Cultural Interpretation of Traditional Poetry

Author: Lu Yulin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Academic Series of China Youth Political College. In traditional society, poetry was a tool for scholars to express their aspirations and emotions, a poetic representation of their lives. The history of Chinese poetry after the Warring States period was essentially the evolution of the scholar's spirit. Scholars in traditional society had the most important mission of promoting the Way. Therefore, they had a profound sense of crisis, which manifested as songs of worry. The individualized and daily expression of this crisis was melancholy, and the externalization of lamenting the times and events was melancholic poetry. When poets wanted to promote the Way but failed, and also wanted to alleviate their own sorrows and anxieties, they went to mountains and rivers and pastoral scenes to verify the rationality of their character and thoughts, experiencing the harmony and connection between individual life and the life of the universe and nature. They indulged in their emotions and followed their inclinations, creating poetry about mountains and rivers and pastoral odes. Since poets neither achieved their wish to promote the Way nor wanted to seek solace in mountains and rivers, they chose to resist the secular world, expressing themselves through romantic and.