On Liu Ji and Song Lian′s Achievements and Limitations in Reviving Four-character Verses——Concurrent Discussion of the Characteristics,Development and Changes of Four-character Verses

Learning from the classics and returning to the ancients were the main ideas of the poetry theory of Song Lian.He looked on four-character verses as a breakthrough,and had discussed the way to revive it with Liu Ji.Also,he wrote many four-character verses himself.These verses were highly evaluated,as Wang Fu zhi said,as good as Lu Yun′s,and better than Tao Qian′s.The reason for his success in poetry creation and the revival of four-character verses was that he was against Han′s way of imitating Feng and Ya,and also against four-character verses′ submission to convention after five-character verses′ rising.He advocated to inherit and develop the spirit of the Book of Songs′ Bian-feng and Bian-ya,and look on Han-wei′s four-character verses as a new style,which was inherited from Liu-xie.