A Study Of The War Poetry In The Three Kingdoms

Throughout the whole history of the war poetry, the war poetry in the Three Kingdoms has been in a distinctive historical period. It’s a transitional period of poetry from the movement to the poem first of all, from group creation to individual one next, and it’s also a time of debate on the issue whether poetry should focus on social functions or literary aesthetics. The war poetry in the Three Kingdoms, due to the particularity of the era, obviously differs from that in any other times on no matter the forms, content or ways of expression.This whole thesis is composed of three parts. The first part is the introduction. The main emphasis of it is to solve three problems-the definition, traceability and literature review of war poetry in the Three Kingdoms. Chapter two is the second part of this thesis which consists of four sections. Section one discusses the general characteristics and contributions of the Three Kingdoms war poets and their works. Section two introduces the three contributions of Cao cao to the history of war poetry. They respectively are:the records of realistic social life of the end of Han dynasty, old inscribed with current events and the deliberation of life theme. Section three discusses the Cai Yan’s contributions to war poetry, compares the war poetry of Cao cao with Cai Yan’s war poems, and thinks that the war poetry of them differ in three aspects:the different views and positions, the different war relationship, and Cao cao’s highly summarized in narrative and Cai Yan’s meticulous reproduction. Section four discusses the poems of Cao pi, Cao zhi, Wang Can and other war poets. Chapter three and chapter four are the third part of this thesis. Chapter three focuses on the building of canonical form of expressing emotions of the Three Kingdoms war poetry. Chapter four introduces the pioneering contribution of the Three Kingdoms war poetry to the theme of war poetry. These two chapters, in general, reflect the contributions of the Three Kingdoms war poetry to the creation of the whole war poetry.In a word,Transitivity is its essential feature. And it builds up the canonical form of expressing emotions in a way feeling and setting are happily blended, making the change from group lyricism to individual lyricism in war poetry. Moreover, it digs on the war theme in an entirely new way, realizing a perfect fusion of war theme and life theme. On the one hand, it continues the because-of-thing spirit of reality of Book of Songs and Yuefu war poems, on the other hand, it opens up the aesthetic pursuit of emotion center, paying equal attention to both social functions and aesthetics of literature in the creation practice.