Liu Shen Poetry Study

Lu Shen, who is a famous literatus(especially in Song Jiangliterary circle) of mid-Ming Dynasty. His150volumes of poems andarticles second to none in Ming Dynasty. Unfortunatelly, hisachievements in literary is covered by his famous painting andcalligraphy, and also neglected by later generations. In this paper, weobserved the figure and his position in literary circles especially hiscontribution to the literary circles of Song Jiang district (Shanghai today)by overviewing his literary creation.This paper consists of an introduction and five chapters:The introduction part, introduced the figure--Lu Shen, and theresearch status of his poems and articles firstly; the discussed the valueof the Lu Shen researching.The main body includes five chapters. First chapter introducesthe family,ifetime and friends of Lu Shen. The section introduces Lu’sfriends is the important part. It analyzes the relationships of Lu Shen withWu Zhong, Cha Ling and Former Heptacodium respectively.Second chapter discusses the spread and change of theversions of Yan Shan Ji, which is a collection of poems and articleswritten by Lu Shen. Yan Shan Ji includes150volumes. There mainly havefour versions: the home edition in Jiajing years; Lu Qilong edition inChongzhen years; Lu Yingling edition in In sixty-one Kangxi; and The Si KuQuan Shu edition. Among these, the home one is most comprehensive,and The Si Ku Quan Shu edition is popular for its easy to obtain. Thesecond section of this chapter introduced his works by the classificationof Confucian classics, history, philosophy and literature.Third chapter inspects the literary ideology in two aspects:poetry and prose. In poetry, Lu admired Han, Wei Dynasity andflourishing Tang, but rejected Song in principle. This opinion consistents with Former Heptacodium, but the difference is that he values thepoetry should "rely on temperament" and "express self feelings" etc.,and didn’t like imitation literally.His proposal amended the poetryideology of Former Heptacodium in a certain degree, also be regardedas the guide to reformation of After Seven. As in prose aspect, Luadmired Qin and Han Dynasity, also proposed the style of the EightGreat Men of Letters.In fourth and fifth chapters,we research Lu’s poetry and prose indetail. Fourth chapter inspects the contents of his poetry in the view oftheme and form. His poetry is good at literary quotation, imageadoption, and fine scenery description. The poetry style is clear andbright, readers can always feel its purity and the sense that far from themadding crowd. Fifth chapter researches his prose. He laid emphasis onthe situation of true living and true feeling, and he was good atdescribing the exquisite and gracious personal emotion, and thecomplex and subtle inner feeling. He gave much attention on theexpress of subjective mood.The status of Lu in literary circles is as much equal to FormerHeptacodium, and formed asituation of tripartite confrontation withXu Zhenqing and Gu Qing in mid-Wu district. Though affected by Retrodeeply, he still kept the subject position of the a literatus’s independent,this is an esteemable character. His poetry ideology amended theRetro Trend in mid-Ming, and also inspired Tang-song School. At lastbut not least, he initiated the fashion of description the character andpersonalit-y of a figure, which was widespread used in the essay oflater-Min.