The Existence of the Poetic Eye: A Dou-ble-Edged Sword in Classical Chinese Liter-ature

Abstract

The poetic eye, traditionally regarded as the most crucial and evocative words, phrases, and sentences in a poem, plays an important role in deepening the overall mood of the poem, and its existence makes the whole poem more integrated and holistic, and therefore has an important and dominant role in the whole poem. In China's classical literature, the creation of the poetic eye was initially inspired by the theory of painting, and it first appeared in Po Siam's “The secret of the bag” in the Song Dynasty. Since then, it has been constantly updated and developed by later generations, giving the eye of the poem more forms of expression. The eye of the poem should not only be integrated into the whole poem, but also gather the spirit of the whole poem, and undertake the task of deepening, expanding and integrating the meaning of the poem, so that the whole poem can reach an unparalleled and marvelous realm of blending of meanings. However, as the literati group attaches importance to the eye of the poem, the creative method of over-pursuing the eye of the poem has gradually arisen, which makes people's evaluation of the eye of the poem bifurcated. As a result, we need to re-examine the role and value of poetic eye in literary creation, literary reception and real life.