The Study Of Imagery Of Light And Candles In Du Fu's Poems

The imagery of light and candles origins from The Book of Songs's"tingliaozhiguang" and The Songs of Chu's "langaomingzhu,huadengcuoxie".Creatively artistic processed by the poets in different times,the meaning and usage scenario of the imagery of light and candles had been gradually fixed.Before Du Fu in Tang dynasty,the meaning of the imagery of light and candles already appeared as the relatively fixed meanings of "Love and yearning" "Strolling about with candles at night""Candles in the wind" "Banquet with guests" "Seeing friends off" "Loneliness and depression" "Yearning for homeland" "Buddhist culture" "Studying hard" "Welcoming the new year with candles" "Enjoying the lanterns in the 15th of the lunar month" "White hair lighted up by the light and candles" "Yearning of the soldiers" and "Not lighting the official candles".The imagery of light and candles appeared 51 times in Du Fu's poems throughout his whole life.Du Fu also created more using methods and meanings of the imagery of light and candles.In the different stage of Du Fu's life,the way he used the imagery of light and candles and meanings he created of the imagery of light and candles are changed according to his different life stage,which can be apart into 4 stages:Before An-shi Rebellion,An-shi Rebellion period,After An-shi Rebellion to Kuizhou period and Leaving Kuizhou and wandering period.Big changes of his mentality and living conditions makes him change evidently in using the imagery of light and candles in his poems.His attitude to the light and candles had also changed.The change of Du Fu's using methods of the imagery of light and candles revealed the change of his comprehension of life and the change of his mindset.Experiencing the all kinds of sufferings,the ego of Du Fu had been closed around and mixed together by the imagery of light and candles.When Du Fu was old an weak,he had negative feelings and resisting mentality of his ego and wrote more negative state of light and candles.He also not closed with light and candles like before in his poems sometimes.Du Fu's fire of life was dim with the candles in his poems.Therefore,the imagery of light and candles in Du Fu's poems can demonstrate the whole process of the change of Du Fu's mindset and life.The imagery of light and candles in Du Fu's poems reveals the art features of"express deep feelings by describing the tiny objects" from three aspects concluding the details of lighting,the details of the fire and the details of the feelings.The details of lighting includes the light and candles slow down the dynamic views and zoom in the static views.The details of the fire includes snuff,flame and candle.The details of the feelings includes 2 parts of when the light is on and when the light is off.The imagery of light and candles in the Du Fu's poems used the method of detail description to highlight the "images" with focused manner,describing its details,which revealed "Feelings" successfully.It helped combining the "Feelings" and"Images" tightly and mixing the feelings and the views deeply.Du Fu also create some new meanings of the gradually stable meanings of the imagery of the light and candle,such as "Holding the candle" "Moths fluttering about the light" and "Not lighting the official candles",add the individual unique feelings and current events to the meanings of the imagery.Such as the meaning of "Holding the candle" was the life's short and we should stroll about with candles at night,which transformed to the "Handling the candle again in the late night" describing the scene that Du Fu met his wife in the war.The meaning of "Moths fluttering about the light" was the yearning for the love,which transformed to the "Making the moths gathering together" describing the time-servers in his period.The meaning of "Not lighting the official candles" was the officer's incorruptible,which transformed to the"No bothering to light the official candles" describing Du Fu's annoyed about his white hair lighted by the candles.Du Fu added his individual feelings and current events into the previous meanings of the imagery of light and candles,revealing the individual unique poem style of noting the current events and expressing the true feelings.