A Study On The World Of Prose In Dali And Zhenyuan Period

The Dali and Zhenyuan period of Tang Dynasty witnessed a flourishing of prose writing, as evidenced by mature authorship, emergence of many famous writers, and large output of prose. Present at this period which marked the transitioning of prose writing in Tang dynasty, were both forerunners of ancient literature writing movement and the major authors of the period. Thus a study of the authors at this period offers a panoramic view of the literature circles in Tang Dynasty. This paper intends to more completely present the major characteristics of the prose and authors at the Tang Dynasty, by focusing on the development of prose writing during the period of Dali and Zhenyuan, in the hope of covering the various aspects which usually got overlooked by narrow-angle researches. It is the author's opinion that this approach contributes to better understanding of ancient literature of China and will also be instrumental in deepening the research on Tang Dynasty prose.The dissertation consists of four chapters.Chapter I is devoted to painting an overall picture of the literature circles of the Dali and Zhengyuan period by first discussing their general makeup, the major activities and the overall social background. Generally speaking, writers at the researched period fell in three clusters, first cluster consisting of people who became officials before Dali and survived the social disturbance, second cluster consisting of people who became officials during Dali period and achieved their writing apex at the Zhenyuan period, the third cluster consisting of people who became officials at Zhenyuan period and whose writings survived till today. The creative activities of these people were affected by a number of factors, such as deployment and appointment of official positions, the tendency for intellectuals to work for senior officials at the time, official selection mechanism, the prevalence of networking among tutors and students, etc. As a result, different writing styles were recorded during the period, which reflects either old times or the times unfolding. The makeup of the writers and their creative activities show that Dali and Zhenyuan period is a transitioning period in terms of prose writing.Chapterâ…¡aims at further elaborating on the transitioning characteristics of the Dali and Zhenyuan period by focusing on the change in the values and personalities of the intellectuals at the time. The author is of the opinion that the driving factors behind the changes are the elevation of intellectuals'social status and shift academic atmosphere. On their part, intellectuals went through a change of their personality aspirations from becoming a tutor to the kings to a saint, their political pursuit shifting from being romantic to being more pragmatic, resulting in the building of a new value system that embraces the combination of both literature pursuit and officialdom. In addition, the intellectuals then also migrated from a focus on academic progress to morality, which was translated into their political activities. The change in their values and personalities was finalized by the reorientation in the strategy guiding their life aspirations from "waiting patiently for the right timing to enter political circles, and retiring at the accomplishment of their political goals" to "either executing your political ideals when you hold the office, or promoting your political ideals when you don't". Alongside the change in intellectuals'values and personalities, prose authored in the said period displayed two general characteristics, namely, a prose should be useful for the time being, a prose should promote political ideals. The change in the general characteristics of prose at the time was mainly driven by changes in intellectuals'values and personality.Chapter III further elaborated on the ideas in the prose authored at this period. Prose in this period reflected their writers'thoughts in four areas:reversion to the old times, embrace of "Tao", essence of prose, style of prose. These thoughts, operating within the theoretical boundaries provided for intellectuals at early and mid Tang Dynasty, reflected both inheritances of legacy ideas as well as adjustment to realities. Overall, it testified to the elevation of self-awareness of intellectuals at the time, which resulted in the changes in their prose as well as their aesthetic ideas.Chapter IV presented case studies on five writers of the period, respectively, Dugu Ji, Liang Su, Quan Deyu, Lu Zhi and Li Ao. These case studies aim to shed light on the changing ideas'impact on prose in the period as well as the trend in the style development, and also to provide an objective assessment of the prose. Prose written by the five writers was known for their richness, paradox, creativeness and narrowness. Combined, their prose exposed the main thread of the changing style of the time period. The change, much more than represented by the shift from Pian Wen to prose in writing style, is an evidence of the embrace of individualistic expression driven by elevated self-awareness and supported by an increase in the ability of artistic expression.In the conclusion, the author pinpointed the special connection with politics enjoyed by prose, which is unique among all the different styles of writings, and such specialness was vividly demonstrated by the transitioning character of the Dali and Zhenyuan Literature Circles, known for its richness, variegatedness and paradox. As far as prose is concerned, this period revealed that as the value and personality of intellectuals change, intellectuals had displayed strong sense of self-awareness, their prose becoming more detached from their pursuit of political career and reflecting more directly their values and personality. This marked an important change in the development of prose and casted a long shadow over following generations till Song Dynasty.