| Duan Keji, was born in JiShan of Jiang County (Shan Xi province today) in 1196 and died in 1251. And Duan Chengji, who is the second younger brother of Duan Keji, was born in 1199 and died in 1251. Relatively, they lived a tough life in the end of Jin Dynasty and the start of Yuan Dynasty. In their earlier years, the brothers were famous for their intelligence. That is why Zhao Bingwen considered them as"talent in pairs". At the end of the Jin Dynasty, the elder brother failed to pass the examination hosted by the Emperor. He lived for more than 20 years after the fall of the Jin Dynasty and had never been an official in his entire lifetime. Nevertheless, the younger brother had ever been a leader in Yi Yang through the examination and died in 80 or so. When the Jin Dynasty fell, they both retired from the world and had never been an official any more. They only traveled with their friends and made some poems together. Rumor has it that they were excellent scholars because of this.The first part of the text shows the facts of the tour, behaviors, friends and relations of the two brothers.In 1218, Keji was 23 while Chengji 20. They had ever been the capital of the state for the examination. And Zhao Bingwen, who is an official in high rank, cried them up as"talent in pairs". 15 years later, the younger brother was selected from many applicants and appointed to the head of Yi Yang. At the same time, his brothers lose the election. In the winter of 1231, Yi Yang was captured. After that, there was no particular description in details about the brothers'life until three years later. In January of lunar calendar in 1234, when Keji was 35 and Chengji was 32, the Cai County fell. Therefore, The Jin Dynasty was in perdition. During the periods 1233 - 1234, the two brothers started their hermit life in Long Men. After the middle autumn day in 1243, they traveled to the stack room in Ping Yang temporarily which can be counted as episode in their long-time hermit life. At that time, the economy in the center of the state gained basic restoration, the order of the society went to stability, and the learning became popular in the whole country. For the purpose of development culture and Confucianism, the government called the famous scholars together to clean up and protect and print the classical literature. Also, scholars considered it was good for the sake of the Confucianism. It is a sort of culture behavior to get into the state service for compiling literature and history. They spent only half and one year and arrived home in January 1st, 1245. From then on, the Duans'went home and continued to live their hermit life. The tour of Ping Yang didn't have a great effect on the two brothers.In 1251, Keji was dead. In the next year, Chengji moved his house to Ping Yang and became an assistant to the high official-Li Gou as a teacher for making a living. The Lees'owned an armed military proceeding by descent from an ancestor and controlled the localities at beginning. Then they were appointed to the manager of Hedonglu. During the Jin Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, this kind of force guarded the civilian and homestead, gave the scholars courteous reception and shelter. Before 1267, Chengji was nominated as the headmaster of a seminary in Pingyanglu when he was more than 60 years and retired from it soon. At the same time, the culture and economy gradually recovered from the decline, the literati calm down day by day and did not have sharp collision with the ruler of Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, the choice was reasonable at that time. In Chengji's work, there were 11 pieces which named the Yuan Dynasty as"my homeland". From them, we can find that Chengji took the Yuan Dynasty as his own country.According to the life of the brothers and their friends, we can view the psychology of the hermits. A lot of types of people, such as grassroots, hermits, local official, officials in the high rank of Yuan Dynasty and the power of the government, contacted the Duans'. That is to say, though the two brothers made a decision to be hermits firmly, they never refused to affiliate with the dignitary and the average people.Chapter 2 is the part that analyzes and criticizes the poems of the Duans'.According to the"The collected edition of the poetry in Jin and Yuan Dynasty"compiled by the Tang Guizhang, there are 130 pieces of poems of the Duan's left. Among them, 67 belong to Keji, the left are Chengji's. It is very considerable that merely inferior to Yuan Haowen who have 380. Besides, they incarnate the highest quality of poem in Jin Dynasty. These poems mainly described the hermit life and showed the free attitude in one style. Most of these poems can not reflect the time when they were produced. And those which showed the time are focus in the hermit life. According to this, I try to analyze the poem of the Duans'by stages. 1. Before privacy, we can see that they would definitely retire from the world. 2. Before the tour in stack room in Ping Yang, the two brothers are both free like Tao Yuanming and worry like Du Fu. 3. After the tour, they felt the awkward in traveling and wanted to go home eagerly. They also anticipate the easy life when they got home. Therefore, they resolved never to go to anywhere. The poems in this stage are plain and light, probably because of the ages which made them mild and calm in the lonely life and wear on their time by reading, writing, drinking and appreciating. Xiaoling is less than 58 characters and Zhongdiao is between 59 to 90 charaters while Changdiao is more than 90. There are 20 Changdiao in the Keji's whole creations which are 63. Chengji have 10 pieces in his 67 poems. The elder brother was very good at writing Changdiao. The poem of Keji is sorrowful and earnest, and sometimes distressed like Su Dongpo. Chengji was different from his brother because he wrote the poem peacefully and lightly. At the start of the poem, his mind was open, then unchained, and clear. We can make a contrast by put the poems together. Keji started his poem forthright with some relaxed, but always felt gloomy when he express his emotion and will while Chengji wrote freely and leisurely. This is because the two brothers have different tempers. Keji loved to alcohol and then set himself free, which made his poems untrained and careless. And Chengji delighted in appreciating flowers and drink, thus, his poems are elegant and ease.The general style of the Duan's can be simply sumedd up as follows: the style is bright and prosperous, distressed and gloomy with some free feelings like scholars in Wei Dynasty and Jin Dynasty (this dynasty was followed the Wei Dynasty). If divided in details, there are three categories: 1. Poems about the rise or fall of the country are sorrowful and outraged.2. Poems expressed the will are sincere with aplomb.3. Poems about the sigh with regret and the cry of time reflect the consciousness of time and life.4. Poems about the hermits'life are free and quiet. If deduced from the art technique, we can see the Duans'style is similar to Xin Jiaxuan. They like to take the criticism as the poem with some facts and spoken language. The imago and literary quotation they loved reflect the hermit style heavily. Generally, it can be divided to 3 parts: they were fond of literary imago which displayed the feature of scholar apparently; they like to use the literary quotation of Zhuangzi and Su Shi which reflected the characteristic of poets; they loved to use the literary quotation of Tao Yuanming which showed the trait of hermits. Besides, they can mix all types of imago up in one poem. From the poems, we can deduce that the style of the Duans'is similar to the Wu Ji and Cai Songnian.The Duans'resolved to retire from the world which admired us very much and their poems are really excellent which can be recognized as the tower of strength in the intellectual circle in the end of the Jin Dynasty. The hermits'poems which they produced possess a significant meaning in the history of poems.
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