Original poem: A Glimpse of Poetry - Talking about Poetry and Spitting Out Words

Author: (Qing) Ye Xie, Xue Xue
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-28
Features: In the history of ancient China, the slogan of "reviving the past" sometimes contained progressive elements and at other times was entirely reactionary. For example, figures like Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu advocated for classical prose, ostensibly under the banner of "reviving the past," but in reality, they opposed the prevailing formalistic literary style of the time and sought to innovate in literary forms, thus introducing certain progressive elements. (In elaborating on the relationship between "literature" and "the Way," of course, they spread many remnants of feudalism. In contrast to this is the "reviving the past" of those who argued that "the present is inferior to the past." These traditional "present-is-inferior-to-the-past" advocates, as criticized by Ge Hong, endlessly chattered about how "the mountains of today are not as high as those of the past," and writers followed suit, "reviving the past" and dragging history's tail backward. This was, of course, entirely reactionary. The original poetry of Qing Dynasty scholar Ye Xie (1627-1703) is a work of poetic theory and criticism that explores the essence of poetic creation, primarily aimed at opposing the retrogression of "reviving the past." Yan Yu, styled Yiqing and known as the, was from Shaowu (now part of Fujian) and remained a lifelong scholar without holding official office. While he did not achieve outstanding accomplishments in poetic creation, his Canglang Shihua (The Canglang Talks on Poetry) is an extremely important work of poetic theory. The book is divided into five sections: On Poetry, On Poetic Forms, On Poetic Methods, On Poetic Criticism, and On Examinations, with the core being the section on poetry. Yan Yu's theory of poetry is grounded in its fundamental nature of "singing one's emotions," and the Fujian Literary Biographies also summarizes Yan's poetic theory as "eliminating praise and criticism, and solely pursuing one's own spirit and nature." The entire work completely avoids discussing the relationship between poetry and Confucianism or Daoism, as well as its functions in politics and education, while emphasizing the artistic nature of poetry and the emotional impact it has on people's hearts. This stands in stark opposition to the literary views of Confucian scholars and is highly noteworthy.