In the millennium literary world, although there are endless people from all walks of life, when it comes to poetry, it is always impossible to avoid the "poetry immortal" Li Bai and the "poetry saint" Du Fu, in the eyes of many poetry fans, the two of them are the "ceiling" of poetry.
Not to mention their status in later generations, even in the Tang Dynasty, the two of them were highly respected, Han Yu once commented on them as "Li Du's article is there, the flame is long", and for those literati who questioned Li Du, Han Yu said that "the grasshopper shook the tree, ridiculously not self-respecting".
As the wheels of history roll forward, the literary genre of poetry has gradually begun to decline through the golden age of the Tang Dynasty, although there are also some famous poets in the past dynasties, but it is difficult to reproduce the grand situation of Tang poetry. This also allowed Li Du's literary status to be infinitely elevated, and there were few doubters among later generations of literati. However, in the Qing Dynasty, there was a bold poet who openly called out Li Bai Dufu and wrote an arrogant work to express his opinions. So does his call make sense? Let's walk into this poem together to find out.
"On the Two of the Five Poems"
Li Du's poems have been passed down orally, and they are not fresh so far.
There are talented people in the jiangshan generation, each leading the way for hundreds of years.
The author of this poem is the Qing Dynasty poet Zhao Yi. In the literary circles of the Qing Dynasty, he was also a well-known figure, and together with Yuan Ming and Zhang Wentao, he was known as the three masters of the Qing Dynasty Sexual Spiritual Sect. There is also an interesting thing about Zhao Yi, when he was in the imperial examination, his article was the most optimistic about several examiners, and it was expected to become a champion. However, when these examination papers were sent to the Qianlong Emperor, the Qianlong Emperor saw that Zhao Yi in the first volume was from Jiangnan, Hu Gaowang in the second volume was from Zhejiang, and Wang Jie in the third volume was from Shaanxi.
So he asked the minister of examination whether Shaanxi had ever produced a title since the opening of the dynasty. The Qianlong Emperor, who received a negative reply, changed the order of the first and third volumes, so that Zhao Yi, who should have been a high school champion, became a tanhua, and the reason he gave was that Zhao Yi's article was no problem, but since the ancient Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, there were many yuan, and there was nothing less, but Shaanxi did not have one, and it was also appropriate to give a title. Although Zhao Yi missed the position of champion because of this, this incident also made him famous.
It is not difficult for us to find from this historical story that Zhao Yi really has real talent and practical learning, so he called Li Bai Dufu not to sensationalize the public, but to have his reasoning. We might as well look for the answer in this poem.
"Li Du's poems have been passed down orally, and they are not fresh so far", these two sentences first recognize the fact that Li Du's poems are widely circulated, but question these poems are not new. I believe that many people see these two poems for the first time, they will feel that this person is too arrogant to question Li Du's poems, but if we read them carefully, we can find that he is not talking. Although Li Du's poems have been passed down by word of mouth, after so many dynastic changes, it is really difficult to give future generations a fresh feeling. Otherwise, there would be no popularity of Song Ci, Yuan Qu, and Ming and Qing novels after Tang poetry.
"There are talented people in the Jiangshan generations, each leading the way for hundreds of years", there will be poetry in every era, but they will affect hundreds of years at most. Poetry is always developing with the development of the times, so it should also be innovative in the creation of poetry, rather than sticking to the rules. These two sentences have become household names until now, especially the 7 words of "Jiangshan generation has talented people", which has become a popular poem.
In fact, if we carefully read Zhao Yi's poem, we will find that he is not calling Li Du, but expounding his ideas and views on poetry. He believes that poetry should be constantly innovated with the development of the times, and cannot blindly promote the ancients to imitate the ancients, but should innovate on their basis and write poetry works that are suitable for this era. In fact, poetry has gradually developed in such a new way.
In fact, Zhao Yi's proposition is not only applicable to the field of poetry, but also in other fields. Just like Qi Baishi once said, "Those who learn from me live, and those who look like me die", in fact, in the end, it is similar to Zhao Yi's views on this poem. Whether it is poetry or painting, if their creation only stays in the stage of simple imitation, it is basically drilled into a dead end, want to have a way out, only on the basis of the original to add their own changes, it is possible to form their own unique style.
Moreover, the innovation advocated by Zhao Yi does not mean that those traditional things are completely denied, and they resist and do not learn. Just like although he said that "Li Du's poems are passed down by thousands of mouths, and they are still not fresh", he himself has read the classic works of his predecessors and accumulated profound literary connotations, which is why he dares to discuss poetry. The so-called "pushing the old out of the new" must first understand the "Chen" before it is possible to "push the Chen."
Although Zhao Yi's poem is crazy, it is written reasonably, so it has been highly respected for more than 200 years. Many cultural people have been inspired and have given up blindly imitating their predecessors. What do you think about Zhao Yi's poetic claims and his poem? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section.