Poetic Comparison Of The Three Great Poets In The Period Of Qianlong

Yuan Mei , Jiang Shiquan and Zhao Yi were famous poets in the Qing dynasty, who were called " the three great poets in the period of Qianlong". Their notable poetic achievement affected parnassus deeply at that time. This paper compares their poetics from their poetic ideas, inditement, appreciation and value of poems.The first and the second chapter trace the three great poets' thought about learning and poetics. In the Qing Dynasty, the learning thought was prosperous and affected the poetic ideas. Yuan Mei opposed the study of Song as well as he was against the study of Han. His poetics tended to argue against tradition and knowledge. As a poet and a historian, Zhao Yi advocated evolutive and innovative poetics. Compared with Yuan and Zhao, Jiang Shiquan was a traditional poet and followed the Confucian idea strictly. He considered that it was important to have a noble mind for an excellent poet. In his opinion, his poetics was the embodiment and the development of the traditional poem.Chapter 3 to chapter 5, the three people's views of inditement, appreciation, aesthetics and the value of poems were discussed respectively. Their different views were expressed as four points: feelings, poesy, originality and individuality. For the archaic poets and the contemporary ones, the three poets respected them with equitable rule. However, they had their own opinions and have different opinions on the poet' character and knowledge in poems. Yuan Yei thought much of aesthetic value of poem. Jiang Shiquan regarded poems as moralization. Zhao yi's view is between Yuan and Jiang.The last chapter studied their intercourse. As three famous poets at the same time, they affiliated with each other frequently. Their intimate association lied on their poetics. Therefore, their poetics not only affected each other deeply but characterized own style.