Essence of Tang Dynasty Quatrain

Author: Liu Yongji
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features:
I. Origin
Since suffering from rheumatoid arthritis in the summer of 1959, I have been unable to walk properly. With the attention of the university party committee, I temporarily suspended my classes. However, I considered that although my mobility was difficult at the time, doing research work while seated would not be a problem. I thought about Wang Shizhen's Selected Poems of Tang Poets, which has been popular for a long time, and upon reading it today, I still found areas that needed revision. I had long been thinking of selecting a new book but had no time for it—why not do it now?
Wang Shizhen was known for promoting the theory of shényùn (spiritual resonance) in poetry. This theory originated from the ideas of Sun Kui and Yan Yu, and he had compiled The Three Moods of Tang Poets to advocate for it [1]. Although many poets admired and revered him, viewing him as a master, they criticized his excessive pursuit of emptiness and refinement, his tendency to regard tūnhū (subtlety and restraint) as the essence of poetry, and the resulting flaws of being "superficial" and "ethereal and formless" [2]. Poets like Zhao Zhixin even cited the earlier views of Feng Ban to condemn his theory, and wrote the book On the Dragon to strongly criticize him [3]. Others such as Shi Runzhang, Shen Deqian, Jiang Shiquan, Song Cong, Yuan Mei, and Ji Yun also expressed dissatisfaction with his views. Zhao's Record of Talks on the Dragon not only opposed Wang's claim that composing poetry should be like "a dragon in the clouds, occasionally revealing a scale or claw," but also criticized his poetry for lacking humanity, being "usable by anyone, anywhere." He also quoted Zhou Ang's words from the History of Jin to oppose the idea that "writing is skillful in appearance but clumsy in substance," which struck at the core of Wang's theory [4]. Shi Runzhang, who had a close friendship with Wang, once told Hong Sheng, a disciple of Wang's, "Your master is like a Buddhist pavilion, easily seen at a glance. My poetry is like building a house, where bricks, tiles, wood, and stones are laid one by one on the ground." He also disapproved of Wang's ethereal and formless theories. In volume 26 of Zhongya Tang Collection, Jiang Shiquan included thirty poems titled Miscellaneous Odes on Poetry. Regarding Wang's poetry, he wrote:
"Jasmine and musk surround pearls and jade,
A beauty dwells in a golden house.
If a maidservant from the Jiang family
Were to serve in such a place,
Her fine brows would inevitably furrow."