Ming Dynasty Style Poetry Theoretical Differentiation

It was as early as in the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties when"Ge" and "Diao" began to be applied to poetry criticism. After the Tang Dynasty, "Ge" and "Diao" was much more extensively applied. However, It was in the Ming Dynasty when the theory of "Ge Diao" was formally established , at the same time the Ge Diao School came into being, of which the representative theoreticians included the Seven-scholar School, Hu Yinglin and so on. The conception of "Ge Diao" had two implications. Firstly , it implied an emphysis on "the pattern" . The Ge Diao School placed great emphysis on Guti Poems in the Han Dynasty and the Wei Dynasty , as well as on Gelv Poems in the early period of the Tang Dynasty, and took them as the pattern of poem creation and the standard of poem criticism. Secondly, the Ge Diao School suggested learning about the aesthetic style from the literary text of ancient poems and learning about the characteristics of an author from his works. They regarded that not only as a way to poetry appreciation ,but also as a route to poetry writing.The poetry theory of the Ge Diao School was established basically on three problems, including whether or not to learn from ancient model works , what to learn and how to learn. In the aspect of the poetry style theory, Li Mengyang appreciated the powerful style of Li Bai and Du Fu, opposed the style of He Jingming . This kind of one-sided style theory was modified by He Jingming, Wang Shizhen and so on. In the aspect of the poetry development history , memhers of the Ge Diao School pointed out the track in which the poems developed and changed. They generally argue that all Guti poems should follow the style established in the Han and Wei Dynasties and all Gelv poems should follow the style established in the early Tang Dynasty .They ignored the poems composed in the middle and late Tang Dynasty and in the Song Dynasty. The theory about pattern and rules was the most important part in the theory of the Ge Diao School. The Ge Diao School emphasized rules and was fastidious with everything...