Studies On The Poems On History In Tang Dynasty

Tang dynasty was another age characterized by the prosperity of the poems in the history of China. Compared with the other historical periods, the writing of poems in Tang dynasty was unprecedented in the variety of forms, the artistic quality and the profoundness of ideas. The poems are an immense treasure for the social, historical and cultural history of Tang dynasty since they touched every aspect of the social life and state of the mind. They are poetic histori- cal literature in reality. The poems on history were an important part of the corpus of the Tang poetry. It is worth studying them as a cultural phenomenon. The Tang Empire was open and confident and the peo- ple were daring in thinking over history and man himself. The long and rich cultural tradition of China provided the abundant cultural materials for the literati on the one hand, on the other hand, the elite, especially the intellectuals, were familiar with history and the poems became their common language. Many times writing poems on history was an important way for the in- tellectuals to express themselves, sometimes even the only form. They left a precious cultural heritage to the posterity while they successfully expressed themselves. The poems on history not only gave representation of the social life and state of mind of Tang dynasty, but they were also an important stage in China for the development of historical ideas that linked the past and the future. They inherited the ideas of the predecessors and showed the way to investigate to the future. If these poems were neglected, the history of Tang might be prejudiced and the ideas of history of China might become incomplete. Based on these assumptions, I decided to study the poems on history of Tang dynasty. Defining the poems on history in a broad sense, I try to investigate the historical ideas rep- resented in these poems so that we can find a new angle to study the culture and ideas of Tang dynasty. It falls into six chapters. Based on their thought over antiquities of Tang dynasty, Chapter I concentrates on the poets?ideas of rise and fall of the dynasties. Chapter II will in- vestigate the forms, contents and the characteristics of the poem series on history and their achievement in order to find the functions of the poems whose form was advanced and devel- oped. Chapter III is a case study that examines Bai ~Juyi?s ideas about space, time and his home ideas that embedded in the deep cultural psychology. Then I will examine his ideas about the relationship between time, life and outlook on life. Chapter IV is another case study that will investigate the transmission of the terms of history and culture and the relationship between the poems and the political realities. I will try to discern changes of values by examining the poets?approach to history. Chapter V is concerned with the contemporary history mirrored in the poems. It examines the following problems: the transformation of the literary and poetry language, the historical functions of the poetry writing, history of the poetry and the poems on history, etc. Chapter VI concentrates on the investigation of the ideas and culture. It investi- gates the poets?reading of the Chinese classics and compares it with their attitudes to the oth- er literature, trying to find their different attitudes to the same classics and the ideas of other- ness faced in the main social trend.