The Exploration Discovery of A New Poetry Style

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In the Southern dynasties, literati paid much attention to the art style of poem itself, resulting in the prevalence of poems of Court style. However, at the same time, the literary world witnessed some positive exploration and changes in poetrysuch as the rise of landscape poetry represented mainly by Xie Lingyun, the Yue Fu poems inherited by Bao Zhao and the birth of Yongming style.

Xie Lingyun (384-433), childhood name Ke’ er and also called Xie Ke by later generations, was the grandson of Xie Jin, Duke of Kangle in the East Jin dynasty. He was good at employing acute observation over the features and changes of natural landscape in his plentiful excellent poem creation with such verses as “Spring grass sprouts by the pond; Song birds chirp in willow garden”(Climbing the Building over Pond);”Forest and gully take on dark color; Clouds look red and dusky.”(Journey from Shibi Abode to the Lake),”Mountain peach is growing stem and calyx; Wild fern is sprouting purple bud”(To My Brother Huilian)”Sand beach looks spotless and boundless; The sky feels high, moon so bright.”(First Time to the County. His productivity in landscape poems salvaged the poetry from the muddle with metaphysics and piloted it into a new prosperous world, which marks an outstanding contribution to the establishment of landscape poem and the development of ancient Chinese poetry.

Bao Zhao(416–466) is a predominant poet in the Southern Dynasty. He inherits the tradition of poetic realism and the Jian’ an poetic style. He is also productive in seven-character verses such as Difficult Roads I & III, which are very different from those of Cao Pi’s. With no more rime riches, Bao’s relocation of the rhyme enriches the series of seven-character verses with untrammeled emotion, leaping and vehement syllables varied in pause and transition, making it an artistic appeal to the readers’ heart. In addition, this improvement highly frees the artistic expression of seven-character verses and lays a profound foundation for both Yu Xin’s and Tang dynasty’s seven-character verses.

Since the beginning of ancient Chinese poetry, there were actually no rules to follow in tunes and rhythms of poetry which were usually regulated by poets spontaneously. It was not until a time between the Qi and Liang dynasties did this situation change that regulated verses began to take shape. Due to the much attention paid to the tone and duality,a strict rule had been brought up to the creation of regulated verses highly different from the old-style poetry. This kind of style was named as Yongming style after the period of Yongming during which this kind of poem appeared. On one hand, its overemphasis on the format of poem obstructed the benign way of poem creation. On the other hand, it highlighted the use of four tones to spontaneously adjust the formal beauty of poems. Its birth is a leap of Chinese poetry from the un-metrical to the regulated ones. In the meantime, it plays a transitional role to bridge the five-character verses and the poetry in the Tang dynasty. And the typical poets at that time are Xie Zhao, Shen Yue, Wang Rong, etc.

In the Northern Dynasty, the frequent wars led to devastated life of people. The literature of the time showed no signs of vitality. It was not until the poet Yu Xin did this situation change. His style of “ode at an old age”not only declares the tendency of integration of the fresh and enchanting southern styles of writing andthe northern unvarnished ones, but also paves a way for the new literature ethos in the Tang dynasty.

Yu Xin,(513-581), son of the poet Yu Jian Wu of the Liang dynasty. He revived the dying literary world. No matter whether in poetry or ode, Yu is considered to be an excellent master, especially with his outstanding contribution to the poetry. In his poems, he employs quotations quite more often than others but his poems do no appear complex. In contrast, they show handiness and craftiness in structures and meanings. Du Fu admired the writings of Yu Xin’s last years by commenting that “Yu Xin, when in his seniority, wrote willfully like floating clouds.”(Comment on Six Regulated Verses) and further commented that “Yu Xin led a shabby life but in his last years his poems moved many people”(Ode to Some Historical Sites). It is safe to say that Yu Xin is a master writer of the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Especially, his writings of last years bridge the ancient literature and the literature of grand Tang. To some extent, many famous Tang poets are influenced by his works.