Research On Academic Culture In Early Tang Dynasty

In the period of the early Tang, politics, economics and especially culture had gained remarkable development and presented an appearance of unprecedented prosperity. There had been couples of famous scholar who had made some academic achievements not only in philosophy and religion, but also in literature、history and art.From the twentieth century, lots of scholars from home and abroad had done some research in the culture of the early Tang period and obtained great achievements. While by now there has been few researchers engaged in the exploration of the academic history of the early Tang. This thesis emphasizes on the historical status of academics in the early Tang as well as the developmental process and the main achievements on the academics in the early Tang and the characteristics in terms of time and space of the academic research.Tang Dynasty academic development is not without root, nor is it overnight, but there are profound social background. In the early time of Tang Dynasty, with the unity of the nation and the "Great illustration of Education" policy, academic career was put on the right track. In the reign of Emperor Tang Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian, many scholars were dedicated to academic studies and gained achievements in Jing Shi Zi Ji,which laid a good foundation for the development of academic in early Tang Dynasty. During this period, excellent social environment, cultural policy and humane fashion have created good conditions for the development of the Tang’s academy. Academic culture of the Tang Dynasty is developed in this background.When you are accessed to the cultural treasury of Tang Dynasty, the "Three Religions"(Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism) would be the most attractive ones. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism coexist with one another, forming a multi-culture and open policy of ideology and culture, Emperor Tang Xuanzong noted three books(namely,《Xiao Jing》,《Dao Dejing》 and 《Jin Gangjing》)which had a profound impact on the development religious learning. Confucianist researchers was dedicated to the interpretation of "Nine Sutra". Buddhist researcher either translated the Sutras, or explored Buddhism, or wrote books. Taoist researchers were focusing on classifying the Daozang research and organizing other Taoist writings. Although the methods they used varied, and the fields also had some differences, anyway, the results were prominent.The Tang Dynasty attached great importance to the social function of history, so historians are fruitful in these period. In the early Tang Dynasty, the famous historian, Liu Zhiji, sprung up in the research of historical theory.The historical book,《Shi Tong》, was regarded an immortal masterpiece. There had been some experts in previous history, not only did they compile the well-known "Tang Bashi", they also made a complete discussion on the previous books, and obtained excellent acievements which had lasted till today. As for the study of contemporary history,《Zhen Guan Zheng Yao》 of Wu Jing and 《Tang Liudian》 of Li Linfu has certain representativeness. Through these historians and their writings, we can see the extent of the historian development in the early Tang period.In the field of literature, rulers in this period put great emphasis on it, sometimes they would pick up the officials through literary works, which, to certain extent, promoted the development of literature. In the former period of Tang Dynasty, many people were engaged in the creation of poetry, prose and novel. Masters and excellent artist flourished, who left massive literary works for the later generations. On the other hand, there are also many scholars engaged in "literature theory "research and research on metrical poetry. They wrote some academic works related to literature.Art in Tang Dynasty is broad and subtle, calligraphy, painting, sculpture, music, dance, contests content with each other to display. In the early Tang period, there had been many distinguished artists. For example, there are four masters in calligraphy, such as Yan Zhenqin、Zhang Xu, etc. There were also masters in painting, like Wu Daozi、 Wang Wei, Lady Yang、Lady Gongsun in dancing. There were also some scholars who had been dedicated to the art research. These scholars wrote wrorks in the area they were familiar with and left valuable information for us to understand the art of Tang Dynasty. The lower landlord class gradually became the main strength of scientific and technological research.Science and technology in this period is remarkable, there are achievements in astronomy, calendar, geography, mathematics and medicine.It’s worth mentioning that Li Chunfeng and Seng Yixing made great contribution in astronomy and calendar."Shi Bu Suan Jing" was systematically sorted and checked, the great medical science Sun Simiao compiled 《Qian Jinfang》, the official revise the huge book 《Tang Xin Ben Cao》.In the whole, science and technology were still monopolized by the official, but with the development of society and the need from the practice.If we make a general overview of academic culture in the early Tang Dynasty, we can clearly figure out its characteristic:Academic culture development in time and space is different. From the view of time, the period of Gao Zu is the creation stage, the period of Tai Zong put lots of efforts on culture and educaton, which laid a good foundation for academic culture development. There was a little twists and turns during the ruling time of Gao Zong and Empress Wu, but it still showed a good tendency. After bringing order out of chaos in the period of Xuan Zong, the academic culture entered a flourishing age.From the view of space, this thesis inspects the academic achievements and characteristics of each "Dao" based on the "Zhen Guan Shi Dao". Guanneidao、 Hebeidao、Jiangnandao、Hedongdao are all areas boomed in academic culture. From the view of city, Chang An and Luo Yang are definitely the centers of academic culture.If we compare the academic achievements in early Tang with that in late Tang,we can easily find out the the historical status and profound impact of academic culture in early Tang dynasty. From the view of Jingxue, the unison and sorting of Wu Jing and other ancient classics have a important status of continuing the development of Jingxue. Same to history, the official revising and compling of Jizhuantizhengshi and the establishment of Shiguanzhidu set a direction for the development of traditional history. The creating and perfecting of Jintishi is a vital accomplishiment in the period. Both science and art have great status in carring on the past and ushering in the future.The main innovation of this paper are in three points:First, from a historical perspective, multi-disciplinary approach is applied and the academic history of the early Tang Dynasty were systematically organized; Second, the scholars in the main subject areas of the Tang Dynasty are explored and researched, and it puts forward some new ideas; Three, It is the first to reveal the characteristics of the times and the regional of the early Tang academic development, and analyzes the factors that influence the spatial and temporal characteristics of the the early Tang academy. This paper also has some weaknesses, for example, it failed to expound the academic achievements of certain scholars for the limit on time and length.Besides, it failed to further explore the factors that influence the achievements of scholars. For these problems, they will be solved in the future research.