Jiangxi School of poetry

Overview

During the 1070's Su Shi created a group of young writers who associated themselves with him. This group included Huang Tingjian, Qin Guan, Chao Buzhi, Zhang lei, and Chen Shidao. From this small group two figures emerged that left a very distinct stamp on Chinese poetry. Huang Tingjian and Chen Shidao unexpectedly formed what came to be known as the Jiangxi School of poetry. While the Jinagzi School seems to have some roots with writers like Wang Anshi or Ouyang Xiu, Chen Shidao and Huang Tingjian are the ones given credit for really bringing this type of poetry into the limelight.

The Jiangxi school is named after the area that it is most often associated with, but in total only a handful of poets who wrote int he Jiangxi style were actually from the Jiangxi area. As stated before the Jiangxi school was not created on purpose. "there is little evidence that the men credited with starting it had any intention of creating a poetic school. It is only in retrospect that critics and later poets, eager to give a name to the new approach to poetry ... posited the existence of this school" (Owen 419). Although the main creators did die the influence of this style of poetry lasted as long as into the end of the Song dynasty.

Although the Jinagxi School style lasted for some time and was quite popular as well, there eventually came a time when the general populace became bored with the Jinagxi style of poetry. "doubts began to be ecpressed over the excesses of the Jiangxi style, which insluded a determination to be nocel to the point of strangeness, an overabundance of allusions, and a self-conscious crafting of language that often showed through and compromised the feeling of natural expression. On by one, the major poets of the early Southern Song would annouce themselves to be dissatisfied with the Jiangxi School style and develop new directions" (Owen 419).

Lu Benzhong, who actually coined the term "Jiangxi School of poetry" liked the poetry of Huang Tingjian, expressed his dislike of later Jiangxi School style poets, "Poems like Cao Zhi's "Seven Laments" are broad, vast, deep, and distant and are not something which we composers can attain. This is because they never directed their intention toward their language. Although the Jiangxi scholars of recent times take compass in one hand and right-angle in the other and expend all their effort, they mostly do not know [that they should] go beyond this. They have climbed a hundred-foot pole but cannot advance another inch and have failed to understand Huang Tingjian's intent" (Owen 504). This quote shows partly why the Jiangxi style waned in popularity. It seems that critics believed that Huang Tingjian had done right when it came to the writing of Jiangxi School poetry and as time went on, more writers in attempt to emulate the style, failed and created poems that were similar in nature, but far from true to the original style.

Lu Benzhong eventually came to dislike even Huang Tingjian's style of poetry and regretted composing a work titled "The Genealogy of the Jiangxi Poetry Society" and in a preface to a collection he claimed, "One must learn the method of liveliness when studying to write poetry. What is meant by the method of liveliness is that tone should be equipped with knowledge of the rules and yet be able to go beyond them, and be able to change in an unpredictable way without going against them" (Owen 520). This goes to show the even bigger downfall of the Jingxi School style when critics who had not previously criticized Huang Tingjian eventually did so.

The Jiangxi style of poetry did actually gain some form of renown later on when Fang Hui praised it in it's former glory. When criticizing the late the Four Lings and the Rivers and Lakes poets. Fang Hui wanted to bring back the past style and get rid of the current one, which he considered vulgar and overly refined. He even wrote about his attempts to write in the Jiangxi School style, "I was twenty when I started studying poetry, and now I am seventy six. As for seven syllable line verse, I certainly did practice the style of Xu Hun but I unrealistically looked toward [the standard set by] Huang Tingjian, Chen Shidao, Yuyi, and old Du; my energies were no math for theirs, so I withdrew to write in the style of Bai Juyi and Zhang Lei...As for five-syllable line verse. I envied Chen Shidao," (Owen 580). This also shows that even if the popularity of the Jiangxi school had waned over time, it still got some important attention from a gifted writer later on in history.

Huang Tingjian

Huang Tingjian is probably the most recognizable figure when it comes to the Jiangxi School of poetry. Regarded as on of the founders of the style, he created some of the best Jiangxi School style poetry there is to offer.

While Huang Tingjian and Su Shi are often coupled together as writers, ti becomes quickly noticeable that the two have incredibly different styles of writing. The reason for this is that the men lived at the same time and had a close relationship in which they often read and commented on each others writing.

A defining feature of Tingjian's poetry noticeable when realizing that his poetry was made of incredibly dense language that had to be closely examined to truly understand. Tingjian generally used very specific allusions and symbolism in his poems, and to understand them readers needed to have a very deep understanding of earlier writings and Chinese culture to get a strong understanding of his poems. Huang Tinjgian also used what would initially seemed like cliche verses of poetry in ways that yielded far more meaning and symbolism than on a first glance. Huang Tingjian also gave more attention to regulated verse including the seven syllable line. "To be able to write in the more restrictive forms and yet be true to the new preferences of the age was Huang's special accomplishment" (Owen 422).

Huang Tingjian also held an important role beyond his poetry role. He spent a lot of time and effort writing about other peoples poetry. Through letter writing and other things Huang Tingjian set forth his view on the many aspects of writing poetry. He made it known to many people how to compose and evaluate poetry. Through this kind of writing he also gave advice to many young aspiring young writers. He had many interesting sayings about poetry including, "'Take the commonplace and make it elegant, take the old and make it new'; 'touch iron and transform it into gold'; Not a single word lacks literary provenance'; 'Change the bones and steal away the embryo;'develop an appreciation for ancient models and then express yourself in new and original ways'" (Owen 422).

References

The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature Volume 1 - Kang-I Sun and Stephen Owen