Classical Literary Theory
Ding Fang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art.
2021, 41(1):
62-72.
The history of poetry in Yuan dynasty is usually divided into three periods. In the early Yuan period, the poetic style of late Tang dynasty and late Song dynasty was prevalence. In the middle-Yuan period, the high Tang style was emulated, as was represented by the so-called the Four Great Yuan Poets who were officials and served in the court. Yang Weizhen, an influential poet in late Yuan dynasty for his poetics, however, advocated the Six-Dynasty poetry as well as the works of Li Po, Li Ho, Tao Yuanming, Wei Yingwu, Liu Zongyuan, Du fu, Li Shangyin, etc. Yang Weizhen and his followers were active in southeast China, not in the officialdom. They emulated the mid-Tang poetry, and contributed to the transition toward the style of the airs and the hymns in The Book of Poetry as they also admired the Music Bureau Poetry and advocated the implicit diction commonly known as the strategy of writing The Spring and Autumn Annals.