The Late Tang Poet Xu Ning And His Poetry Research

Xu Ning, a reclusive poet who lived between middle and later Tang Dynasty drew a poem fame promoted by Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen in Yuan He years. Born in the Tang Dynasty that was already decayed, all his life he did not get an official only to concentrate on poem finally. Xu Ning was identified as a disciple of the Bai School by Zhang Wei in "the Hosts and Guests of the Poet" because he learned from the experience of Bai Juyi’s poetry. However, since his poem "Lushan Waterfall" was tested by Su Shi, he was disdained and criticized repeatedly later.This paper is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is about the basic situation of Xu Ning and his poetry, including his hometown, social contact and his works. On the basis of academic studies by the related scholars, this chapter strives to examine some mistakes such as the mistakes in punctuation and the misunderstanding of references relevant to Xu Ning. The second and third chapters are the research to the subject matter contend and the artistic characteristics of his poetry which have been overlooked by the academia. To sum up, Xu’s poetry seldom pay attention to social life, personal knowledge and feelings such as the life of hermits and monks, the festival and whether, the landscape and flowers, travel and intercourse, are the main content in his poetry. On the artistic expression, Xn Ning is good at the cutting of poetry material and the arrangement of poetry structure, so that his works could give us a marvelous feeling in an ordinary appearance. Xu’s poetry create beauty as far as possible on the basis of simplicity and clarity instead of florid rhetoric. In addition, in the choice on theme,word, syntax, Xu Ning also intend to draw on the experience of folk songs. All this characteristics are contributed to his poetry style which is clear and easy to understand.The last chapter mainly discusses the situation how Xu Ning was accepted by posterity. By examination of the rise and the current situation of "E Shi Theory", we can make a conclusion that the poem "Lushan Waterfall" does have immature characteristics in art. Su Shi regard it as a bad poem in accord with his own literary concept. The posterity who do everything possible to satirize and denigrate seem disgusted. As the posterity, the right attitude should be magnanimous. Besides, the culture memory related Xu Ning preserved in Yang Zhou and his hometown Tong Lu also will be examined in this chapter.