Roots That Can't Be Abscinded

Early verses in vernacular Chinese, as the inchoation of Chinese New Poetry, has significant meaning in literary history. It rebelled against traditional verse, drew lessons from foreign verses and has been the focus of researchers for quite a long time. The author believes that early verses in vernacular Chinese didn't cut off the connection with the tradition, but was greatly influenced by the deep-rooted creations of traditional verses. This thesis begins with both definitions and the original motivations of early verses in vernacular Chinese. Firstly, the author will investigate its poetic theory systematically. The writers of early verses had clear attitudes toward the tradition, they had found out the legitimacy in the traditional literature, and their poetic theory was mainly based on essences of traditional verses. These poets diversified poetic styles, introduced vernacular Chinese into new poetry, multiplied poetic styles, banished old rhymes and built up new ones, claimed concrete diction and images, inherited the beauty of artistic conception from ancient verses, proposed realism vigorously. In the modes above, early verses in vernacular Chinese has inherited and developed the Chinese traditional poetics. In the field of literary composition, the works of early verses took vernacular Chinese into frames of traditional verses, combined lines of traditional verses with vernacular verses, inherited and conversed traditional images, and presented the beauty of symmetry in lines and complicated rhymes in rhythm; these works are "picture in poetry", and showed realistic spirits of reflecting joys and sorrows and being composed according to the real life. Taking both poetic theory and works of early verses into consideration, this article then explores that, because of great mental aesthetics inertia, tradition has always had an uncut-effect on early verses even on the whole Chinese new poetry; and will analyze the dilemma which early verses was faced. In conclusion, this article analyses several contradictions in early verses and proposed proper attitudes toward the tradition, put the inheritance of early verses from traditional verses into the background of literary history, and give a fairly critical estimation.