After The Northern Song Dynasty: Yuan Haowen And The Traditional Chinese Poetry

This thesis is a textual study on Yuan Hao-wen's poems, including collation, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation. In my textual criticism, a poem is not regarded as an independent work, instead, it is discussed in the context of the poetic tradition for better understanding. In order to avoid doctrinism and superficiality resulted from macroscopic view, with the aid of the theory of middle range, this thesis disassembles the poetic tradition into some sub-traditions, and discusses certain poems in the context of corresponding sub-tradition. Speaking in detail, the thesis will discuss Yuan Hao-wen's poems in the following aspects.Poems on painting. Yuan Hao-wen is one of the most important poets in writing poems on paintings after Du Fu, Su Shi, and Huang Tingjian, and has created some new characteristics when inheriting and innovating the tradition. His poems on Mountain-and-Water paintings are melted with his personal memories and thoughts, often with an imaginary visual angle entering a painting which is developed on the base of Du Fu's poems. His poems on painting of historical quotation are composed of unique remarks and serious meditation upon morals, without direct mention of the paintings. His poems on portrait paintings are full of self-reflection and self-expectation, often with meditation on the intellectuals' (Shi's) choice about reclusion and engagement. His poems on paintings depicting objects usually have an emphasis on implied meanings of the objects painted, as like intoning-object poems have. Briefly speaking, in Yuan Hao-wen's poems on paintings, poetry and painting have a consistent relationship in the archaic tradition of poetry expressing mind.Poems on history. In the history of poems on history, methods of allusion have developed from easy to complex. From the Han and Wei Dynasty to the North Dynasty, allusions of poems on history were usually limited in a line, or just piled up simply. Yuan Hao-wen developed a new method of allusion in his poems on history, namely introducing a series of related historical or literary allusions on a historical theme, with the result of complicated intertextuality.Poems on nature. The tradition of poems on nature is a construction of modern scholarship, followed with a process of choosing and repelling. In such a tradition, Yuan Hao-wen, with Su Shi and other poets, was located on the edge. Different from classical poets on nature like Wang Wei, Yuan Hao-wen's poems on nature are filled with strong emotion and interpretation, with self-involved landscape. Discussion on Yuan Hao-wen's poems may help us reconsider the tradition of poems on nature.Septasyllabic Regulated Verse. In the realm of Septasyllabic Regulated Verse, the three most prominent styles are of Du Fu, Xikun poets, and Jiangxi School. As far as non-significant characters and abnormal tones used frequently, and continual syntax in pursuit are concerned, Yuan Hao-wen is similar with Jiangxi School. In addition, Yuan Hao-wen is accustomed to use variation excessively, with the result of Cliche.Quinsyllabic Ancient Verse. Yuan Hao-wen has constructed a genealogy of quinsyllabic ancient verse, with Feng Ya(风雅) as the standard, and Tao Yuanming and Su Shi as the representatives. In his writing of and criticism on Quinsyllabic Ancient Verse, Yuan Hao-wen esteemed and was different from Tao Yuanming, while disparaged and was similar with Su Shi. This paradox resulted to the fundamental style of Yuan Hao-wen's Quinsyllabic Ancient Verse.Yuefu Poems. The tradition of Yuefu poetry, perhaps, is the most normative one in all kinds of poetic traditions, and the most obsolete genre in some people's viewpoint. Different from many poets of the North Dynasty, Yuan Hao-wen was interested in Yuefu poetry to some degree, and wrote some poems. Yuan Hao-wen's Yuefu poems are obsolete in subjects, at the same time, open to new poetic forms. It's difficult to say if his Yuefu poems are obsolete, or fashionable. Citation of poetry. In the context of the change of poetic idea in the North Dynasty, Yuan Hao-wen's citation in his poems boldly was illegal and had incurred criticism. The reason of his illegal behavior is that he came into some kind of branch road. He appreciated Huang Tingjian's viewpoint that learned scholarship was good for innovation of poetry, at the same time, he believed in Su Shi's tease with ownership of poetry, with the result of quoting ancient verse, not making new lines.Preface of Ci poetry. In the ideology of classical genres, Ci poetry, as a preliminary genre, had experienced an evolutionary process towards poetry. In this process, preface of Ci poetry developed from non-existent to existent, from succinct to complex. Yuan Hao-wen is an important link of the advancement. His preface of Ci poetry had some functions, like explaining backgrounds, recording historical materials, interpreting allusions and words, especially working in coordination with main text, with the result of a structure containing both narrative and lyric, both prose and verse.