, Sanqu prevailed in the Yuan Dynasty, but poetry took a back seat.
Poetry in Ming Dynasty moved forward in the repetition of imitation and anti-imitation, and there were no outstanding works and poets.
There are many schools of poetry in Qing dynasty, but most writers have not got rid of the archaism and formalism, so it is difficult to surpass their predecessors. In the late Qing Dynasty, Gong Zizhen (1792- 184 1) broke the silence of poetry circles since the middle of Qing Dynasty with his advanced ideas and led the trend of modern literary history. His poems often pay attention to social, historical and political views to expose reality. Let poetry become a critical tool of the real society. Later Huang Zunxian (1848- 1905), Kang Youwei (1858- 1927) and Liang Qichao (1873- 1929).