On The Study Of "Liu Zi-hou Style"

This article is a concrete analysis of the art of Liu Zong-yuan's poetic language , enriching the contents of "Liu Zi-hou Style" ,which Yan Yu called in Song Dynasty. We think that Liu Style displayed the characteristic of ancients idolization and new varieties in length of article and text structure, organizing information and exploration of coherence in conception, keeping the balance between heartsease and melancholy in emotional expression style. The characteristic above formed the identification standards of Liu Style for readers afterworld. Nevertheless, Liu's early poetry are impossible of achieving artistic conception of coldness and desolation. It is also impossible of combination of resentment and poetry creation at the early time. It would take a long time for Liu Zong-yuan to form mature characteristic of Liu Style and standards which differ from the other poet's works. We advocate that the existing works of Liu should be divided for three stages according to the age of his poetry. They are initial stage (790AD-809AD), formation stage (809AD - 814AD),and maturity stage(814AD-819AD).Liu was full of enthusiasm about exploration of poetic form at the initial stage. Though the poet had already mastered rules and forms of classical poem, he drove traditional system to the limit at that time. There were a great deal of vocabulary in his works and the color words always changed. Sometimes, Liu could obtain dispersed image in his poem, differing form any other time that the image were relaxed. And sometimes the rhythm was slow, sometimes was quick. At the formation stage, the poetic form of Liu Style returned to rules and forms of classical poem in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The sentences impressed readers with cleanliness and pure, so we can easily understand the texture of poetic image. Usually, Liu learned form predecessors for reference to innovation. Affectionateness, plainness, certain formulas and believable emotion were the important characteristics of Liu Style at the formation stage. At the maturity stage, Liu mainly used the common rhyme of Tang poetry while writing poems. He had a preference for seven-character poems. The vocabulary had fallen off, but arrangement of ideas had been clear. And his poetic language was almost natural at those times. The coherence of Liu's poetry was steady and far-flung. From then on, Liu Zong-yuan had found his own expression style by integration of language materials which came from Tao Yuan-ming, Xie Ling-yun, Du Fu and so on, absorbing the language characteristics of Han-Meng School of Poetry during the period of Yuanhe in Mid Tang Dynasty. Using concise language to express deep emotion, keeping the balance between heartsease and melancholy in his works, which is the real meaning of Liu Zi-hou Style.