Studies Of Late-tang Style Poetry In The Tang And Song Dynasties

The dissertation on Late-tang Style Poetry in the Tang and Song Dynasties, Consists of three parts of introduction,text and postscript.The introduction consists of six sections. In the first section,the historic status and research value of Late-tang Style Poetry are analysed and studied,concluding that Late-tang Style Poetry is one of the poetry genres which are of great influence in the literary history. The duration and bulkiness of its composition group are unprecedented,and have far-reaching influence on the production and criticism of classical Chinese poetry.In the second section,research status quo at home and abroad is summarized,concluding that although many concerned researches on some individuanl writers and literary phenomena have been done,a systemic comprehensive research is still seldom seen,which shows that the academia has not paid much attention to this style.The third section deals with timing of the poetry in the Tang Dynasty, concluding that researchers in the Song Dynasty tended to study poetry in the Tang Dynasty via three stages ,that is ,the High-Tang,Mid- Tang and Late- Tang,but the meaning of Mid- Tang and Late- Tang is not the same as that of the aftertime, Mid- Tang usually referred to the period after Dali and Zhenyuan, while the period after Yuanhe was usually known as Late- Tang. Based on that,Jia-Dao,Yao-He and some other poets of the similar kind were looked upon as poets of Late- Tang,naturally,their poems came to Late-tang Style Poems.The fourth section studies evolution of the meaning of Late-tang Style,concluding that the term Late-tang Style came to shape gradually with appearance of Late-tang of Three-Tang theory in the Song Dynasty. The specific meaning of the term varied at different time,for example, Yan-Yu specially referred to a unique style only in the Tang Dynasty,while Yu-Wenbao thought it was a special poetry style popular in the the Southern Song Dynasty ,in the end ,Fang-Hui summarized the meaning of the Song Dynasty poetry,making people have similar viewpoint of Late-tang Style.The fifth section differentiates and analyses the often-used term such as Tang Poetry,Poets in the the Tang Dynasty,Tang Style and Late-tang Poetry,and the sixth section introduces the main research methods used in the dissertation.The text consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 discusses main characteristics of the Late-tang Style,concluding that searching images and picking up lines were their main composition methods,clear case was their aesthetical pursuit ,living humbly was their personality pose,and living poem-orientedly was their living state.Chapter 2 discusses art sources of Late-tang Style,concluding that the Late-tang Style poetry represented by Jia Dao and Yao He gradually grew up in a increasingly changing social and literary circumstances,in which many factors affecting turning up of the fashion of Late-tang Style ,but the most profound factor affecting their aesthetical flavor and writing habits came from three aspects,that is ,going back to the style of the Period of the Six Dynasties, the influences from Du Fu, Meng Jiao and Zheng Ji.Chapter 3 discusses Jiao Dao and his Late-tang Style Poetry,concluding that of all the Late-tang Style Poets, Jia Dao was the most famous,and his fame and glory came firstly from the noble status in the histry of poetry,secondly from his complex life experiences ,thus leading to his unique style and achievements of his poems. which concentrated to depict or recording kinds of living states of monks ,Taoists and hermits. Hard-chanting and poem-writing orientation was also the important content of Jian Dao's . Jia's Hard-chanting had two kinds of meanings ,one was Hard-chanting and poem-writing orientation,the other was depiction of hardship and difficulties in social life. In Jia's poems .whatever life he reflected, whatever scene he depicted ,he inclined to use white and black color, cold sensitation,dilapidated ,wild or dying images,which made up a unique world in his poems. Jia was good at five-word lines ,with the largest quantity and striking characteristics in all his poems.Chapter 4 discusses Yao He and his Late-tang Style Poems, concluding that living in the same era, Yao He and Ja Dao was called Yao & Ja,but they were valued differently at different time,in details ,in the period of Late-tang and Five Regime, Ja Dao was more respected ,while during the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties,all the Late-tang Style poets exept Nine Monks tended to study Yao He's style. The theme and content of Yao He's poems were similar to those of Ja Dao's ,that is ,narrow and simple , most were about association activities among friends,and seldom concerned about the real social life, just of that of Jia Dao, most of that depicted the tranquil inactive hermit life characterized by kinds of laziness and leisure. Just as Jia Dao ,Yao He also liked hard-chanting, but striking contract to Jia Dao, Yao's purpose of hard-chanting was to kill time,not to hunt for fame or physical benefit. Yao He also chant of hardlife of lower class masses represented by himself. many of his lines were also about monks ,Taoists and hermits,but the purpose of these kind of poems was to express his religion awareness,and the strong desire to become a monk. Just like Jia Dao, Yao He also liked to depict the scenery of remote and desolate wild forest and hills in some small counties,but he liked sunny and warm sky,as well as nice spring flowers,so his poems were colorful,with kinds of color in his lines, contrary to that of Jia Dao. Yao He was good at five-word lines, of all his 535 poems ,422 was this kind,much more high than Jia Dao's,but his poems were more stiff,lacking of changes.Chapter 5 discusses Late-tang Style poety in the period of Late-tang and Five Regime, concluding that the popularity of Late-tang Style in this period resulted from not only the objective law of poetry itself,but also from the social background then. As for the development of the poetry itself,because of the unique charm and compisotion achievements, the founders of Late-tang Style Jia Dao and Yao He powerfully influenced the fields of poetry at the end of Mid-tang ,and mant poets followed them were the important forces at that time. As for the effects from the society,the flourishment of Late-tang Style poety was the necessary choice, because the living surroundings of the great poet group had been deteriorated.Late-tang Style poetry in the period of Late-tang and Five Regime inherited some characteristics of Jia Dao and Yao He's ,the most representative was chanting-orientation,that is the poets of that kind lived by poem-writing,and inclined to describe the scenes,feelings and living background of their poem- writing. Just as Jia Dao and Yao He ,the Late-tang Style poets also hardchanted,the hardship of their chanting had two kind of meanings ,one was to chant hardship and unhappiness of their relative ,families,and themselves. the other was referred to their poems hard .carefully and solemnly. Meanwhile ,they imitated some other techniques and skills of Jia Dao and Yao He's.There had also been obvious changes in Late-tang Style poety in the period of Late-tang and Five Regime,showing striking characteristics of the time,that is,the centre of poets moved gradually to the southland in addition to the imitation of Jia Dao and Yao He, Tao Yuan-ming,Xie Tiao ,Xie Ling-yun and some other poets were also studied,and the content of chanting hardship gradually turned from showing poverty and hardship of their relatives and friends to depicting and recording difficulties and hardship during their trips,and language of poems came to become more and more plain, simple ,and oral,gradually come to shape to two routes of study Jia Dao and Yao He .Chapter 6 discusses Late-tang Style Poetry in the Early-song Dynasty,first showed the cultural backgroud of Late-tang Style Poetry in the Early-song Dynasty,then discusses three reasons resulting to the great fame that Late-tang Style Poets earned,that is,the moral chastity and personality power of themselves,the respect and value from the emperor, and the characteristis of thepoem style itself. Based on different living states,art sources and aesthetical flavor, Late-tang Style Poets in the Early-song Dynasty could be grouped into three types:monks group represented by Nine Monks,hermit group represented by Lin Bu,and official group represented by Kou Zhun,which representing three development directions in the Early-song Dynasty.There were two Characteristics in Late-tang Style Poetry of the Early-song Dynasty, the first was typical hard-chanting,other was that the contents basically did not involve political affairs,only chanting the secenes and affairs on their side.Chapter 7 discusses Late-tang Style Poetry developed after the movement of literary reform , concluding that although after the movement , Late-tang Style Poetry were talked about or even imitated,some unique methods and aesthetical flavor did not disappeared utterly,moreover,they influenced the fields of poems on three aspects,that is,hard-chanting,scenery-depiction,and further evolution of hard-chanting theory.Chapter 6 discusses Yong-jia Si-ling and their Late-tang Style Poetry, concluding that in the development history of Late-tang Style Poetry Yong-jia Si-ling was the first that had the nature of poem society,and earned their fame via achievements and influence of the whole group instead of individuality. The most important is that while discussing poem composition,they raised some valuable theories such as: Shisi chumen duo(诗思出门多), Xiuju chu han e(秀句出寒饿), Xinyi yu zixiu(心夷语自秀), Junshi ru Jia Dao(君诗如贾岛), Ming yu langxian ju(句与浪仙俱), and so on, which were all the important poem theory of Late-tang Style Poetry.The macro social background of Yong-jia Si-ling's revival to Late-tang Style Poetry was to keep up with the decisive trend that the fields of poetry was anxious to reform,but they also had the purpose of pursuit to earn big fame for their group.The forerunner in the Southern Song Dynasty to revive Late-tang Style Poetry was Yang Wan-li, whose prescription to cure illness of Jiangxi School,first praising composition achievements of poems in the Late-tang ,then theorrtically raising the historic status of poems in the Late-tang,but he did not learn all case in the Late-tang, what he praised and learned was those who were good at Jueju such as Li Shang-yin, Wu Rong and some others. In addition to learn Jueju in the Late-tang, Yong-jia Si-ling also learned Dali shi caizi(大历十才子), Jia Dao and Yao He and some other poets in the Late-tang.Postscript briefly analyzes the development state of Late-tang Style Poetry after Yong-jia Si-ling, concluding that the state of Jianghu Poets's learning of Late-tang Style Poetry was very complicated,although absorbed some characteristics and techeniques ,the content and expressing forms and some other factors wound their way from Late-tang Style Poetry far away.