Xu Wei Poetry

The dissertation consists of five chapters.Namely,the literature history of Xu Wei's poetry in three keys;Xu Wei's thought and poetry;Xu Wei's poetry in different periods and the related self-presentations;the monographic studies of Xu Wei's poetry; and text analysis of Xu Wei's poetry.The first chapter tidies up the history of spreading fame of Xu Wei's poetry during Ming and Qing Dynasties,the concrete process of Xu Wei's poetry stepping into the early literature history,the writing and historical background of Xu Wei's poetry.For Xu Wei's poetry,the most detailed illustration is the Biography of Xu Wenchang written by Yuan Hongdao.After then,during Ming and Qing Dynasties the research on Xu Wei's poetry underwent a process from a high to a low level from evaluating Xu Wei's poetry in several poetic collective works and anthologies of different authors in Ming Dynasty to the comments on Xu Wei's poetry.Catalogue of Imperial Collection of Four gave a summing-up evaluation on Xu Wei's Poetry Collection in a brief summary on his whole literary collection which gave a profound influence on the construction of the later literature history.There are two important problems connecting with re-writing Xu Wei's poetry in the early literature history:First,what is the basis of modem literature? Second,How to write the history of Chinese Literature? With criticizing and compiling history,Xu Wei's poetry participates in the retrospect to the source of modern literature in an "absent" manner.Therefore,it became less important in rewriting the early literature history.On the background of the merging of Confucianism,Buddhism and Daoism in the middle and late Ming Dynasty,Confucianism plays the most important role in Xu Wei's thought.Simultaneously,the political background was changing:monarchs and scholar-officials were struggling for the power.Xu Wei,who was in the verge of authority,expressed his feeling by poetry towards the politics at that time in two extremes,one was sharp criticisms,and the other was self-distortion presentations under the great pressure of justice and living.So far,we don't know much about the economy of Ming Dynasty,but the rich appearance of "traveling",is an extremely good breakthrough point of the economical background of Xu Wei's poetry.The comprehensive culture prosperity in the middle and late Ming Dynasty affected the cultural sensitivity widely.Literati would demonstrate their loftiness and profound thoughts through the literary practice in a "neoclassical way" which is frequently described as an opposite way to the current ideas.The neoclassical culture from the standard elegance to the idle elegance in the middle and late Ming Dynasty is the ecology of Xu Wei's poetry creation.The second chapter probes into the relationship between Xu Wei's ideas and poetry. The thought is only a part of esthetic experiences in one's overall life and the whole world.However,due to the great influence of different thoughts on literature in Ming Dynasty Xu Wei's thought and poetry gave a different reflection of these ideas.The philosophy of Mind(Wang Yangming's thoughts) had a great effect on Xu Wei' poetry creation.Along with the change of his thought,Xu Wei's poetry presented a synchronism change in a certain degree.From the relationship between Xu Wei and his friends in the school of Wang we can see the philosophy of Mind mainly influenced his disposition rather than his poetic theory.This made Xu Wei's poetry underwent two important changes.The school of Wang,mixing with Chan,is what Xu's disposition converted to. Shou Leng Yan is the most important sutra what he studied,also is the key to many of his poetry.Specifically,we can not only analyze the influence of Ji Ben,Wang Ji, Yu-zhi Faju etc.on Xu in an argumentation,but in the historical environment of Xu's whole life.Xu Wei's lived in Jia Jing Dynasty in most of his lifetime and the Emperor Jia Jing advocated Taoism.Xu's approval towards Taoism is closely related with his political ideals.Xu despised Taoism whose doctrine airs the health preservation at first.But when he was in prison he faced with the threat of death and defaming,he found noting scripture and keeping health may establish another nobly and mystical ego.He thought this was an ideological act.Then when he was out of prison,his poetry also frequently concerned human's bone structure and physiognomy,the facial expression,and he even took elixirs which he had suspected at all times.In this way, Xu's poetry presented a decadent and dissolute style under a strangely sluggish style combined by the pursuit of contribution in Confucian,warmly asking for the eternal life in Taoism and indifference to adversities in Buddhism.The third chapter is about Xu Wei's poetry in different periods and the related self- presentation.The chapter aims to explore the development and change of Xu's poetry style diachronically. The periods should have been divided rigidly according to the literary standard, but just said as above,for the trend of different thoughts in Ming Dynasty had an extremely significant effect on literature and Xu's thoughts and poetry are different according to it.Therefore,we could divide his poetry into three periods according to the close relation between Xu Wei's poetry and the school of Wang.It's the early poetry times when Xu was 20 years old before he became Ji Ben's disciple.The intermediate stage was from his late 28 to the death of Ji Ben when Xu went to Beijing for the first time(43 years old).After that was the later period.Xu's early poems were greatly affected by his advocating to the prosperous Tang Dynasty.His poems were open with great force but contain remarkable ornate tracks.He tried his best to present himself as a young literati in a romantic cultural atmosphere as much as possible.The intermediate stage began with Xu's acceptance of the school of Wang from his tutor Ji Ben under a series of political incident.In this condition,Xu's mind became open,and his poetry style was also a reflection of his active mood.He started to give up neoclassical writing style and did not limit to imitate the poems in prosperous Tang Dynasty in the writing skills.In his old ages,Xu Wei entered Beijing for the first time and experienced many misfortunes after the death of Ji Ben.From then on,he gave up the Confucian standpoint in his poetry and his writing style became dissolute.Xu's middle and late stage poetry mainly presented a raving self-image.No matter talents or raving literati,they present their image with some "theatrical elements".This kind of "authentic ideal" is a part of the profound mainly subjective turn of the modern culture,as well as a new form of inwardness.The fourth chapter does a monographic study on three topics of his poetry:the responding poems,travel poems and the poems for the paintings.In Ming Dynasty the intellectuals increased,thus the culture moved to lower classes.At that time people liked making friends and pursuing elegant fashion so there are many responding poems.Although Xu Wei's original responding poems were well preserved,the majority of poems in response to these poems had not been saved for various reasons.The extant poems could just partly reflect his interpersonal relationship.In the "authentic culture",the self-discovery and self-affirmation must regarded relationship as the key elements.Xu Wei's responding poems maintained the tradition of the ancient lyrics and concentrated to reflect the friendship with his male friends.The typical writing in that period was the description of chivalrous lives and the ideals to practice them in the real life.Xu's travel poems recorded his rich traveling experiences due to his abundant travel diversity mood.Xu Wei's travel poems expressed his gloominess and joy in the journey.Facing the scenery,he intimate,appreciate and amuse them in an esthetic manner mostly which was contrary in his real lives.The value of Xu Wei's travel poems lies in the construction of people's leisure culture in Ming Dynasty and we can also see the pursuit of free lives in his poetry.Xu Wei is a famous freehand brushwork painter.Although he studied painting very late,he was accomplished in the painting principle very early.His poems for the paintings are not only very large in quantity,but also with rich contents.These poems may be divided into three categories:firstly,explaining the painting principle; secondly,expressing his feelings;thirdly,for his living.Among them,the poems to express his feelings rank as the most outstanding ones.The poem,calligraphy and painting merged with each other together which was in accordance with his unreasonable spirit.There is an obvious feature in these poems,which is to carry on the vision through calligraphy and inspire the readers' physical impression of esthetic joy.The fifth chapter is an analysis on Xu Wei's poems.Xu Wei's poetry favor white images,and concentrated on describing white snow,silver pheasant,white swallow, the white ewha under the moon and so on,which give a deep impression to his readers.From the angle of intertextuality,Xu Wei's writing technique of outlining the white image in his poems is very similar to the method "light broken by thick" in his paintings.Xu Wei's writing techniques on the light and shade in his poetry is also interlinked to his painting.The white is the chaste color as well as the false color.The white image in Xu Wei's poem projects his psychology state obviously,that is to hypothesize and construct the pure ideal life.He is a very intense person.Although his poems show his exquisite good-nature to some extent,they also reflect his impatience clearly.For example,there are many cloud-collapse and the drumbeat images in his poems.He made the readers experience the original emotion that had inspired the poet greatly by directly telling the readers' his true feelings.He made the readers experience life's painful,stubborn and beautiful rhythm by avoiding the delay of thinking as much as possible.Xu Wei's poetry is powerful in the control of emotion,for instance,the instant pause and the shift during the climax of his mood.Besides,we can find the verge of his madness easily in his poetry.The emotional structure of Xu Wei's poetry alternates tension with relaxation,both meditating on the past and chanting histories are his efficient ways to control his emotion.Xu Wei has destroyed the standard elegance of the poetry to some extent but he did not obviously exaggerate the pleasant sensation of this kind of destroying.He just constructed a kind of humor vividly.The feature of the emotional structure in Xu Wei's poetry is a mixture of good-nature with intension, which is in a perfect harmony with the Qi-Yan style.The appendix consists of four parts:Xu Wei chronicle and compendium of his poetry,the road map of Xu Wei's travel,the editing and collating of Xu Wei's literary collection,Xu Wei's poetry in several poetry collective works and anthologies of various authors in Ming and Qing Dynasties.