Xie Lingyun Poetry Study

Comparing with the flourishing situation of the research of Tang poetry, the researchers have not devoted much attention to the poetry of Wei, Jin, the Northern and Southern Dynasties. To a great extent, it is because the importance of these periods in the history of Chinese poetry has not been realized sufficiently. The case studies up to now on the poetry of these periods are mainly about Tao Yuan-ming, whose poems did not really represent the distinguishing features of his days, rather than about Xie Iing-yun, the important figure in the transition of the type and style of the poetry from Han, Wei and Jin to the Southern Dynasties. It is quite evident that the researches on Xie's poems are in disproportion at all with his factual status in the history of Chinese poetry.From the viewpoint of the phylogeny of Chinese poetry, the dissertation intends to make a comprehensive study on Xie Ling-yun's poems. With the consideration of the largely accepted fact that Liu-Song period is the turning point in the literary history of Wei, Jin, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and also with the understanding that Xie Ling-yun's poems are the bridge that links the poetry of Wei and Jin and those of the Southern Dynasties, the dissertation also hopes to bring to light Xie Ling-yun's function not only in the poetic history of Wei, Jin, the Northern and Southern dynasties, but also in the whole history of Chinese poetry.Besides the introduction and four addenda, the dissertation includes three parts. The general situation of the study on Xie Ling-Yun's poems and significance of farther discussions is presented in the introduction.What made Xie's poems different from other poems is because of his unique personality that results in his family and the social background, so I make an investigation of his life and thoughts, the relationship between both his life and thoughts and his poetic writing in the first part of the dissertation. Arranging relative historical records and making an analyze in detail, I emphasize some outstanding traits of Xie's poems, such as "lordly", "noble-minded" that resorted from his family background and the development of social thoughts from Jian'an through Zhengshi to the early days of Liu-song period, his passion for life that came from his religion context, and so on.In the second part, I analyze concretely the artistic characteristics of Xie Ling-yun's poems. I discuss some prominent general features, such as "free fromvulgarity", "carved and euphuistic without traces", and "elegant and factitious", etc. I also analyze the external elements that make up of the general features of Xie's poems, viz. the larruping features of images, choosing words, literary quotations, and composition. The personal features of the images created by Xie Ling-yun, such as choosing images from as huge as the sky and the sea, to as small as grass and tree, making use of archaic images with creative adjustment, and constructing fire-new images, constitute the general artistic style and features of Xie Ling-yun's poems, and behave themselves by idiographic writing skills such as choosing exact words, carving decent sentences, and composing sections and chapters.In the third part, I discuss the status and influence of Xie Ling-yun's poems in the history of Chinese poetry. Xie inherited and improved the literary heritages of ancient times by imitating learning and improving some writing skills of ancient poets, using for reference expressing technique of ancient poems to depict scenery and express emotions. Xie takes an important status and have a remarkable influence in the following periods (Limited to the length of the dissertation, I only take Tang dynasty as an example) as well as during the Southern dynasty. By researching concrete critical materials and comparing Xie's poems with those of the poets of the following dynasties, I try to make a full and accurate discussion on these aspects.There are four addenda attach to the dissertation. Base on the thorough investigation of the editions of Xie's work, I have accomplished addendum 1: Research on the Existent Editions of Xie Ling-yun's Poems and Essays, and addendum 2: Annotation of Xie Ling-yun's Poems. By close reading of Xie's poems and studying in detail the art of composition of his poems, I accomplish addendum 3: The Examples of Correcting of the Paraphrase of Xie's Poems. There were also some mistakes about the dating of Xie's poems, especially of his Yuefu poems, so I try to provide my understanding of these in addendum 4: The Relationship between the dating of Xie's Yuefu Poems and his Life and Thoughts.