A Comparative Study On The Poetic Theory Of Wen Xin Diao Long And Wen Xuan

There was a heated debate sparked by Yongming Poetry and Gong Ti Poetry in the Qi and Liang Dynasty. As an inevitable issue, each critic would give his own answer to this question. Born in this era, Wen Xin Diao Long and Wen Xuan inherited the theory of The Preface of Mao Poetry and the former clearly emphasized that poems based on human emotions.In the face of the most important collection of poems, Wen Xin Diao Long and Wen Xuan all showed great respect to The Book of Odes, but out of different considerations. Liu Xie commended The Book of Odes because it was rich in both content and style of writing. Xiao Tong just regarded it as an unshakable classic and paid more attention to its status.Wen Xin Diao Long and Wen Xuan agreed on the excellent poets and representatives of Han poetry. They held a different opinion on Zhang Heng’s poems and the beginning of seven-character lines. In addition, they disagreed on the beginning of five-character lines. In Liu Xie’s opinion, five-character lines originated in the Pre-Qin period, but Xiao Tong believed that it originated from Li Ling’s poems at the beginning of the Han Dynasty. Except Xu Gan, Wen Xin Diao Long referred seven poets which were just contained in Wen Xuan about Jian’an poetry. Liu Xie did not like Yuefu Poems which were represented by Three Caos poetry for Confucianism, and this result showed an awareness of discrimination. There were three Zhengshi poets selected by Wen Xuan that they were just referred and praised by Wen Xin Diao Long, which reflected a high degree of consistency in the choice of the representative poets.Wen Xin Diao Long praised two famous Western Jin poets, Zuo Si and Zhang Hua and their poems were selected in Wen Xuan in large numbers. Especially the history commenting poems of Zuo Si praised by Liu Xie were all selected in Wen Xuan. Lu Ji took the first place with poems selected in Wen Xuan compared to other Western Jin poets, which reflected his aureate style of writing was completely accepted by Wen Xuan. Wen Xin Diao Long viewed Lu Jin’s poems as repetitive and it disagreed with Wen Xuan on the flowery language. Xuanxue was the focal school of thought in Eastern Jin, Guo Pu’s poems were acclaimed by Wen Xin Diao Long and Wen Xuan together, which reflected an admiration to this outstanding poet who was different in that cultural climate. Liu Xie avoided mentioning any Liu Song and Qi Dynasty poets in Ming Shi, but his affirmation with mutation and dissatisfaction with strange writing style were apparent in Tong Bian. Wen Xuan selected a large numbers of poems with the characteristic of new and aureate, which reflected it accepted the aureate poetic climate. At the same time, it also selected Tao Yuanming’s poems which were characterized as simple and unaffected. This demonstrated that Wen Xuan was inclusive on the variety of poetry.As noted above, these two books agreed on the representative poets of the development of poetry from the Pre-Qin Dynasty to the Liu Song Dynasty, to a large extent. But on Western Jin poetry and Liu Song poetry, they held different opinions with a lot of poems selected by Wen Xuan and criticized by Wen Xin Diao Long.Liu Xie respected The Book of Odes for its richness in emotion and disaccorded with the retro writers such as Pei Ziye. His viewpoint represented a compromise position. The poems selected by Wen Xuan had its own characteristics in the Qi and Liang Dynasty. Wen Xuan not only paid attention to the aesthetic characteristics of poems but also value the importance of the inheritance of Confucian artistic theory. Not focusing on the artistic skills and denying the development of literature, it showed tolerance and gentleness. Representing a compromise position, Wen Xin Diao Long viewed that the richness in emotion made a good article and Wen Xuan placed more importance on the aesthetic characteristics of poetry.