"Waiting for the Poet Pickers"—On the Consciousness of Historians in Du Fu's Poetry Quoting Folk Songs and Proverbs
"Waiting for the poet pickers"means waiting their poems to be collected by the poetry collectors of the court,which is a reminiscence of the poetry collecting system of the pre-Qin Dynasty by Yuan,Bai and others in the Middle Tang Dynasty out of the need to participate in politics.The rulers of successive dynasties have attached great importance to understanding the people's aspirations from folk songs and proverbs,and the"poetry-collecting officials"have become an important channel for conveying information to the people.Influenced by the culture of the historians,Du Fu consciously took on the role of"poet-collector",quoting a large number of folk songs and proverbs in his poetry,the themes of these poems focusing on military wars,livelihoods and agriculture,and the satire of current affairs.At the same time,Du Fu's quotation of folk songs and proverbs into his poems reflects an intentional emulation of the poetry collected by the historians of the pre-Qin dynasty,demonstrating the historians'spirit of truthfulness,their sense of right and wrong in punishing evil and persuading good,and their sense of usefulness in learning from the past and observing the present.In the Tang dynasty,Du Fu was the first to put forward the concept of"poetry collecting"in his poetry,and his political and educational aims of using poetry to complement government and to remember history were the forerunners of the"Waiting for the poet pickers"of the Middle Tang.
Du Fu's Poetryfolk songs and proverbswaiting for the poet pickersconsciousness of the historian
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