A Study On Du Fu’s Poems In Regulated Verse

Du Fu, one of the greatest poets in ancient China, has been the focus of attentionand research. Besides ancient Chinese poems, poems in regulated verse may be thebest form to integrate long comment, complicated current affairs and deep-drawnemotional thoughts, especially in a situation where both reciprocating purpose and adepressed but grand style need to be achieved by skills of antithesis, rhyming,methodicalness. In the development process of poems in regulated verse in TangDynasty, Du Fu’s poems in regulated verse represented the highest achievement of histime, generating profound impacts on generations. Therefore, it is a necessity toanalyze and discuss Du Fu’s poems in regulated verse.The introduction of this thesis mainly introduces research significance of Du Fu’spoems in regulated verse and the current research status of poems in regulated verse inacademia. Du Fu created more than120pieces of poems in regulated verse. Of them,31pieces were created before he was in Shu;29pieces during his stay in Dongchuanand Xichuan;35pieces when he was in Kuizhou, and32pieces when he was in Jing and Xiang. The number of Du Fu’s poems in regulated verse is larger than any otherpredecessors. In addition, Du Fu extended the length of poems in regulated verse,enriched the theme of it and improved the seven-character regulated verse. All theseembody the Du Fu’s pursuit and exploration for art and technique of poems inregulated verse. Therefore, Du Fu’s poems in regulated verse should not be recognizedas “Wufu” and be obliterated blindly. There has been little systematic study on poemsin regulated verse for half a century in academia, and early study mainly focused ondefinition and features of poems in regulated verse in form of vocabulary entry andsome existing literary forms. Academic works on poems in regulated verse did notappear until1980’s, and most of them were single papers, focusing mainly on poems inregulated verse of Shu, poems in regulated verse of Kuizhou, reciprocating poems inregulated verse, seven-character regulated verse, appreciation of individual poems inregulated verse and other aspects. All of these studies were scattered relatively, lackingof an overall overview.The text is divided into five chapters.Being divided into three sections, the first chapter will be a summary of poems inregulated verse. Firstly, it will present a brief definition some basic features and the source of poems in regulated verse. Poem in regulated verse is a kind of metrical versethat has more than ten lines, which is defined clearly in current academia. But inancient times, the name and concept of it were defined differently in different periods.In Tang and Song, they were vaguely defined. To Yuan Dynasty, the name of “poemsin regulated verse” was proposed for the first time by Yang Shihong in Tangyin, andthis name was cited by Gao Bing in The Collection of Tang Poem in Ming Dynasty.After a long time usage, this name became an accepted name. The second section willbe about style features of poems in regulated verse. Poems in regulated verse arerestrained in conveying poets’ ideas or feelings by metrical limitations of level andoblique tones, antithesis, rhyme from the beginning to the end. Poets could not expresstheir thoughts and feelings freely by poems in regulated verse, which made it hard tocreate. Even if it was created, it was created in a repetitive and miscellaneous way. Butat the same time, poems in regulated verse have their own advantages in bringing outthe theme, the beginning and the end, paragraph layout, transition, epigram, allusion,etc. This is also the most distinctive characteristic that poems in regulated verse differfrom four-rhythm metrical verse. The third section will trace to the source of poem inregulated verse, and discuss its forming and development in Tang Dynasty. The poems in regulated verse originated from ancient Chinese poems by Yan Yanzhi and XieLingyun in the Southern Dynasties and developed gradually in the Qi and LiangDynasties, then began to take shape between the Sui and Tang Dynasties. InEarly-Tang Dynasty, people began to create poems in regulated verse consciously. Bythe time of Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen, it had become an accepted poem style.The second chapter will be about maturity of Du Fu and poems in regulated verse.Du Fu endured many trials and tribulations in his whole life. Changes of socialenvironment and his living conditions had a great influence on his poems, making hispoems undergo periodic change. This chapter will be divided into five sections, and thefirst section will be about Du Fu’s poems in regulated verse before he moved to Shu.Du Fu took a trip to Qi and Lu in his youth, and only two pieces of poems in regulatedverse were created during this period. Then he went to Chang’an and lived in there forten years. During this time, he attempted to get a post in imperial court through civilservice examination, but failed. After that, he wrote some poems to introduce himselfto the court, but failed again. Finally, he even hit upon the idea of giving up a civilianpursuit to join the army. Though many pieces of poems in regulated verse were createdduring this time, their artistic value was not high, because they all sang the praises of the court. Before long, his country fell into an instable condition because of An LushanRebellion. Du Fu also experienced a series of mishaps. Although survived from thechaos and was commissioned as a supervisor by Emperor Suzong of Tang, he soon wasdemoted and worn down by poverty and illness, and had to leave Shaanxi for Sichuan.This is the hardest time and the most emotional time for Du Fu. Thoughts and contentsexpressed in his poems written in this period had a great significance to the history.The third section will be about poems in regulated verse created when Du Fu was ineast Sichuan and west Sichuan. After arrived in Shu, Du Fu built a humble cottage andhad a good relation with Yan Wu and Zhang Yi. Later, he was offered a position in YanWu’s office. During this time, poems in regulated verse that reflected current affairswas not much due to geographical conditions. Except Twelve-rhythm on FoundingCapital and Five Poems on Grieving over Spring, the others all were reciprocatingpoems or reflected his office life and expressed his anguish and sadness. Du Fuexplored a lot of techniques on writing poems in regulated verse and contributed a lotto it in this period, including seven-character regulated verse and suite poem ofregulated verse. The fourth section will be about Du Fu’s poems in regulated versecreated when he was in Kuizhou. Du Fu lived in Kuizhou for two years, and wrote more than30pieces of poems in regulated verse, which could be said to have a harvest.In this period, most of his poems in regulated verse recalled the past and mourned forfriends, revealing the sadness of oldness. But some still expressed the ambition ofmaking contributions to his country, such as Pay Respect to Temple of Liu Bei and ToLibrarian of Li Ba. In addition, Du Fu created some pieces of poems in regulated verseon visiting places of interest, and some for his son Zongwu, some on origin anddevelopment of poetics, and some about his own experience on creating poems. Ofthem, one piece of poems in regulated verse he created had one hundred rhythms! Thefifth section will be about poems in regulated verse when Du Fu was in Jing and Xiang.During this time, his whole family just lived in a small boat and lived a miserable life.Therefore, most of his poems in regulated verse still expressed sadness, anguish of hislife and anger of having no chance to show his talent.The third chapter will be about theme features of Du Fu’s poems in regulatedverse, being divided into four sections. The first section will be about poems inregulated verse that introduced himself to the imperial court. The number of this kindof poems in regulated verse was about ten, and their artistic value was not high. Thesecond section will be about reciprocating poems. Most of them are for relatives and friends, often finished without too much amending. Therefore, they were very true andpure. The third section will be about poems in regulated verse that spoke his minddirectly. Although the number of this kind of poems in regulated verse was not large,each of them was very ingenious, providing sources for studying character of Du Fuand for studying thought and artistry of his poems, especially for studying Du Fu’s oldage life and his mental mind. The fourth section will be about his poems in regulatedverse on current political situation and national affairs. Du Fu was concerned aboutnational affairs in his whole life. In his poems, he sang praises of Tang’s earlyprosperity, lamented the fall of Tang, criticized the Tang’s failures in policy andrecalled with emotion about the decline of Tang. Besides all of the above, his poemshave other rich themes, such as describing scenes, expressing emotion, syncretizingpoems and paintings, and appreciating poems.The fourth chapter will be about methodicalness features of Du Fu’s poems inregulated verse, being divided into four sections. The first section will be about poem’sfirst line and the last line; the second chapter will be about paragraphing; the thirdsection will be about technique of parallelism; the fourth section will be aboutterseness in language. Du Fu’s poems in regulated verse, especially the long ones had a concise paragraph structure, integrated with emotion and thoughts from the beginningto the end. Du Fu put a lot of work on the first line and the last line of each poem. Thefirst line always played a role as a commanding summation while the last line alwaysbrought the poem to an end but left the artistic conception still to linger. Du Fu’spoems in regulated verse were good at transition, and were recognized as examples byWu Qiao of Qing Dynasty.The fifth chapter will be about comments by later generations of Du Fu’s poemsin regulated verse, Some thought it flawless, some held a negative attitude towards it,some thought highly about it, but also pointed out some flaws.Du Fu created much more pieces of poems in regulated verse than any other poets,and the length of these poems was much longer than other ones. The theme ofconcerning his country and his people in his works injected new vitality to poems inregulated verse, enriching the theme of these poems. His poems in regulated verse alsoproduced an important influence on poems of late Tang Dynasty, Song, Yuan, Mingand Qing Dynasties.