Listen to this articleshī qióng érhòu gōng 诗穷而后工
Difficult Situations Drive Writers to Produce Quality Poems.
诗人只有在遭受困厄艰险的环境中，幽愤郁积于心，方能写出上乘的诗歌作品。这里的“穷”，并非指物质生活上的“穷困”，而是指广义的人生逆境。“工”，工致精美。这一命题由北宋著名文坛领袖欧阳修（1007－1072）提出。欧阳修认为，诗人因人生逆境而能对现实利益有所超脱，这有助于诗人抒写出曲折入微而又带有普遍性的世况人情。欧阳修的“诗穷而后工”继承发展了司马迁（前145或前135？—？）的“发愤著书”说与韩愈（768—824）的“不平则鸣”说，但它不再强调诗人自身愤懑的宣泄，而是揭示了优秀诗歌作品之所以产生的规律。欧阳修之后，此说成为文学批评理论中关于优秀文学作品产生规律的带有普遍意义的说法。
A poet will be able to produce a quality poem only when he is in a difficult and perilous environment, feeling suffocated with pent-up anger and frustration. The word qiong (穷 difficulty) does not mean the physical deprivation of material means but refers more broadly to adverse situations in life. Gong (工 quality) means artistically refined and beautiful. This idea was put forward by Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), a renowned leader in the literary world of the Northern Song Dynasty. He believes that adverse situations will enable poets to transcend the desire for worldly gains and assist them to depict with sophistication and insight scenes and people in the real world that have a universal significance. Ouyang Xiu’s theory not only continues but also develops Sima Qian’s (145 or 135? -? BC) “Write to give vent to indignation” and Han Yu’s (768-824) “Cry out against injustice.” This concept no longer focuses on expressing the poet’s own indignation or frustration but seeks instead to shed light on the way a great poem comes into being. Later on, the proposition became a mainstream theory in literary criticism regarding the origins of literary masterpieces.
引例 Citation：
◎予闻世谓诗人少达而多穷，夫岂然哉！盖世所传诗者，多出于古穷人之辞也。……盖愈穷则愈工。然则非诗之能穷人，殆穷者而后工也。（欧阳修《梅圣俞诗集序》）
（我听到世人说，诗人很少有仕途通达的，大多人生不顺。果真是这样吗？大概是世间流传的那些诗，多是出于古代不得志的诗人们的创作吧。……大概诗人越是命运不顺，他们的诗就写得越是精美。这样看来，并不是写诗让人命运不顺，恐怕是诗人命运不顺，然后做的诗才精美吧。）
I hear that poets seldom fare well in their pursuit of official positions. Many suffer ups and downs. Is that really true? Maybe it is because poems circulated among people are mostly written by those frustrated in their ambitions. Perhaps they are more likely to produce quality poems when they suffer ill fortune. It seems it is not writing that brings people ill fortune, but, rather, poets are better able to produce exquisite poems when they suffer ill fortune. (Ouyang Xiu: Preface to The Collection of Poems by Mei Yaochen)
