Classical chinese poetry, literature - Essay Example

Pick two pieces from the “Nine Songs” and compare/contrast how they describe the relationship between the deity being worshipped and the shaman who is worshipping. In “The Sovereign of the East: The One”, the worshippers are depicted to have altogether prepared in times of feast for which they anticipate the ultimate end of being joined by their Lord in cheer. This song provides evidence how, through known shamanistic tradition, shamans conduct joyful celebration which summons over the deity who then becomes equally delighted.

Heavy with imagery pertaining to the extravagance of feast-filled worship, phrases and words as ‘jade are the hilt-guards’, ‘jades weight the corners’, and ‘proffer cinnamon wind and peppered beers’, it concretely describes a form of worship in festive abundance. Equivalently, the irregular song creates moderate emphasis on the significance of musical accompaniment during worship as indicated by the mention of drums, pipes, zithers, and ‘tumult of all notes’ to which shaman’s Lord responds with equal glee.

While feasting sounds most prominent all throughout this lyrical poem, “Lord in the Clouds” substantiates with the longing of a shaman worshipper to be relieved from anxieties. Instead of concentrating with the supposed deeds for the god, the lyrical content herein rather magnifies the mighty attributes and overwhelming splendor of the deity and the acclaim begins with a brief expression of being exquisitely presentable. It alludes that one deserves to be reached out by the Lord or be imparted with the effect of his remarkable trait if one were exceedingly suitable to receive him, as manifested in ‘hair washed in blooms’ scent’ and ‘our robes are resplendent.

’ The depth of exultation here is symbolic of the serious need of the shamans to be comforted and the faith of the latter seems profoundly attached to the encompassing greatness of their Lord though it comes with an irony of projecting an absence instead upon his needful dominion. The “Sovereign of the East: The One”, on the contrary, occurs to acknowledge the intensely felt presence of the Lord over all. Both the songs nevertheless aim to impress upon a perfect situation of reverence where one may readily sense a complete and unswerving intimacy between the deity and the worshipping shamans thereof.

In a similar manner, the reader may observe that in each song, orchids are signified to hint the extent of the use of plant and flowers in religious rites of the ancient Chinese culture. (2) Describe the differences between yue-fu (Music Bureau) poetry (pp. 227-43) and the Old Poems (pp. 249-73) in terms of their development and aspects of the texts themselves (i.e., form, voice, imagery, themes, etc.). It may be recognized that yue-fu or “Music Office” consists in thematic features that are quite similar with those of the “Old Poems” or the early forms of classical poetry.

Since at some point both conventions became contemporaries, they reflect upon each other common themes that characterize parting or meeting, yearning, coming into or out of a place, and its associated feasts, which are altogether representative of the frequently occurring events and the way of life of people during such period (Owen 250). This is fairly evident between ‘East Gate’ rendered in yue-fu and an ‘Anonymous Old Poem’ identified with the style of Su Wu. While the former assumes a voice of a third person, probably of Eastern Han origin, the latter is herself exactly by the extensive use of voice in the first person.

‘South of the Walls We Fought’ is another remarkable instance when yue-fu is presented in the third voice, which is of the dead. Relationships either in unpleasant complication or simplicity have been dealt with in Old Poems which made use of imagery of meadows, winds, trees, grass, sky, or streams among poems such as Wang Can—Seven Sorrows I, Ruan Ji—Songs of My Cares III, and Nineteen Old Poems I. On the other hand, yue-fu possesses imagery of natures in birds, plants, or animals that surround indirect statements in a structured lyrical content where the middle portion tackles human experiences and their analogies to the aforementioned relevant nature just like the development given on ‘Prelude: White Swans in Pairs’ and ‘Cocks Crow.

’ Work Cited Owen, Stephen. An Anthology of Chinese Literature : beginnings to 1911. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.