" In Li
Po and Tu Fu he finds a deficiency of "f?
Po and Tu Fu he finds a deficiency of "f?
Waley - 170 Chinese Poems
Po expounded his theory of poetry in a
letter to Yuan Ch? n. Like Confucius, he regarded art solely as a method
of conveying instruction. He is not the only great artist who has
advanced this untenable theory. He accordingly valued his didactic poems
far above his other work; but it is obvious that much of his best poetry
conveys no moral whatever. He admits, indeed, that among his
"miscellaneous stanzas" many were inspired by some momentary sensation
or passing event. "A single laugh or a single sigh were rapidly
translated into verse. "
The didactic poems or "satires" belong to the period before his first
banishment. "When the tyrants and favourites heard my Songs of Ch'in,
they looked at one another and changed countenance," he boasts. Satire,
in the European sense, implies _wit_; but Po's satires are as lacking in
true wit as they are unquestionably full of true poetry. We must regard
them simply as moral tales in verse.
In the conventional lyric poetry of his predecessors he finds little to
admire. Among the earlier poems of the T'ang dynasty he selects for
praise the series by Ch'? n Tz? -ang, which includes "Business Men.
" In Li
Po and Tu Fu he finds a deficiency of "f? ng" and "ya. " The two terms are
borrowed from the Preface to the Odes. "F? ng" means "criticism of one's
rulers"; "ya," "moral guidance to the masses. "
"The skill," he says in the same letter, "which Tu Fu shows in threading
on to his _lu-shih_ a ramification of allusions ancient and modern could
not be surpassed; in this he is even superior to Li Po. But, if we take
the 'Press-gang' and verses like that stanza:
At the palace doors the smell of meat and wine;
On the road the bones of one who was frozen to death.
what a small part of his whole work it represents! "
Content, in short, he valued far above form: and it was part of his
theory, though certainly not of his practice, that this content ought to
be definitely moral. He aimed at raising poetry from the triviality into
which it had sunk and restoring it to its proper intellectual level. It
is an irony that he should be chiefly known to posterity, in China,
Japan, and the West, as the author of the "Everlasting Wrong. "[47] He
set little store by the poem himself, and, though a certain political
moral might be read into it, its appeal is clearly romantic.
[47] Giles, "Chinese Literature," p. 169.
His other poem of sentiment, the "Lute Girl,"[48] accords even less with
his stated principles. With these he ranks his _Lu-shih_; and it should
here be noted that all the satires and long poems are in the old style
of versification, while his lighter poems are in the strict, modern
form.
letter to Yuan Ch? n. Like Confucius, he regarded art solely as a method
of conveying instruction. He is not the only great artist who has
advanced this untenable theory. He accordingly valued his didactic poems
far above his other work; but it is obvious that much of his best poetry
conveys no moral whatever. He admits, indeed, that among his
"miscellaneous stanzas" many were inspired by some momentary sensation
or passing event. "A single laugh or a single sigh were rapidly
translated into verse. "
The didactic poems or "satires" belong to the period before his first
banishment. "When the tyrants and favourites heard my Songs of Ch'in,
they looked at one another and changed countenance," he boasts. Satire,
in the European sense, implies _wit_; but Po's satires are as lacking in
true wit as they are unquestionably full of true poetry. We must regard
them simply as moral tales in verse.
In the conventional lyric poetry of his predecessors he finds little to
admire. Among the earlier poems of the T'ang dynasty he selects for
praise the series by Ch'? n Tz? -ang, which includes "Business Men.
" In Li
Po and Tu Fu he finds a deficiency of "f? ng" and "ya. " The two terms are
borrowed from the Preface to the Odes. "F? ng" means "criticism of one's
rulers"; "ya," "moral guidance to the masses. "
"The skill," he says in the same letter, "which Tu Fu shows in threading
on to his _lu-shih_ a ramification of allusions ancient and modern could
not be surpassed; in this he is even superior to Li Po. But, if we take
the 'Press-gang' and verses like that stanza:
At the palace doors the smell of meat and wine;
On the road the bones of one who was frozen to death.
what a small part of his whole work it represents! "
Content, in short, he valued far above form: and it was part of his
theory, though certainly not of his practice, that this content ought to
be definitely moral. He aimed at raising poetry from the triviality into
which it had sunk and restoring it to its proper intellectual level. It
is an irony that he should be chiefly known to posterity, in China,
Japan, and the West, as the author of the "Everlasting Wrong. "[47] He
set little store by the poem himself, and, though a certain political
moral might be read into it, its appeal is clearly romantic.
[47] Giles, "Chinese Literature," p. 169.
His other poem of sentiment, the "Lute Girl,"[48] accords even less with
his stated principles. With these he ranks his _Lu-shih_; and it should
here be noted that all the satires and long poems are in the old style
of versification, while his lighter poems are in the strict, modern
form.
