Ouyang Xiu's view and influence of late Tang dynasty poetics

Late Tang poetics began to take shape in the Song Dynasty. As a generation of literary masters, Ouyang Xiu's view of late Tang poetics is an important part of the late Tang poetics of the Song dynasty. Ouyang Xiu's two accounts of late Tang poetry are found in his "June 1 Poems" composed in his later years. Yiyun: "Zheng Gu's poetry was famous in the late Tang Dynasty, called the "Yuntai Compilation", while the secular but called its official, 'Zheng Duguan poem'. His poems are very interesting and have many good sentences, but their character is not very high. With its ease of understanding, people mostly teach children. The second cloud: "In the later years of Tang Dynasty, the poet did not have the character of Li Duhao, but he also had to be high in essence." For example, Zhou Pu's conception is particularly difficult, and every time he gains, he will be extremely sculpted, so he is called Park Shi 'monthly forging season refining, before it is finished, it has been sown to the population'. Its name was so then, and it is no longer passed down. Yu Shaoshi still saw his collection, and his sentence had clouds: 'The wind warms the birds and the sound of the birds shatters, and the sun rises and the flowers are heavy.' Youyun: "The birds are noisy in the mountains, and the rain is thin over the apricot blossoms." 'Sincerely good sentence also. Although Ouyang Xiu's views on late Tang poetry are only a few sentences, they contain quite rich connotations, covering the name of "late Tang", late Tang poetry style and late Tang poetry criticism, and have had a profound impact on the poetics of the late Tang Dynasty at that time and in later generations.

1

The name of the "Late Tang Dynasty"

The name "Late Tang" in poetics appeared around the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty. Prior to this, there were many related statements, and Ouyang Xiu's "late Tang Dynasty" and "Later Years of Tang" were two of them. The appearance of "late Tang" in the early Song Dynasty was a common saying of poetry at that time, and Ouyang Correction used this word in such a context, which is not unique. The unique term is "Tang Zhi's Later Years", which was first found in the "Theory of The Party" made by Ouyang Xiu in his prime, and when he composed the "Poetry of June 1" in his later years, he followed the use of "Tang Zhi's Later Years", and it was probably from this usage that the later name "Late Tang" was derived.

The statement "Later years of The Tang Dynasty" has had either direct or indirect influence on the later generations of late Tang poetry. Some commentators have followed this theory and the content has changed, for example, Zhang Qi replaced the representative poets of "Tang Zhi's later years" from Zhou Pu, who attached importance to conception and "exercise" in poetry, to Mengjiao and Jia Dao, who "carved the words of poverty and hardship as work". Although Zhou Pu, Mengjiao and Jia Dao are all carved with bitter groans, from their popularity in later generations, Mengjiao and Jia Dao are far better than Zhou Pu. Ouyang Xiu and Mei Yaochen, in their twenty-year-long poetry singing, frequently compared Han Yu with his protégés Mengjiao and Jia Dao, and influenced Su Shi, giving birth to the famous "suburban cold island thin" saying, Mengjiao and Jia Dao became the heads of poets at that time. In this regard, it is not surprising that Zhang Qi, one of the four scholars of Sumen, replaced the representative of the carved bitter yin from Zhou Pu to Mengjiao and Jia Dao. In the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty, the "Four Spirits of Yongjia" studied Yao He, Jia Dao and others, and their poems were called to have the style of late Tang poetry. After that, Jia Dao and Yao He were classified as representatives of late Tang poetry, and Liu Kezhuang of the Southern Song Dynasty and Fang Hui of the Song and Yuan Dynasties held such comments the most. In contrast, Zhou Pu gradually became less known, and by the time Li Huaimin wrote the "Re-fixing of the Main Guest Map of The Poetry of the Middle and Late Tang Dynasties" during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Lejia Island was a "halal and secluded and bitter lord", while Zhou Pu was no longer included in the map. There is a Song generation, and when it comes to the representatives of late Tang poetry, the vast majority of them are represented by Jia Dao, and tracing back to the origin, it is related to Ouyang Xiu.

Some commentators such as Peng Duanshu of the Qing Dynasty, when quoting Ouyang Xiuzhi, directly replaced "Tang's later years" with "late Tang". There are also many commentators who have summed up the "late years of Tang" and come to the theory of "Tang Evening", which is said in the Song Dynasty Yang Wanli's "Chaotian Collection", Fang Yue's "Deep Snow Puppet Talk", Yao Mian's "Xuepo Sheren Collection", and even Ming Ren Lang Ying's "Seven Revision Drafts". What's more, such as Fang Hui, in the "Yingkui Law Essence", derived "into the late Tang", "not very late", "not late", "late Tang is especially late", etc., giving full play to the meaning of "Tang's later years".

2

Late Tang Dynasty poetry

There are two situations in the late Tang Dynasty poetry style cited by Ouyang Xiu, one is the common White Yixiao represented by Zheng Gu, and the other is the emphasis on conception and "exercise" represented by Zhou Pu.

In Ouyang Xiu's view, the best thing about Zheng Gu's poetry is that it is interesting, good sentences, and easy to understand, so it can be taught to children, and the shortcoming is that the poetry style is not very high. After the rise of the "Late Tang" theory, the thesis of "Gebei" was expanded by the evaluation of Zheng Gu and became the label of the entire late Tang poetry circle, which was the common view of the Song people. For example, Kong Pingzhong said that the poetry of the late Tang Dynasty, represented by Bai Juyi, could be understood, which was close to contempt, and his theory, like Ouyang Xiu, was based on the vulgarity and shallowness of poetry in terms of text. Cai Juhou also said, "Late Tang Dynasty poetry is still correct, but the rhyme is very humble", but his theory has changed from focusing on the customs of words to criticizing the craftsmanship of words. This change is related to the atmosphere of writing and clumsiness in poetry at that time, which involves what Ouyang Xiu called the second style of late Tang poetry, that is, the emphasis on "exercise" in poetry.

The late Tang Dynasty poetry style pays attention to conception and "exercise" is a more famous and far-reaching statement. This view of Ouyang Xiu was echoed at the time and later, and became the mainstream opinion. For example, Liu Shu, who regards himself as an Ouyang Xiumen, said, "The Tang people are poetry, measuring their strength and doing meritorious work, pondering for decades, and then becoming famous", which means similar to Ouyang Xiu's zhou pu, but the discussion has expanded from late Tang poets to poets of the entire Tang Dynasty. Shen Kuo also said, "The so-called cultivators of the Ten Forges of the Moon believe in not false words", and by extension, he regarded "exercise" as the method of poetry for all poets, especially the Tang people. Later, when Zhang Wei of the Southern Song Dynasty quoted Shen Shi's statement, he wrote "Xun Forging Moon Refining" as "Moon Forging Season Refining", which is intentional or unintentional, which shows that in Zhang Wei's view, Shen Kuozhi's theory was taken from Ouyang Xiu. When the Jiangxi poetry school, represented by Huang Tingjian and Chen Shidao, became a grand view in the poetry world, their poetic methods of "turning iron into gold" and "living law" became popular in the world, which was even more than the late Tang dynasty poets who emphasized conception and "training." Yang Wanli's poems have taken the late Tang poetry and the Jiangxi poetry school, and greatly praised the late Tang poetry as "the work of exercise", so Zhou Bi praised Yang Shi, "All famous masterpieces, all of them push their etymology, choose to use their syntax, between fifty years, years of forging and monthly refinement, thinking about the west of the week, and then great enlightenment, the pen has a mouth, and there are eyes in the sentence." Compared with Ouyang Xiu's "monthly forging season refining", Shen Kuo's "xun forging moon refining" and Cai Juhou's "sun forging moon refining", Zhou Bi dayi changed to "years forging month refining", and the time of bitter chanting was longer, and it was more in line with Jia Dao's poetry experience of "two sentences and three years, one chant and two tears". Therefore, for the "exercise" of late Tang poetry, they are deeply in tune with it.

3

Late Tang poetry criticism

Ouyang Xiu compares the "Style of Li Duhao" with the "Late Tang Dynasty" people such as Zhou Pu's "Moon Forging Season", which only shows the difference between the two poetic styles and does not distinguish between high and low. The contrast between Li Du and the poets of the late Tang Dynasty later became a model. For example, Liu Kezhuang said, "The suburbs and islands have forged the moon for the tenth month", and Cen San, who "talks and laughs with Du Gong", "talks and laughs, the words are strong, and the imagery is open" is open. As for what Wang Shizhen of the Qing Dynasty said, "To taste the works of the five generations of poets at the end of the Tang Dynasty, to be humble and trivial, not to be self-exuberant, not only to have the extravagant style of Kaiyuan, Yuan, and the author, but also to the magic of Shen Yun xingxiang, to see the seasons of Chen and Sui, cover a hundred and one yan", but also directly imitated Ouyang Xiu's idea of comparing Li Du with the poets of the late Tang Dynasty.

The contrast between Li Du and the poets of the late Tang Dynasty, in Ouyang Xiu's view, is only a difference in style, which does not prevent him from appreciating both. However, this comparison later evolved into the confrontational model of "Du Fu and the Late Tang Dynasty", which implied the high level of poetic value, and later generations often took Du Fu and abandoned the Late Tang. The dichotomous opposition between Li Du and the poets of the late Tang Dynasty was established by Huang Tingjian. In a letter to Zhao Bochong, he wrote: "Learning old Du shi, the so-called carved crane is not a Kind of Crane. Studying the poetry of the late Tang Dynasty, the so-called practice is cold, its disadvantages are greedy, and its practice is greedy, what are its disadvantages? As the originator of the Jiangxi poetry school, Huang Tingjian's statement has a lot of weight, and there are many responders. For example, Lu You, who had studied the Jiangxi poetry school, said: "Li Bai Du Fusheng did not suffer, and he buried basil when he died heroically." Although the people of the late Tang Dynasty fought fiercely, their eyes were dark and their heads were white and futile. "The sky has not lost Sven, and Du Lao is alone." Ling is late to Yuan bai, and it is already angry. And watching the late Tang Dynasty, people want to burn pen. Fang Hui, as the imperial army of the Jiangxi poetry school, even criticized "the late Tang Dynasty poetry was forged and refined", but he only knew "hue sound", which was quite restrained, not as good as the Jiangxi poetry school of Du Fu, and far inferior to Du Fu. Therefore, when facing the Jiangxi poetry school, the poets of the late Tang Dynasty, and Du Fu, the object of the method is self-evident. Fang Hui also took Jia Dao's poems as an example, criticizing that "the late Tang Dynasty poems first forged the Jinglian and Jaw Lian, but became the beginning and the end of the foot." In other words, "the late Tang Dynasty worked hard and made a small summary", on the contrary, "the tang dynasty law, the poetry is large, and the high language is strong". Yuanren Mou Wei lamented, "The world is a late Tang Dynasty, and if you don't exercise to think of work, you will think that it is dull." The carving of the crane is not successful, and the poetry is replaced by day", it is precisely to pick up the views of Ouyang Xiu and Huang Tingjian.

After the Jiangxi poetry school, the "Four Spirits of Yongjia", which flourished in its place, led to the prevalence of the late Tang dynasty poetry style, resulting in various kinds of poetic shortcomings, and the poets returned to Li Du, especially Du Fu, and demanded that it be used as a law. While advocating Du as the law, those who hold the theory also take the late Tang poetry as a precept, such as Chen Shu said, "Do not enter the late Tang Dynasty, you must add a whip from Lao Du." Even those who love and study late Tang poetry are mainly learning From Du Fu while not abandoning late Tang poetry. For example, Chen Jianzhi gave a gift to Shiyun: "This person is the late Tang Dynasty, and the sentences are also good." The blue sea is a long whale, and the junmu duling is old. Acknowledging the advantages of the late Tang dynasty poems "Qiu Sentence" and "QingHao", its "Qiu Sentence" corresponds to Ouyang Xiu's saying that the poet "Moon Forging Season Refining" in the late years of Tang Dynasty" is used; the third sentence uses Du Fu's "Drama as Six Absolute Sentences" "Or look at the emerald orchid, not in the blue sea of whales", corresponding to Ouyang Xiu's saying that Li Du is "bold"; the last sentence zhang Xianzhi believes that the poet should learn from Du Fu's majestic style of the whale and the blue sea. Chen Bifu also said: "Yu ai late Tang Dynasty sons, whose poems are deep and leisurely, like a ghostly wild man, rushing to self-congratulation, they must all become a family of their own." And read Mr. Shaoling's collection, and then know the poems of the late Tang Dynasty, all in the end, the so-called poetry collection of the greatest achievement. Do not take the three kaorus and three mu, respect mr. as the law. Although the way of the Master cannot be ascended at the next level, he is strong and high, and he does not dare to be reluctant to do so. Although this passage contains the meaning that the late Tang poetry is different from Du Fu's high and low rank, it does not negate the value of the late Tang poetry. Observing his intentions, Chen Bifu initially loved late Tang poetry, and later read Du Shi and knew that there were mountains outside the mountains, so he tried to teach Du Fu.

At the end of the Song Dynasty, Yan Yu proposed to take Li Bai Dufu as the representative of the Sheng Tang poet group, and demanded that "the Sheng Tang be the law" and "not be a figure below Kaiyuan and Tianbao", thus developing a discourse framework that contrasted the Sheng Tang with the Late Tang Dynasty and honored the Sheng Tang Dynasty, and constructed the most important criticism mode in the phased criticism of Tang poetics. Later, whether it was the Yuanren Yang Shihong or the Ming dynasty Gao Tong, in the theory of the four periods of the early, sheng, middle and late Tang dynasties, they all followed Yan Yu's practice of establishing a critical model of the duality of the Sheng Tang and the late Tang in the period of Tang poetics and absolutizing it. Tracing back to its origins, this mode of criticism developed on the basis of Ouyang Xiu's confrontation between Li Du and the poets of the late Tang Dynasty.

(This paper is a phased result of the national social science funding project "Research on Ouyang Xiu's Daily Life and Literary Creation" (FZW008))

(Author Affilications:School of Humanities and Communication, Zhejiang Gongshang University)

Editor: Huang Zhen