On The Literature Of Sui Dynasty

The research on the literature of Sui Dynasty has certain value for interpreting the course of literature from Southern and Northern Dynasties to Tang Dynasty and for enriching the content of the history of literature as a whole. This paper aims to make a comprehensive and deepgoing research on the state of literature of Sui Dynasty from two aspects: the first part which consists of four chapters stesses on the macro-investigation, the second part which consists of three chapters lays special emphasis on the interpretation of some specific authors and their works.The first chapter discusses the new literary environment caused by the unification of the empires. This subject is studied mainly from two aspects, i.e., the necessary conformity of cultures in view of the unification of the country, and the cultural and literary exchange due to the assembly of literatis. First of all, by comparing and synthesizing Chen Yinke's and Tang Changru's study about the cultural development of Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, this chapter points out that the trend of the conformity of the cultures of Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty is to lean towards the culture of the Southern Dynasties. Then, centring on the music of Sui Dynasty, it analyses two dual-structures existent in the conformity of the culture of Sui Dynasty. One stucture is the Hu-Han culture and the other the Northern and Southern Han culture, and the manifestation of latter mainly lies in that the Han culture was undergoing the heritage and variation in the specific historical period and due to the geographical differences of the South and the North, and that the Southern Dynasties took the superior position in both institutional culture and ideological culture. Lastly, after the unification of the country, the literatis from different places gathered in Chang'an City, which facilitated the cultural academic and literary exchange, and thus all kinds of activities of exchange could be carried out.The second chapter analyses the stuggle for power among three groups of interest of Sui Dynasty and the up-and-downs of the scholars' fate due to it. Guanlong selfish departmentalism led to the Guanlong Group's using-and-suppressing policy toward the Shangdong scholars. Although it made some adjustment when Sui Dynasty replaced Chou Dynasty, it took no fundamental changes, which led to the gradual decline of Shangdong scholars. Different fates exerted decisive influences on Shangdong scholars' literary creation. Hou Liang in the Jiangzuo Group had had close relations with the Guanlong Group, while the fates of the scholars of Southern Ch'en Dynasty undergone great changes from Emperor Wen's reign period to Emperor Yang's reign period. From the Nanguan Humiliation at the beginning after entering the Pass, to their conscious convertion to the Yang brothers, most of them, after Emperor Yang came to throne, gained good treatment and had inportant positions in the decision-making groups of the dynasty of Emperor Yang. The changes of their fates made their literary creation took on different looks.The third chapter describes the literature of Sui Dynasty in the pattern of two periods and three places, tries to explore the reason for the insufficient development of the literature of Sui Dynasty, and compares the gains and losses of the literature of the two reign periods and then comes to the enlightenment to the history of literature.During Emperor Wen's reign, Guanlong military officer's powerful and free poems, Shangdogn literatis' rresentful and critical words of the common people, and the Jiangzuo Group's sound of Nanguan had their respective characteristics, composing the rare colorful chapter in the literary world of Sui Dynasty. During Emperor Yang's reign period, the voice of Shangdong literatis died out and the Guanlong poet Yang Su's literary creation was in fact an extension of the previous phase, while the palace literary group of which Emperor Yang was the core displayed a bustling but dull situation of producing works. Among them, Emperor Yang's creation had a strong personal feature, while the Jiang poets who made up of the main body of the group had few good ones among their works of flattery and social intercourse. The fourth chapter studies the three sources of the literature of Sui Dynasty. The Shangdong school of Northern Wei and Northern Qi was the mainstream of the literature of the Northern Dynasties. In the specific historical environment, culturally the Shangdong scholars inherited mostly the tradition of the Han culture, and laid stress on concerning oneslf with and participating in the reality, thus they kept a positive spirit of culture. As the Xianbei natonality had the tendency to be assimilated gradually by the Han culture, the environment for literary creation was improved and activities of producing works gradually recovered. Owing to the new atmosphere of learning actively from the literature of the Southern Dynasties, the literary style also changed from the simple and awkward style in the earlier period to the grand and elegant style in the later period which was in step with that of the Southern Dynasties, and the Shangdong literatis took an active posture of expressing their emotions and emdraced their rich life experiences in their works. The devolopment of the literature of Guanlong district experienced a faullt. During the period of Sixteen Kingdoms, the cultural and literary centre of the North was formed, of which Liangzhou was the core. But with the rise of Northern Wei, the literature of Guanlong district gradually declined until, Master Yuwen came to throne in Chang'an City, which gave vitality to it again. The literary style of Northern Chou period was mainly that of the Northern Dynasties brought by Wang Bao and Yu Xin and the Guanlong cultural spirit's tallying with it called for the practice of literary creation of Yang Su and Yang Guang, etc, in the later times. Since the Qi Dynasty and the Liang Dynasty, the literary creation of the Southern Dynasties paid more attention to pursuing the aethetic beauty of the artistic forms but less attention to the emotive function of literature and to the exploration deep into the individual experience of emotions.The fifth chapter puts stress on the study of three Shangdong representative authors, namely, Lu sidao, Xue Daoheng and Sun Wanshou. Lu Sidao was a person of unconventional and unrestrained character and of great passion, whose writings mirrored himslf. His style developed corresponding to the changing of his life experiences. When he was young, most of his works were of the palace style thus damaged somehow the righteous way. Because his official career was full of frustrations since his middle ages, he started to produce writings full of vehemence and deep melancholy. He was represses after entering the Pass, so complaint, anger and intense emotions became his main style. Xue Daoheng was the outstanding spokesman of the literary style of the Southern Dynasties in the North, who had an exquisite and elegant style and was good at making well-knit epigrams, often had clever thoughts and excellent conceptions but was week at expressing emotions. Sun Wanshou's poems mainly expressed his life tragedies and conveyed vividly his pains of failing to realize his ambitions and having come to a dead end and his longing for home in an forthright way and in a sad tone, thus his poems had great power to move the feelings.The sixth chapter studies Yang Su and Yang Guang, the two distinguished Guanlong writers. Yang Su was a person of exceptional abilities in his times, being both a military officer and a literati. Among his works, there were not only vehement, powerful and free border poems of grand and eloquent rhymes but also refined and elegant poems of remembering old acquaintances. His poems were sheer individual poems of himself and Fourteen Chapters Dedicated to Xue Fanzhou represented intensively his artistic level and his main style. Emperor Yang Yang Guang of Sui Dynasty got much criticism in history. It was evident that his character had many sides, which led to the complexity of his works, best illustrated in the comparison of ethics in "YaZhi" and "ZhengSheng". There was an evident show of a "fresh and spiritly" style which stemed from the vigorous life of Guanlong culture. His yuefu poems embodied his highest achievement and reflected some spirit of originality.The seventh chapter studies the Jiangzuo writers of Sui Dynasty. "The poems of Nanguan" at the beginning after entering the Pass was an important phenomenon in the literary world in Emperor Wen's reign period. It included experiences from several aspects, such as the longing for one's motherland, the painful memory of becoming a person of a conquered nation, the feelings of lossing one's position as a subject of the previous dynasty, and the recognition of one's tragic life. Among the Jiangzuo writers, Lu Sidao and Wang Zou were rather outstanding. Lu Sidao excelled in palace songs and leisurely and refined writings and he had an elegant and refreshingly lucid style but had limited talent. Wang Zou, however, had dictions with much feelings in addition, and his works had greater power to move the feelings and a quality of great insight.