Jian'an poetry, or Chien'an poetry (), refers to the styles of
Chinese poetry
Chinese poetry is poetry written, spoken, or chanted in the Chinese language. While this last term comprises Classical Chinese, Standard Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Yue Chinese, and other historical and vernacular forms of the language, its poet ...
particularly associated with the
end of the
Han dynasty and the beginning of the
Six Dynasties
Six Dynasties (; 220–589 or 222–589) is a collective term for six Han-ruled Chinese dynasties that existed from the early 3rd century AD to the late 6th century AD. The Six Dynasties period overlapped with the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms ...
era of China. This poetry category is particularly important because, in the case of the Jian'an poetic developments, there is a special difficulty in matching the chronology of changes in poetry with the usual Chinese dynastic chronology based on the political leadership of the times. For example, according to
Burton Watson
Burton Dewitt Watson (June 13, 1925April 1, 2017) was an American sinologist, translator, and writer known for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature.Stirling 2006, pg. 92 Watson's translations received many awards, includi ...
, the first major poet of the new ''
shi'' style that emerged at this time was
Cao Zhi
Cao Zhi (; ; 192 – 27 December 232), courtesy name Zijian (), posthumously known as Prince Si of Chen (陈思王), was a prince of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China, and an accomplished poet in his time. His style ...
, one of the sons of
Cao Cao,
[Watson, 19] a family which came into power at the end of Han and developed further during the
Three Kingdoms era of the Six Dynasties period.
Time period
The term ''Jian'an poetry'' covers the final years at the
end of the Han dynasty and during which the Cao family was rising, or risen, to prominence were known as the ''Jian'an'' era (196–220), the final reign era of
Emperor Xian of Han: the following period is known as the
Three Kingdoms era, due to the three kingdoms which divided up the Han dynasty, and war with one another for succession to the Han empire. A prominent Han dynasty general,
Cao Cao effectively took control of the Han dynasty from the Liu imperial family, and following Cao Cao's death, his son
Cao Pi
Cao Pi () ( – 29 June 226), courtesy name Zihuan, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the second son of Cao Cao, a warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty, but the eldest son ...
formalized this by accepting the abdication of the last titular ruler of Han and establishing the Cao family as the ruling dynastic family of a new state,
Wei (also known as Cao Wei), one of the
Three Kingdoms which were successor states to the Han empire. Besides their role as leaders in war and politics, the Cao family also had an important role in the field of poetry and literature.
Three Caos
Cao Cao and his sons
Cao Pi
Cao Pi () ( – 29 June 226), courtesy name Zihuan, was the first emperor of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China. He was the second son of Cao Cao, a warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty, but the eldest son ...
and
Cao Zhi
Cao Zhi (; ; 192 – 27 December 232), courtesy name Zijian (), posthumously known as Prince Si of Chen (陈思王), was a prince of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China, and an accomplished poet in his time. His style ...
are collectively known as the "Three Caos" of poetry. Along with several other poets, such as
Xu Gan and the other Seven Scholars of Jian'an, their poems form the backbone of the ''jian'an'' style.
Seven Scholars of Jian'an
"The Seven Scholars of Jian'an" was a name which Cao Pi came up with in an essay to describe seven major literati of the Jian'an era. Among them were
Kong Rong (153–208), who was later executed by Cao Cao, along with his family: only a few of his poems survive.
Wang Can (177–217), a poet known for his "Poem of Seven Sorrows" (七哀诗), a five-character poem which lamented how much the people suffered during the war years.
Another is
Chen Lin.
Han poetry background
The
poetry of the Han dynasty was in part characterized by the ''
fu'', sometimes referred to as a "rhapsody", which was a form of literature that in English could be considered either a form of poetry, a form of prose, or something in between. The typical Han fu is typically very long, describes a subject minutely from every possible angle, giving long and detailed lists of various categories of things and is usually meant more to display the poet's rhetorical and lexical skill than to express personal feeling. Another important aspect of Han poetry was the institution of the
Music Bureau
The Music Bureau (Traditional Chinese: 樂府; Simplified Chinese: 乐府; Hanyu Pinyin: ''yuèfǔ'', and sometimes known as the "Imperial Music Bureau") served in the capacity of an organ of various imperial government bureaucracies of China: di ...
, a government organization originally charged with collecting or writing the lyrics. The Chinese name for the Music Bureau was ''yuefu''; however, note that the use of ''fu'' in ''yuefu'' is different from the other Chinese term ''fu'', which refers to a different type of poetry or literature using a different character. The developments in both of these forms of poetry in the Han dynasty help in the understanding of the work of the Jian'an poets.
Developments
Jian'an poetry shows significant developments away from the detailed catalogs of the ''fu'' and toward the ''yuefu'' form of poetry; at the same time, the Jian'an poets developed the yuefu into a different form with a different voice, a form which was a direct predecessor to the major form of ''
shi'' poetry later embraced by the
Tang dynasty poets. In the major developments in terms of
poetic voice, whereas Han poetry tended to use an anonymous voice which was either impersonal or in the mode of certain shallow and conventionalized characters, the Jian'an poetry tended to be more personal and immediately direct.
See also
*
Classical Chinese poetry
*
Han poetry
*
Poetry of Cao Cao
*
Ruan Ji
*
Seven Scholars of Jian'an
Seven scholars of Jian'an (), also translated as the "seven philosophers of Jian'an", or the "seven masters of Jian'an", were a group of seven Chinese intellectuals of the Eastern Han dynasty. The name was coined by Cao Pi. "Jian'an" refers to the ...
*
Six Dynasties poetry
*
The Quatrain of Seven Steps
The ''Seven Steps Verse'', also known as the ''Quatrain of Seven Steps'' (), is a highly allegorical poem that is usually attributed to the poet Cao Zhi.
Background
During the life of the great warlord Cao Cao who dominated northern China towa ...
*
Xu Gan
Notes and references
*Birrell, Anne (1988). ''Popular Songs and Ballads of Han China''. (London: Unwin Hyman).
*Watson, Burton (1971). ''CHINESE LYRICISM: Shih Poetry from the Second to the Twelfth Century''. New York: Columbia University Press.
{{Three Kingdoms
Han dynasty poets
2nd-century poems
3rd-century poems