Why are Chinese Claical Love Poems so Reserved, Compared with Western Ones? Abstract:
Compared with western love poems, Chinese claical love poems are so reserved , roundabout and indirect in expreing feelings.There must be deeper reasons under the surface of this phenomenon.After reading books on analysis of the distinction between western and Chinese love poems, I think it’s due to differences of traditional cultures, the way of thinking, love views, economic and political characteristics, aesthetic philosophies , female social status and vocabulary of languages.and so on.
Key words: (3-6 words)
love poems , Chinese and western , distinction , deeper reasons I.Introduction of the paper Love is one of the most eternal themes of poetry, both at home and abroad.Poets use their emotional pens to write down their desperate desire for love , describe the perfect image of their sweetheart, and expre their happine when love comes and their deep sorrow when love leaves.These are the common themes of love poems.But when we read love poems from different countries , we will easily find out that Chinese claical love poems are so reserved , roundabout and indirect in expreing feelings compared with western love poems.How come? Isn’t there enthusiasm existing in Chinese love or shan’t Chinese expre love frankly? II.Body of the paper After reading books on differences between love poems of claical Chinese and westerners ,I think the complicated explanation for this phenomenon comes down to the following dimensions.
2.1 Differences of cultural tradition between Chinese and western people.
In western tradition, the culture of chivalry lays the foundation of respect to the female throughout the history.And love and marriage of the young are the most natural and beautiful things in the world,so poets praise love in an enthusiastic,brave,forthright and sincere way.
While in ancient China ,Confucian culture focuses on communities, and how much value a life contains is judged at a social level.Love ,which is based on individual sex conscious, suffered from severe depreion.So claical Chinese poets often adopt reserved, mild ,roundabout and delicate ways to expre their feelings of love, instead of leading off their emotions directly.
2.2 Differences of love views between Chinese and western people.
Different love views of course lead to different styles of love poems.
Westerners attach great importance to love itself,which is thought to be the most pure and spiritual combination of two souls.They believe “love is everything”.While constrained by orthodox feudal thoughts,people in ancient China value marriage much more than love.Even worse, some scholars make comments on love with sarcasm who define love between the youth is the symbol of frivolity and hedonism.An example to demonstrate how deeply people are influenced by traditional concepts: in an American famous cartoon named“Snow White”,an affectionate ki of Prince Charming revitalizes the dead prince---Snow White.But when the cartoon movie first shown in China, the plot was adapted as:when the seven dwarfs bury the Snow White,someone of them stumbles and falls down onto the dead prince,which force the poisonous apple out of the Snow White’s throat.The way the Snow White revives is really tragicomical.In modern China,people is relatively conservative as so,letting alone in ancient times.
2.3Differences of the way of thinking between Chinese and western people.
Different ways of thinking lead to tactful Chinese love poems and forthright western ones.Chinese thinking is curvy.People prefer beating about the bush rather than coming to the question straightforward.English thinking is linear,ie they are accustomed to the direct way of expreions.So when it comes to poems about love,Chinese people appear particularly implicit,deep,heavy and conceal their real feelings, letting their readers to gue what they
actually want to say.
2.4 Differences of characteristics of economy and politics between Chinese and western societies.
As we all know, western culture originated in ancient Greek.Maritime civilization encouraged their spirits of adventure and the appetite for conquest.Under the commercial economy and the democratic politics, westerners developed an open national character that values individual freedom and development a lot, and have an iron will to pursue love and happine by themselves.
While Chinese nation was born in the lower and middle reaches of Yellow River, which is a proper area for agriculture.Chinese feudal agriculture society is self-sufficiency.And the Confucianism argue that people should achieve benevolence by denying individual desires.Step by step, Chinese people become introversion, and naturally promote careful control of emotions in poems compared with westerners who prefer frank love poems.
2.5 Differences of aesthetic ideas between Chinese and western people.
Chinese aesthetic ideas emphasize on intuitive and empirical characteristics, rich, concrete and vivid.While western aesthetic ideas have speculative and systematic characteristics，abstract, profound, cosmic and precise.Just for these differences in aesthetic ideas, Chinese love poems employ the most exquisite expreions to depict the delicate personal emotions, while western love poems are deeply logic.In western traditional philosophy, nature is human’s acceory and in the control of human.So people struggle to pursue individuality and reason.But in Chinese traditional philosophy, people and nature are united as one, which makes Chinese poets attach more importance to the creating artistic conception, leaving out the logic discuion.So differences on traditional philosophies often make Chinese claical love poems stay in delicate, subtle and reserved stage, while western love poems emphasize more on the pursuit of rational thinking, and find out deeper social meanings from love in reality.
2.6 Differences of women’s social status in ancient times between China and the west.
Western culture has the tradition to give respect to female, so female have relatively high social status.After Renaiance, feudalism and asceticism are under fierce attack, and humankind becomes the center of the world.Man and woman can contact, make friends and fall in love with each other freely.They regard love as the combination of two souls.Love poems expre the strong admiration for lovers and praise for love.But in ancient China,women have extremely low social status.Without equal economic and political status to men,neither did they have opportunities to enjoy education,women still have no voice in their marriage decision.Since “only respecting Confucianists” in the Western Han Dynasty,people’s behavior and composition of poems are required to “start with emotion,and end with morality”(发乎情，止乎礼义）.Those emotions having indications to start with love between two sexes are suppreed by orthodox feudal thoughts.And in ancient China,there were wars all the time.That’s why boudoir resentment poems are numerous.So Chinese love poems often reflect miserable lives of young wives whose husband serves in the army obligatorily.It is due to lack of direct descriptions of love.
2.7 Differences of vocabulary between Chinese and western languages.
Chinese words are composed of monosyllabic(单音节）roots.Owing to various ways of word-formation, we enjoy an extremely rich vocabulary, easy to expre meanings precisely.So Chinese love poems often have concise characteristics, which can be rather reserved ,roundabout in expre feelings to create an artistic conception.While English words are based on Anglo - Saxon (盎格鲁—撒克逊语),the minor distinctions between words having similar meanings is not as precise as Chinese, the emotional color and vividne of words also can’t compare with Chinese.So western love poems are mainly narrative in detail.
III.Conclusion
Chinese claical love poems are so reserved , roundabout and indirect in expreing feelings compared with western love poems.The deeper reasons under the surface of this phenomenon are concerned with differences of traditional cultures,the way of thinking,love
views,economic and political characteristics,aesthetic philosophies , female social status and vocabulary of languages.Although it’s so different between the way of expreing love in poems of claical Chinese and westerners , knowing the reasons for this phenomenon can give you a better understanding of love poems from different cultural backgrounds and enjoy a deeper understanding of love itself.
Bibliography & Footnotes
[1]《西方爱情诗与中国爱情诗的比较》百度文库
http://wenku.baidu.com/
[2]《执着的爱情 大胆的宣言》
http://blog.sina.com.cn/ [3]《中西爱情观对比》百度文库
http://wenku.baidu.com/ [4]《中西爱情诗比较》百度文库
http://wenku.baidu.com/ [5]《中西爱情诗比较探究及其文化渊源——文献综述》百度文库
http://wenku.baidu.com/
