The Creative Presentation of Space and Time in Tang Quatrains
The aesthetic impact of poetry largely derives from the play of imagination along the axes of time and space.In describing the aesthetic character of Tang quatrains,both premodern and modern critics often use the phrase"Seeing the grand in the small"(以小见大).However,as to how Tang poets produced such aesthetic effect,there is a dearth of indepth research.The oft-cited statement"Knowing how things are,but not knowing why things become what they are"(知其然不知其所以然)seems to aptly denote our current understanding of the art of Tang quatrains.In order to illuminate why in Tang quatrains we can"see the grand in the small,"this article approaches Tang quatrains from both"the small"and"the grand"perspectives.While identifying the inherent temporal and spatial constraints in each thematically defined subgenre,it examines 36 quatrains selected from seven major subgenres and demonstrates how Tang masters ingeniously overcame these constraints and created"grand"temporal and spatial vistas as well as lyrical space.It ends with a reflection on the respective advantages-and disadvantages-of the pentasyllabic and heptasyllabic forms when employed in certain quatrain subgenres.
Tang poetryquatrain thematic genrespentasyllabic quatrainsheptasyllabic quatrainsdepiction of time and space
万方数据
维普
