Research On Chen Zuoming’s Selection Of Ancient Poems In Caishutang

Chen Zuoming,a remnant of the late Ming Dynasty,was born into a family of generations of Confucian scholars.He didn’t serve in the Qing Dynasty and lived his whole life in cloth clothes.Although his identity and works are not as well known as other scholars of the same era,at the same time,he is also a famous poet and poetry theorist in the early Qing Dynasty,which is worthy of our study and worship.In his rare works,caishutang ancient poetry anthology,also known as caishutang fixed edition of poetry notes of Han,Wei and Six Dynasties,was published by his student wengsongnian after Chen Zuoming’s death.In the selection of ancient poems of CAI Tang Tang,he expounded his poetics theory through reviewing poems,remolded the unique history of ancient Tang poetry,helped us to open up a new world to understand the poetry of Han,Wei and six dynasties.He made a wonderful comment on ancient Tang poems,and was later absorbed by Shen Deqian’s ancient poetry source and Wen Ren’s ancient poetry.By analyzing the situation of selecting poems,the characteristics of evaluating poems and the concept of poetics in caishutang ancient poems,we can understand Chen Zuoming’s theory of literary criticism more comprehensively.Chen Zuoming’s life can be divided into two periods,one is his visit to Beijing,the other is his brother Chen Qianfu’s martyrdom to Ming Dynasty.Chen Zuoming was taught literature and history when he was very young,and got a good family education,which laid a solid foundation for his later poetry selection and writing in Beijing.The selection of ancient poems in caishutang is one of the most famous works of Chen Zuoming’s poetics,which is regarded as a "model" by scholars of Qing Dynasty and scholars of Han and Wei dynasties.There are thirty-eight volumes and four addenda in the book.Poems of the Han,Wei and six dynasties are selected,including Kangxi and Qianlong editions.A total of 4487 poems from the pre Qin to the Sui Dynasty were selected in the selection of ancient poems in caishutang,of which 40015 were collected and 472 were supplemented.The selected poems in caishutang ancient poetry anthology have their own unique features.Some people who were once despised by the former poetry theorists have been valued here by Chen Zuoming,such as Lu Yun and Zhang Zhengjian,and the "palace style poems" which were despised by the previous poetry theorists have also been highlighted.In terms of the total number of poems selected by Chen Zuoming,they all lay particular stress on the poems of the Six Dynasties.Seventeen poets,such as Cao Zhi,Ji Kang,Lu Yun,Tao Yuanming,Xie Lingyun and Bao Zhao,all had more than forty poems selected.Nine of them belonged to the Jin Dynasty,and the poems selected were 785 in total,accounting for more than half of the total poems of seventeen poets.From these poems,we can see that Chen Zuoming’s ancient poems of caishutang promoted poems of the Six Dynasties,rediscovered and affirmed many poets and poems that were not recognized by traditional poets,such as Lu Yun.We can see the history of poetry in Chen Zuoming’s mind.From the situation of selecting poems and the characteristics of evaluating poems in the selection of ancient poems in caishutang,we can see that Chen Zuoming’s poetic ideas are based on feelings and pay attention to the beauty of the language form of poems;his principle of selecting poems is to "make a compromise through covering the words of Wang Li and Zhong Tan" Based on "beauty must be recorded".In addition,he is also good at finding out the points that other poetic theorists fail to notice,for example,he is very appreciative of the method of depicting the character through the details of the character language in Peacock Flying Southeast.The reason why caishutang ancient poetry anthology is "great" is that it is not only a poetry anthology,but also embodies Chen Zuoming’s academic consciousness in poetry review.Only a hundred thousand words of comments can make caishutang ancient poetry anthology a very important theoretical literature of poetry criticism,which can deepen our understanding of ancient Chinese Poetics and the history of literary criticism.