A comparative study on the historical poetry of Du Fu and Li Shangyin = Ren jian ling yun yi cun xin, xiao tiao yi dai bu tong shi : Du Fu Li Shangyin yong shi shi bi jiao yan jiu

Abstract

Historical poems (詠史詩), firstly regarded as an independent genre in Wenxuan (《文選》) compiled by Crown Prince Zhao Ming (昭明太子, 502-577), had a long history in Chinese literature. The fall of the Tang Empire accelerated the development of historical poems and the genre reached its peak during the late-Tang period.

Du Fu (杜甫, 712-770) and Li Shangyin (李商隱, 812-857), two of the most renowned poets of the Tang dynasty, had written a number of remarkable historical poems and made prominent contribution to the development of the genre. Since the Song dynasty, commentators had realised the inheritance of Du Fu’s style in Li Shangyin’s poems. Quite a number of commentaries made on the topic, nevertheless, scholars seldom conducted comparative studies on the two poets’ historical poems.

Given the fact stated above, this paper sets the scope of study on historical poems, with a view of revealing the relationship of poetry writing between Du Fu and Li Shangyin. In Chapter 1, the author will firstly state the aims and methodology of the study. In Chapter 2, the author will briefly introduce the development of historical poems, rectify the definition of historical poems and classify the genre into four categories. Chapter 3 provides a glimpse on the biographies of the two poets and how the writing of historical poems was related to their lives. In Chapter 4, a comparative study will be conducted on the two poets’ preferences in forms of poems. In Chapter 5, the author will study the main themes of the two poets’ poems and the motifs represented. In Chapter 6, an analysis on the literary techniques implemented will be conducted. Chapter 7 compares the literary styles represented in the poems.

In Chapter 8, the author will demonstrates the overall divergences of the historical poems written by the two poets and therefore reach a conclusion that the divergences represented in the historical poems of Du Fu and Li Shangyin manifests the golden age of development of historical poems. The author also expects that the paper would give a clearer picture on how Li Shangyin inherited and further developed Du Fu’s poetic tradition.