论钟嵘对刘桢的评价

刘桢是建安七子之一，钟嵘的《诗品》把诗人分为上中下三品，刘桢被列在上品，而且排在王粲之前。这一评价大异于前后的曹丕、曹植、沈约、刘勰、萧纲等人，显示出极其个人化的评价。就钟嵘而言，如此看重刘桢，与他对《国风》一脉的尊崇，对五言诗的重视，对风骨、气等关学风格的偏向有关。因为刘桢源于《国风》，五言诗写得尤好，且诗歌慷慨多气。不过钟嵘将刘桢排在建安之首的看法并没有被后来的文学史所采纳。这主要是因为风骨只是魏晋南北朝时期特别标举的风格，后来人并不以之为诗歌最重要的评价标准。再者，将刘桢视作建安之首，只是钟嵘一家之言。由于刘勰在文论史上的崇高地位，他视王粲为七子之首，更决定了文学史的看法。

The Comment of Zhong Rong on Liu Zhen

Liu Zhen was one of the seven three levels in his Poems Appreciation, talented writers of the Jian＇an period. in which Liu Zhen was put on a high Zhong Rong classified poets into position, even higher than Wang Can. This comment was quite different from other persons＇ opinions, such as Cao Pi, Cao Zhi, Shen Yue, Liu Xie, Xiao Gang etc, which represented a very personal viewpoint. In terms of Zhong Rong, the reason why he appreciated Liu Zhen so much was related to his respect for the sect of Guo Feng, and his appreciation of poems with five characters to a line and his preference of the aesthetics styles like strength of character, spirit and so on. Because Liu Zhen＇ style came from Guo Feng, he was good at poems with five characters to a line and his poems were fervent. But Zhong Rong＇s attitude of putting Liu Zheng on the top of the seven talented writers of the Jian＇an period was not accepted by the history of literature. This was mainly owing to that only people in Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties took strength of character as the most important standard of appraising poems. Besides, regarding Liu Zhen as the top of the seven talented writers of the Jian＇an period was Zhong Rong＇s own viewpoint. Since Wang Can was regarded as the top one by Liu Xie, who had a higher posi- tion than Zhong Rong in the history of literary criticism, the common attitude was much affected on this argu- ment in the history of literature.