Abstract

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Keywords:: shihua; poem-related narrative; historicity; non-fiction; documentary

Abstract:: Narration is the basic form of the type of shihua 诗话（ literally remarks on poetry） whichincorporates into the poetic criticism a narrative of the story related to the writing of the poem atissue. This type of shihua is characterized by nonfictional and historical narratives of small incidentsconcerning the poems at issue. The narratives in shihua，differing from those in novels，legends andanecdotal history，usually offer a fragmentary rather than a detailed description of the story from theperspective of a witness. The function of such narratives is to help the readers trace the process ofhow the poem at issue came into being and keep a record of its developmental context and its state ofexistence. It can bring the readers back to the historical time and space in which the poem was producedand plays a significant role in restoring to the readers the historical time and space embedded in thepoem. More importantly，it can help avoid various misunderstandings of classical poems，which areusually caused by the factors in the appreciation of the poems such as the overemphasis on the aestheticproperty and the inner structure of the poems，the divorce between the poems and their historicalcontext，and the over interpretation of the poetic texts.