贈內詩の流れと元稹

Abstract

Although Yuan Zhen 元稹 is one of the most celebrated poets of the mid-Tang 中唐 period and has been ranked with Bai Ju-yi 白居易, his poems have not being noticed except the Dao-wang-shi 悼亡詩. The Dao-wang-shi is a kind of poem that expresses regret over the death of his wife, and was begun by Pan Yue 潘岳 of the Jin 晉 dynasty. Yuan Zhen has written thirty-three poems for his first wife Wei Cong's 韋叢 death, but he wrote only less than ten poems for her and his second wife Pei Shu 裴淑 while they were alive. In fact, in this period, many other poets, especially his lifelong friend Bai Ju-yi, have often dedicated poems to their wives, and we can call these poems Zeng-nei-shi. In this paper I analyse the character of Yuan Zhen's poems by comparing his Zeng-nei-shi with the other poets'. The beginning of Zeng-nei-shi was written under similar conditions such as Pan Yue's Nei-gu-shi 内顧詩, which was written down when he separated from his wife. For this reason, the poetical ways and the feelings of the poem were similar to his Dao-wang-shi. Both of them express his feelings and we can not recognize the wife's feelings or her character from the poem. With the progress of civilization, the poets gradually pay attention to describe their home life in their poems. Particularly it was Bai Ju-yi who did not only describe his harmonious household, but also describe the communication between he and his wife in his work. On the other hand, although Yuan Zhen has described his wife's character more realistically, his description is different from the others poets'. He wrote these poems only when his family life met difficulties. For example, when he had to leave the capital in order to fulfil his duty, his wife told him that she did not want to leave, then he wrote a poem to persuade her. We know Yuan Zhen did not have Bai Ju-yi's Zhong-yin 中隱 spirit and he never wrote poems like Bai Ju-yi's Xian-shi-shi 閑適詩. Therefore, his Zeng-nei-shi, the poem about his home life also depicts several vexations like his sad Dao-wang-shi.