Ocean Imagery Of Tang Poetry And Ocean Consciousness Of The Tang Dynasty

Imagery is the original concept and aesthetic idea in Chinese Poetics and it is a very important factor of ontology. In Poetry, poet'inspiration, life cognition and experience are cohered in the imagery; therefore the imagery has become the poetry's unique presentation which is so different from other literary form. About the definition, imagery is ambiguous. By synthetically studying Chinese traditional imagery, the key to understand imagery is to believe that imagery is the complex of "meaning" and "object ". The so-called"meaning" refers to impression, spirit, ideas; "object" means the image, entities, phenomenon. So imagery is the object which contains impression, spirit and ideas. In other words, imagery is "the object with meaning ".Specifically speaking, according to the functions, poetic imagery can be divided into the following types: descriptive imagery, figurative imagery and symbolic imagery. Accordingly, ocean imagery in poetry can also be divided into descriptive ocean imagery, figurative ocean imagery and symbolic ocean imagery. Descriptive ocean imagery directly relate to oceanic object, which contains the sensation of poet. Descriptive ocean imagery mainly contains this imagery which describes ocean itself, oceanic goods and life of seashore and island. Figurative ocean imagery is the imagery which assimilates oceanic objects to other things. Tang poetry contains a mass of figurative ocean imagery, just as"Universal Ocean","the ends of land and ocean","navigation by cockleshell". Symbolic ocean imagery is the ocean imagery which often be cited in poetry and have fixed signification. In the Tang Dynasty, there are much symbolic ocean imagery, just as"oceanic sampan","PengLai","Ocean and Land"and"seagull".Ocean imagery of Tang Poetry has important literary value. On the one hand, ocean imagery is one of the characteristics of Tang Poetry. On the other hand, ocean imagery is an important resort of Tang Poetry to express feelings, especially to express the breadth of mind, sentiment of separation and pathos.Ocean imagery of Tang Poetry is very influenced by the ocean consciousness of the Tang Dynasty. As an open and powerful dynasty, Tang Dynasty pay more attention to the oceans. Based on the three factors of society, environment and times, the Tang Dynasty has formed a distinctive ocean consciousness. The ocean consciousness of the Tang Dynasty have a enormous influence on ocean imagery of Tang Poetry. Specifically explaining, it includes the influence of oceanic psychology, sea-god belief and oceanic cognition of Tang Dynasty.