In china's dynasties, Meishan City, Sichuan Province, has contributed many celebrities in the literary world, among which Su Xun, Su Shi, and Su Rui are the most famous. Before the "Three Sus", there was another of their predecessors, who had a pioneering position in the literary circles in the early Northern Song Dynasty, and it was his persistence that led to the new style of the poetry of the early Song Dynasty, he was the official and scholar Tian Xi in the early Northern Song Dynasty. Today, let's enjoy Tian Xi's ten poems together and experience his diverse poetic styles and the true temperament behind the poems.
In his early years, Tian Xi was brilliant and studious, and he liked to read from an early age, and it is said that the ruins of the reading building still exist in his hometown. At the age of nearly thirty, Tian Xi was admitted to the ranks, and was known for his direct advice in terms of officialship, and for 25 years as an official eunuch, he was highly respected in the government and the public, and was deeply convinced by everyone. In terms of literature, Tian Xi has the credit of opening up the territory, his literary style is remarkable, the poetic style has changed the floating atmosphere of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, he has always adhered to his own creative concept, and is particularly brilliant in the ancient style and song line. In addition, he advocated that the literati of the Song Dynasty should learn from the prose characteristic poetry of poets such as Li Bai, Du Fu, and Yuan Shu, and lead the direction of poetry creation in the literary circles in the early Song Dynasty.
Since the poetry world in the early Northern Song Dynasty was still permeated with the poetic style of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, Tian Xi saw this situation and put forward the proposition of "poetry is the change of literature", emphasizing that poetry should be rich in changes, not only narrative poetry, landscape poetry and other themes, but also poetry that can reflect social reality, this poetic concept is not unrelated to the style of his direct advice as an official. In addition, Tian Xi does not reject ornate poetry, although such poetry is somewhat suspected of showing off talent, but he believes that as long as it does not violate ethics and morality, it is worth advocating. Therefore, this view can clarify that Tian Xi is in the perspective of a literati, the literati is to create beautiful words, and different poetic forms show the strange style of the poetry world.
It is worth mentioning that Tian Xi pursues the concept of floating water like a breeze in his poetry creation, because he rejects poetry in a fixed mode, and advocates poetry that changes with the poet's temperament, allowing inner emotions to flow freely, which is also the practice of "poetry is the change of literature". Gufeng Songxing is Tian Xi's most accomplished poem, he is good at quoting allusions while narrating, and under the natural writing, emotions are naturally revealed. In terms of sentence patterns, he subverted the sentence patterns of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, which were mainly seven words and five words, and also mixed with three, four, and nine sentences, showing the trend of prose poetry crisscrossing.
Li Bai, Du Fu, Yuan Shu, and Bai Juyi were the predecessor poets who had the greatest influence on Tian Xi, and at the same time, his sophisticated use of vocal rhymes made his pseudo-ancient Yonghuai poems appear heroic and unrestrained. The poems that reflect social reality are somber and handsome, the gift poems are approachable, and the leisure poems are natural and smooth, forming their diverse styles. Moreover, Tian Xi's poems focus on the expression of temperament and clearly reveal self-awareness. Generally speaking, "the change of poetry is the change of literature" is Tian Xi's poetry creation concept, and he adheres to this theory to point out the direction for the poetry creation of the Song Dynasty. Tian Xi does not reject ornate poetry, but there are prerequisites, that is, not violating ethics and morality, which can reflect his intention to pursue aesthetic writing as a literati, and at the same time reflect his profound writing skills. He also advocated the natural flow of poetic emotions, indicating that Tian Xi's poetic theory was also a literary thought that had a great impact on the creation of poetry in later generations.
Due to the background of the times, the early Northern Song Dynasty had not yet reached a brilliant level in terms of literature, so Tian Xi's reputation could not be compared with literary giants like Su Shi, but in terms of influence, Tian Xi made great contributions, he was the pioneer of the Northern Song Poetry Circle, and the person who laid a solid foundation for the Northern Song Dynasty literary circle. According to historical records, Tian Xi died on January 5, 1004, at the age of sixty-four, and today is his 1018th anniversary, so let's enjoy his ten poems and experience the emotions that naturally flow out of him!