文人四言诗在两汉的变迁及衰亡——以经学和《诗经》为参照

A Case Study of the Change and Decay of the Literati Four-character Poetry in the Han Dynasties

文人四言诗在两汉时期总体上乏善可陈。两汉时期,文人四言诗的思想格调受到经学的影响,明显呈现出阶段性的演变特征。两汉经学可以分为承续期、昌盛期和中衰期三个发展时期。在经学发展的前两个时期,文人四言诗的思想格调与经学反向互动。到了经学中衰时期,文人四言诗的思想格调冲破政教功利观念,开始孕育出不同于周人宗法贵族精神的新特征。然而,思想格调的新趋向并未拓宽此后文人四言诗的创作路径。究其原因,随着诸多创作因素的变化,四言诗体到了汉代已经不适于文人抒情写心。以《诗经》中四言诗为参照,两汉文人四言诗在表现手法、结构体式及句式、用韵等语言艺术上表现出新的发展趋势,这些新的趋势导致四言诗体在表情达意上的日益僵化,使其被新兴的五言诗体取代,逐渐淡出了诗歌舞台。

Literati four-character poetry in the Han Dynasties in general had nothing to brag about,which,influenced by the study of Confucian classics then,presented the self-evident characteristics of periodic evolution.Study of Confucian classics in the Han Dynasties underwent three stages of succession,prosperity,and decline.In the first two stages,the style of four-character poetry interacted with it in the opposite way.However,in its declining stage,the style of the poetry broke through the utilitarian concept of politics and convention and got some new characteristics different from the spirit of the Zhou patriarchal aristocracy.Nevertheless,this kind of new tendency did not promote the creation of the poetry.The reason could be traced back to changes of various factors,which made it unsuitable for the literati to express their feelings and emotions.Taking those in The Book of Songs as a reference,the four-character poetry in the Han Dynasties underwent new tendency in such language arts as expression techniques,structure,sentence patterns and rhyme,which made it increasingly rigid,so that it was replaced by the new five-character poetry and gradually faded out.