Listen to this articlexìnɡjì 兴寄
Xingji (Association and Inner Sustenance)
运用比兴、寄托等艺术手法，使诗歌情感蕴藉、内涵深厚、寄托感慨。由初唐时代的陈子昂首次提出。“兴”是由外物触发而兴发情感，“寄”是寄托某种寓意。兴寄最初是指诗人的感兴要有寓意，达到托物言志的目的；后来引申为诗歌要有赞美或讽刺的寓意。兴寄这一术语继承了先秦时代感物起兴的诗歌传统，强调诗歌的感兴之中要有深沉的寄托，是比兴理论的重要发展，对于盛唐诗歌摆脱齐梁时代诗歌追求华彩而摒弃寄托的创作态度、推动唐诗健康发展有很大作用。
The term means the use of analogy, association, and inner sustenance in writing a poem to give implicit expression to one’s sentiments, thus enabling the poem to convey a subtle message. The term was first used by the Tang-dynasty poet Chen Zi’ang. Xing (兴) means the development of inner feelings invoked by external objects, and ji (寄) means finding sustenance in them. Later it was extended to mean that poetry should be written to convey a message of praise or satire. The term carried on the pre-Qin poetical tradition of creating inspiration by writing about a subject and stressed that while depicting sentiments in poetry, the poet should find sustenance in it. The term represented an important development of the theory of analogy and association. It played a major role in ensuring that poets in the prime of the Tang Dynasty broke away from the poetic style of the Qi and Liang of the Southern Dynasties, which pursued ornate language instead of inner sustenance, thus enabling Tang poetry to develop in a healthy way.
引例 Citations：
◎仆尝暇时观齐梁间诗，彩丽竞繁而兴寄都绝。每以永叹，思古人常恐逦逶颓靡、风雅不作，以耿耿也。（陈子昂《与东方左史虬修竹篇序》）
（我曾经在闲暇时读齐梁时期的诗歌，这些诗辞藻堆砌、竞相华丽，但是兴寄的味道一点儿都没有。我常为此长叹，推想古人经常担心诗风渐至颓废华靡，《诗经》的风雅传统不再振兴，心中定会耿耿不平。）
When I read the poems of the Qi and Liang of the Southern Dynasties in my leisure time, I found them full of ornate rhetoric heaped together without sustenance. I often feel resigned as I can well imagine that the ancients were always concerned about poetry becoming decadent and the tradition of objectively reflecting reality as shown in The Book of Songs getting lost. (Chen Zi’ang: Preface to My Poem “The Bamboo” Composed with Inspirations from Dongfang Qiu)
◎仆尝病兴寄之作堙郁于世，辞有枝叶，荡而成风，益用慨然。（柳宗元《答贡士沈起书》）
（我曾经担忧那些有兴寄特色的作品被埋没掉，文章追求浮华枝叶，恣纵成为风尚，这个时候更需要作品有感慨和意味。）
I was concerned that the works based on association and inner sustenance would get lost and that writings with only elaborate rhetoric would prevail. We really need works that have substance. (Liu Zongyuan: Letter to Scholar Shen Qi)
