A Study On The Poems And The Prose Of Cheng Bi

Cheng Bi was an officer in the Southern Song Dynasty,who had great influence in the field of politics at that time. Cheng Bi was born in Huizhou,the source of Xin'an rationalism.To some extent,he inherited the pragmatic spirit of some Xin'an rationalists,such as Cheng Dachang,Wu Jing,through his uncle named Huang He.In the period of the Song and the Jin,the national consciousness inspired traditional intellectual with the responsibility of serving the nation,especially generals as Qiu Chong,Xin Qiji,Ye Shi,Cui Yuzhi,who got along well with Cheng Bi.The political ambitions and the utilitarianism had an effect on formation and development of his thoughts,that embodied the following characteristics:Tao and Pragmatism. Cheng Bi's literary ideas were closely linked to his thoughts.He preferred Tao to literature.At the same time,he thought highly of the content and despised the gorgeous style of writing.The poetry writing comes down in his literary ideas.He thought that poetry was just a tool to record something,such as the journey,events,social activities,objects and mourning.He wanted to convey the things clearly to the readers by simple words, straightforward sentences and the prose way of the poem. These poems showed two characteristics.In terms of technique of expression,they were"poems of verse"and in terms of the style,they were plain and fluent. On the other hand,Cheng Bi created dangerous and strange artistic conception occasionally with unexpected and precipitous words.Also,he used Bright and beautiful words to establish broad and fresh atmosphere.These poems represented a widely different poetic style,which could be called maladroit.The major spirit of Cheng Bi's prose creation was Pragmatism.And the political essays could be supposed to be the highest achievement in these prose,especially the style named Zoushu and Zhazi.In order to express his thoughts about people's livelihood,official,the method to be a good king,an excellent prime minister,or a brave general,and the border guard accurately and detailedly,he valued the plain language very much.In addition,Cheng Bi preferred the style which could be called parallel because of his experiences in the Boxue Hongci section.Practicality and beauty were the essence of prose, and Cheng Bi had both in spades.He quoted a lot of Confusion canons and historical materials to prove his point of view,and used the rhythm,such as metaphor,contrast,parallelism to make the language elaborate,and tones convincing.Besides,to strengthen persuasion and make principles clear,Cheng Bi used artistic techniques such as the organic synthesis of narrative characters and arguing,the concept of universe induction with human,and the culture of human feelings,and so on.Political essays were the presentations of his highest level of prose writing.Cheng Bi expressed his education thoughts,literature ideas and religious belief with other prose styles,such as narrative prose,the preface and postscript.Zhen and inscription,epitaph,funeral oration and lament,and so on.The study of those works played an important role on appropriate understanding of Cheng Bi from different angles.