The Study Of Pi Rixiu And Lu Guimeng Poets Group In Late Tang Dynasty

The poets group of Pi Rixiu and Lu Guimeng was a very important poets group inlate Tang Dynasty. Compared with Li Shangyin, Du Mu and Wen Tinjun, the genreand style of this poets group are quite different. So, Pi and Lu's poems stand foranother writing style. The members Of this group are Pi Rixiu, Lu Guimeng, Luo Yin,Du Xunhe,LieYizhong etc. Although most of them were JINSHI of Tang Dynasty,they failed to be officials of the government, that is to say, the status of the membersof this poets group were not high in that society. Roving round China and visitingdifferent people from every stratum, they got abundant information of the politics,society and the life of the common citizens in latter Tang Dynasty. They kept a closerelationship with the common people and concemed about the sufferings of thepeople. Therefore, they exposed the reality and criticized the political situation. Thecontent of their poems was substantial. They succeed to the excellent tradition ofrealism poems. At present, the researchers in contemporary academic circles paymore attention to Pi and Lu, especially to their poems. But few of the scholars studythem as a poets group. At present, although many works about the poems of Latterpart of Tang Dynasty, such as THE FEATURES OF POEMS IN TANGDYNASTY( written by Yu Shucheng),THE STUDY OF THE CHANGE OFPOEMS BETWEEN TANG AND SONG DYNASTY (written by Liu Ling),THE INTELLECTUAL'S CHARACTERISTIC AND THE STYLE OF POEMS OFLATTER PERIOD OF TANG DYNASTY(written by Zhao Rongwei) etc, treat themas a group and call them POOR INTELLECTUALS or ROVING AND VISITINGPOETS GROUP. In some ways, those books are too brief. In order to fill the blank ofthis issue, my dissertation will study Pi and Lu poets group's works and discourse onthem. In fact, the content and style of this poets group are fairly special. Moreover,their works served as a link between past and future, especially to the form of thepoems in Song Dynasty.Pi and Lu poets group belonged to the lower class of landlord. They accepted thetraditional Confucian thoughts and education, so they were eager to be successfulthrough the examination organized by the government. Hence, their poem theory andwriting had to be restrained by Confucian poem theory. Besides, although their viewof poem was quite different, it was not divorced from Confucian poem theory. Theyinherited the poetical idea of Bai Juyi and wrote lots of "YUEFU POEMS". Theywanted to influence the society. Absolutely, the "YUEFU POEMS" written by themachieved great achievements again. Besides, they also described the love betweentheir family members,friendship and the feeling of living seclusion. About thewriting form appeared in their works, most of them like to write foreword before theirpoems. This is a very important characteristic. They took the initiative to variouspoem styles and considered that poems should be simple fresh and changeable. Theywere good at weeding through the old to bring forth the new. They firmly believe towriting poems as articles and show the author's knowledge in their poems. Theirpoem style had a great impact on the poems written in Early Song Dynasty. In thisdissertation, there will be a special chapter and section to discuss and research thisissue.Besides their poems, this poets group also created plenty of essays. Once, Mr.Lu Xun sung high praise to those satirical sketches. In those short satirical essays,they exposed and fiercely criticized the abuses in that society. The purpose of theirpoems and sketches were similar. Actually, the long prefaces were essays. They combined the poems and essays efficiently and successfully.Their life can be divided into two parts. During the early part of their life, theywere visiting different places and high officials because their dreams were to besuccessful statesmen and officials. Because of their rich experience, they showedmany facts of that society. During the second part of their life, they relied onbureaucrats and lived a peaceful and comfortable life, so their works paid littleattention to common people's life and social reality but talked about their cozy andpleasant life. There are more flattery words in their works in this period. Theyreduced the criticism and sharp points in their poems and essays. At that time, poemsacted just as plays and an implement of amusement. This literature phenomenon wasvery popular in ancient times, but they protruded it from the other literary men. Theirworks had a strong effect on the later dynasties especially in Qing Dynasty. Thistreatise will study those effects in special chapter.According to my experience, this treatise is the first one to study Pi and Lu poetsgroup as a whole. It demonstrates although those poets were not so successful in.politics, they sought actively and devoted themselves to creating new style and formin the field of poets and essays. It is clear that their works played an important role inlatter period of Tang Dynasty when the gorgeous style poems were very popular. Inone word, maybe their achievements were not so outstanding and couldn't catch upwith the poets before, but they wrote lots of works which inherited the long-standingtradition from Han Dynasty and dared to criticize the social reality. Also, their poemsfollowed the principal aspect of the Chinese traditional poems. About the poems,they also had a try. They expressed their ambition, described and discussed thehistory or something in their society. They enlarged the content of poems and made agood preparation for the prosperity of the poems in Song Dynasty. Those facts aretheir great contribution for the whole poem history.There are six chapters in this treatise which introduce the deeds of their life,study the literature thoughts, their poems and essay's influence and so on.Especially, this treatise pays special attention to their works. The poems cited in this treatise are all the newest collation in modern academic circles. All the words citedfrom other people's works are annotated with its author,publish house,order of theedition and page numbers. I will be responsible for this treatise.