“以文为诗”始于陶渊明

Tao Yuanming,Forerunner of Writing Poetry in Syntactic Structure Peculiar to Prose

“以文为诗”是中国文人诗歌发展史上的一件大事 ,但是后世论者多认为始于中唐的韩愈。当笔者认真考察了唐前中国诗歌发展史之后 ,却惊奇地发现 :“以文为诗”并非始于韩愈 ,而是始于早韩愈 40 0年的陶渊明。所谓的“以文为诗” ,即以散文的篇章结构、句法及其虚词、虚字入诗 ,使诗歌呈现出一种如散文般的平实自如、天然入妙 ,能够更痛快畅达地叙事、抒情 ,而这一切在陶诗中都有鲜明具体的体现。“以文为诗”的运用 ,使陶诗更为亲切、平和 ,贴近人心 ,一种如叙家常的真切动人由此而生 ,这与陶渊明的为人及其诗歌朴素自然的风格是极其协调一致的。可以毫不夸张地说 ,“以文为诗”陶渊明是韩愈的老师。

Writing poetry in syntactic structure peculiar to prose was a great event in the Chinese history of the development of the scholar's poetry.Many latter critics thought it was Han Yu of the middle Tang dynasty who first employed the method in his poetry.Through serious examination to the Chinese history of the development of the poetry before the Tang Dynasty,the author is surprised to find that'Writing poetry in syntactic structure peculiar to prose'was not originated by Han Yu,but by Tao Yuan-ming who lived 400 years earlier than Han Yu.The so called 'Writing poetry in syntactic structure peculiar to prose' means writing poetry by using the text structures,sentence structures,function phrases and function characters of the prose.Hence the poetry can not only be easy,smooth natural and ingenious like the prose,but also narrate and express the emotion fully and freely.All of these were embodied distinctively and concretely in Tao Yuan-ming's poetry.So Tao's poems were more cordial and moderate.These were extremely in accord with Tao Yuan-ming's behaviors and with his plain and natural style of the poetry.Therefore,it can be claimed without the least exaggeration that Tao Yuan-ming was HanYu's teacher in this aspect.