Listen to this articlexuányánshī 玄言诗
Metaphysical Poetry
一种以阐发老、庄、佛教和《周易》哲理为主要内容的诗歌流派，起于西晋末年而盛行于东晋，其主要特点是以玄理入诗，代表诗人有孙绰、许询、庾亮、桓温等。魏晋时期社会动荡，士大夫专心老庄与佛学，贵玄理，尚清谈，以此全身远祸。到西晋后期，玄谈之风逐步影响到诗歌创作，形成玄言诗，后玄言诗与山水诗相融合。
This term refers to a poetic style that chiefly explicated Laozi, Zhuangzi, Buddhism, and The Book of Changes. Metaphysical poetry emerged at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty and flourished during the subsequent Eastern Jin Dynasty. Represented by Sun Chuo, Xu Xun, Yu Liang, and Huan Wen, this genre featured the expounding of abstruse and metaphysical thinking in poetry. During the turbulent years of the Wei and Jin dynasties, scholars stayed away from politics and focused on the study of Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Buddhism to explore abstruse and philosophical ideas unrelated to current social developments. By the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, this rarefied discourse found its way into writing, creating the metaphysical style of poetry, which later merged with landscape poetry.
引例 Citation：
◎自中朝贵玄，江左称盛，因谈余气，流成文体，是以世极迍邅（zhūnzhān），而辞意夷泰。诗必柱下之旨归，赋乃漆园之义疏。（刘勰《文心雕龙·时序》）
（自从西晋崇尚玄学，到东晋风气更盛，因袭清谈风气，逐渐形成新的文风。因此，虽然时势极其艰难，而文章的辞意却显得平和宽缓。诗歌必定以老、庄为宗旨，辞赋也成了老、庄的注解。）
In the Western Jin Dynasty, discourse of metaphysics was hot, which became even more popular during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, giving rise to a new literary style. Consequently, despite the tumultuous times, writers composed literary works characterized by detachment and aloofness. Poetry invariably illustrated the ideas of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and prose-poetry became commentaries on these two thinkers. (Liu Xie: The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)
