Research On Poetry Self-annotation In Mid-T’ang Dynasty

Poetry self-annotation is a common literary phenomenon in the history of verse. In T’ang dynasty, it was prevailing for poets to annotate their own works so as to convey some information which was otherwise hard to understand by reading the poems only. Poetry self-annotation was mostly frequently used in Mid-T’ang period, particularly among poet groups best represented by Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen. Their self-annotation is large in amount, long in text, and diversified in content, which deserves further study.The paper is composed by three chapters and the conclusion. In Chapter One, the origin of poetry self-annotation is reviewed, and the general picture of poetry self-annotation in Mid-T’ang period is introduced. Chapter Two and Chapter Three are the body part of the paper, which discusses from two aspects:the relationship between self-annotation and the styles of poetry of Yuan Bai and the relationship between self-annotation and the personal creation of Yuan Bai. Chapter Two focuses on the relationship between two influential styles which named Xin Yuefu and Yuanhe Style and the self-annotation. The self-annotations in Xin Yuefu are used to explain the events behind the verses, which shows "all poetry materials are true". The self-annotation in Yuanhe Style makes readers accept the wide description of scenery. In Chapter Three, I discusses the personalization of poetry materials of Yuan Bai and the personalization of poetic language of Yuan Bai. These characteristics are indicated in Yuan Bai’s self-annotation. In the conclusion, in which audience awareness reflected in the poetry self-annotation is investigated.