Essence of Tang Dynasty Quatrain

Author: Liu Yongji
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1981-09-01
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 did not teach. However, I considered that although my mobility was difficult at the time, doing research work while seated was still feasible. I thought about Wang Shizhen's Selected Poems of Tang Poets, which had been popular for a long time. Even today, there are still areas that could be improved. I had been contemplating selecting a new book but had no time. Why not do it during this period?
Wang Shizhen was known for promoting the theory of shen Yun (spiritual charm) in poetry. This theory originated from Sima Guang and Yan Yu, and he had compiled The Three Delights of Tang Poets to advocate for it [1]. Although many poets admired and revered him, viewing him as a great master, they excessively sought emptiness and refinement, emphasizing subtlety and modification as poetic elegance. The excesses of this trend led to criticism such as "superficial and empty" and "ethereal and unsubstantiated" [2]. Poets like Zhao Zhixin criticized it by referencing Feng Ban's earlier views, even dedicating a book titled On the Dragon to strongly condemn it [3]. Others such as Shi Runzhang, Shen, Jiang Shiquan, Song Cong, Yuan Mei, and Ji Yun also had complaints. Zhao's Record of Talks on the Dragon not only opposed Wang's view 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 regarding literature, opposing the idea of "skillful on the outside but clumsy on the inside," which struck at the core of Wang's theory [4]. Shi Runzhang had a close friendship with Wang, but Shi once said to Wang's disciple Hong Sheng, "Your master's poetry is like a Huayan pagoda, visible at a glance. My poetry is like building a house, laying bricks, stones, and wood one by one on the ground." Thus, he also disapproved of Wang's ethereal and unsubstantiated theories. In volume 26 of Zhong Ya Tang Collection, Jiang Shiquan included thirty poems titled Miscellaneous Poems on Poetry. In his discussion of Wang's poetry, he wrote:
"Jasmine and musk surround pearls and jade,
A beauty dwells in a golden house.
If she were a maidservant named Jiang,
Her finely arched brows would surely furrow."