A Study On Yu Que’s Poems

Yuan dynasty was characterized by national fusion and unification as well as culturalcollision and interaction between different ethnic groups. It was especially notable that alegion of minority poets entered the world of poetry in late Yuan dynasty. These poetsintegrated folk custom of their own ethical origin into their poetry compositions whileexerting their talents and capacity, thus adding a brilliant page to the earth of China that wasalready blessed with an time-honored tradition of poetry. Yu Que was one significantrepresentative among them.This dissertation, based on basic ideas of individual study on poets in the field of ancientChinese literature, expounded the life experience and poetic achievements of Yu Que, whowas active in late Yuan dynasty. Firstly, information about his life experiences and writings iscovered, which includes the division of his life into three periods: He spent his greed days onfarming and reading in Qingyang Mountain, during which he learned about Han peopleculture and eventually became erudite. After he turned31year old, he entered politics. In therises and falls of the political life, he resigned his rank and returned to his native land twice.In his late years, he was appointed the aide-de-camp to the marshal of the military area of eastof Huai river and garrisoned the city of Anqing where he engaged in fierce battles with theRed Turban Rebels. Out of isolation of his garrison, he was finally defeated, when he died byhis own sword.The connotations of Yu Que’s poems, including allegorical, scenery, apopemptic andones on Chinese paintings, covered a wide range of topics. The allegorical poems were richestin practical values, which realistically represented the life status of people during the war,revealing his Confucius people-oriented thoughts and abhorrence of the sins. The poems onsceneries mostly written by the technique of plain description, in which he expressed hisfeeling and thoughts via things and history, manifested his intense longing for returning tonature arms. Yu Que’s apopemptic poems were categorized to two groups by themes. Onegroup directly expressed the sentiments caused by departure, thus being saturated by lamentation and sadness, while the other mainly delivered encouragement to his friends orhimself. The Chinese paintings he composed poems on included figure paintings, landscapepaintings as well as flowers and birds paintings. In these poems, the imagery of the paintingswere represented by poetry, in which artistic recreations combining poetry and art wasrealized, thus enriching his poems with more profound cultural connotations.The artistic features of Yu Que’s poems were mainly demonstrated in five aspects. Ontype and structure, his poems were of all types, whereas most of them were with fivecharacters in a line. As to the narrating technique, Yu Que leaned much on the artisticexpression of allusions and expressing feelings by objects, which broadened the coverage andenhanced the appeal of his poems. In terms of artistic style, Yu Que imitated poets in Han andWei dynasty out of his reverence towards the traditional, simple and elegant manner of poetry,while fresh and bright style of poems in the Six Dynasties was also sought. On the linguisticlevel, Yu Que was in pursuit of unsophisticated configurations of words, whereas he did notignore the selection and matching of colors of words, showing the tension of the language.Additionally, he paid much attention to the unique customs of the ethical group of Xixia bycombining the essence of Han culture with the vigorous and rough temperamental elements ofXixia people, thus completed the composition of many exquisite poems.In short, Yu Que’s poems reached a relatively high level judged both on artistic style aswell as subjects and contents, which made Yu Que one of the indispensible poets in late Yuandynasty. While we are praising Yu Que’s high moral stands, his literary achievements, statusand influences also deserve attention and appreciation.