Zhou He And His Poetry Research

Zhou He is an important poet in YaoJia's group in middle and late Tang Dynasty.There are existing 93 poems in “The Complete Collection of Tang Poems” and the “Supplement” includes another 4 lines.Zhou He's poems not only fully reflect typical poetry style of YaoJia's group,but also have unique artistic individuality.The study of Zhou He and his poems can be helpful to investigate deeply the poetic style of YaoJia's group,and enrich the research of poets in middle and late Tang Dynasty.Based on the available records and Zhou He's poems,this paper introduces in details Zhou He's life story and focuses on his association with Jia Dao and Yao He,as well as his experience of resuming secular life.His numerous trips to Songshan Mountain,Lushan Mountain,Nanxu and Chang'an are also discriminated and analysed in this paper.In the subject matter,Zhou He's poems are mostly centred on his personal life and can be divided into four themes as company,farewell,travel and leisure poems.On the artistry,influenced by both the Northern Zen and Southern Zen,Zhou He's poems have distinct characteristics of monastic style.The concentrated expressions are the theme choice of fusing Zen into poetry,the hardship creative attitude and compliance with metrical patterns,the use of monastic images,the peaceful and still artistic conception.Meanwhile,in language,image and artistic conception Zhou He's poems show the characteristics of both calm,cold and elegant,tranquil as a whole.More specifically,in language Zhou He is good at polishing words and using line drawing.He also learns from Jia Dao's cold images and gets close to Yao He's elegant images,which lead to two different artistic conception: deep,secluded and light,elegant.In comparison with YaoJia's group,Zhou He's poems show unique artistic characteristics in the group.In a word,Zhou He's poems have great artistic value and occupy an important position in both YaoJia's group and middle and late Tang time.His poems even have a far-reaching influence on the nine monks' poems in the early Song Dynasty.