Han To Four Words Poetry In,

In the Han-wei-jin dynasties, four-character verse was at one time prosperous,but scholars have seldom touched such poems of that period.The author of this treatise tries to discuss its development,its literary value and meaning,and its outstanding writers and their works.The prevalence of four-character verse in the two Han dynasties was closely related to its structure features and the vogue of advocating Confucianism and music of that time.Compared with The Book of Songs, four-character verse of the Han dynasty had changed a lot.Its content had been restricted within moralization ,especially praise,and the formal changes were reflected in vocabulary,structure,creating way and expressional skill,etc.In those periods, four-character verse had also in a large scale permeated other styles which mainly included "fu",applied styles such as eulogy,encomium,inscription,maxim,to the advantage of itself and many other styles.In the Wei-jin dynasties, because of ideological trend, political and social environment,creation pattern, and such,four-character verse throve further with its potential exploding.It embodies some distinct characteristics of that time which chiefly include abstruse content,emptiness and vastness of its style,resemblances to "fu",and a wide range of time and space.These had enriched its expressional skill and artistic style.Cao Cao,Ji Kang and Tao Yuanming were the outstanding writers of four-character verse in the Wei-jin periods. Having to a great extent broken the restrictions of The Book of Songs,especially that of The Standard Songs and The complimentary Songs, their four-character verse particularly succeeded in brief words and extensive meaning,lofty and elegant style,and mild rhythm respectively,which had a close tie with their mentality and personality.Despite the beneficial social and cultural environment and the talented poets, four-character verse of the Han-wei-jin dynasties had given way to five-character verse because of its demerits and the development of social life and language.However,as a special moralistic and communicative tool, four-character verse had performed an important function in those periods,and its vicissitudes in the literature history is enlightening as well.