An Analysis Of The Juxtaposition Of Fish And Bird Imagery In Wei And Jin Poetry

There have been juxtaposition of fish and bird imagery in the pre-Qin's "The Book of Songs"and "Zhuang Zi". Confucian scholars of the Han Dynasty interpreted "Book of Songs" in a praise-and-broadsheet way, giving the fish and bird imagery in "The Book of Songs" great political and moral color. The juxtaposition of fish and bird imagery in "Zhuang Zi" contains the idea of "Dao", and carries a meaning of nature and free. This is the prelude of the juxtaposition of fish and bird imagery in Wei and Jin Poetry.There are no juxtaposition of fish and bird imagery in Han poetry. And then they appear in large numbers in Wei and Jin poetry. This has great relation to the rise of metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties. As Metaphysics carrys forward nature and asides Confucian diocesan, the juxtaposition of fish and bird imagery in this period discards the political and moral significance which is given by those Confucian scholars in Han Dynasty to "The Book of Songs", and mainly success the original Bixing usage in "Book of Songs", and the meaning of the juxtaposition of fish and bird imagery in "Dao" and nature in "Zhuang Zi".The more profound connotation of juxtaposition of fish and bird imagery in Wei and Jin Poetry in aesthetic philosophy embodies two aspects: First, it embodies that nature takes up an important position in traditional Chinese culture. If "Bixing" broadly defined as the association between nature and personnel, at least from "Book of Changes" on, the ancients had viewed persons' things from the perspective of nature. The usage of Bixing in "Book of Songs" further reflects that the ancient Chinese had been used to discovering their own shadows from the nature, and had accustomed to confirm their status from the state of natural objects. In the text, this conclusion is drawn by analysizing bird imagery in "The Book of Changes" and "The Book of Songs". Second, it embodies the specific up-and-down view of world of the ancient Chinese. In the cosmology of ancient China there is a traditional dualism of yin and yang, as well as the laws of cycling operation of the universe. And on the basis of this it formates the up-and-down view of world for the ancient Chinese. Such up-and-down observation of the natural world is full of time-sensitive rhythm of music and dance.