｢隨園詩話｣の世界

Abstract

The book called Sui-yüan shih-hua in 16 chapters and with a Supplement in 10 chapters by Yüan Mei 袁枚 (1716-1798) contains more than 4800 poems or lines from poems by over 1700 poets, both known and unknown, of the Ch'ien-lung era (1736-1795). When we analyze the literary theories and the works that appear in the Sui-yüan shihhua we discover that, at long last, there are signs that urban, bourgeois literature is beginning to appear even in the midst of classical Chinese poetry. First of all, Yüan Mei's representative literary theory puts the basic concept of literary creation in the "nature", hsingch'ing 性情, of the poet himself, thus liberating literature from politics and scholasticism and attempting to let each poet express his own individuality in song. For this reason a poem can be staunchly defended even when it goes against commonly held beliefs. A second indication of the growth of bourgeois elements is that there are poetesses and proletarian poets in the Sui-yüan shih-hua, neither of whom had previously appeared often on the poetical scene. Among the proletarian poets there are a tailor, a blacksmith, a gruelseller, a day laborer, a nightsoil collector, male and female servants, and so forth. Finally, and in relation with the popularization of classical poetry, the poets in the Sui-yüan shih-hua have begun to emphasize every-day life, familiarity, plainness and humour in the themes of their poetry. In looking at the entire contents of the Sui-yüan shihhua from these various points of view, I believe we can conclude, using a rather bold formula, that new, bourgeois tendencies were being introduced into the world of classical poetry at this time.