Anshi's Rebellion And The Poets In Splendid Tang-dynasty

As the beginning of a new epoch, Anshi's Rebellion produced a great impact on literature in the poets' psychology as well as the poetic content. Research on the poetry of this certain period is significant to understand the literary change from Prosperous Tang Dynasty to Dali period. When it comes to the current situation of research, it's a pity that the scholars have set great store by the Prosperous Tang-Poetry and Dili-Poetry, while little store by the turn of the poetry between these two periods, the poetic creations during the war. It's just the purpose to write this thesis, which consists of three chapters.The first chapter shows that, from analysis on the political, economic, and the cultural problems lurking in the Prosperous Tang Dynasty, the Anshi's Rebellion is the historical tool that made the problems visible. Under the critical circumstances, the sensible poets realized the social crisis and molded their new psychology and life style. We can conclude that it's the lurking problems before the Anshi's Rebellion that effected the people and poets deeply, rather than the rebellion itself. In the respect of political system, the imperial power was being ever-lost and the centralization of authority was ever-diminishing, hi the respect of culture, the Taolism was esteemed during the late Tang-Xuanzong's reign, but not the Confucianism esteemed by Tang-Taizong. In the respect of the poets and poetry, their psychology and their creation had turned out to own something new.The second chapter talks about the political, economic and cultural changes during the wartime. Anshi's Rebellion made An authoritarian, flourishing and stable empire into parts. So it is regarded as the abrupt turn not only in Tang Dynasty, but in China history. The essential change in politics is the further diminishing of the centralization of authority, which discredited the imperial government's prestige and weakened its control. At the same time, the masses were forced to scatter, which destroyed the foundation of economic system, Juntian System. Meanwhile, the military envoys possessing enough army to menace the government, the political interruption of the eunuch, and the increasing military input, all that sharpened the social contradictions. As the result, there appeared some new cultural phenomena. For example, poets became more loyal to the sovereign and devoted to the country; the change oftendency from centripetal to centrifugal in politics.The third chapter is a specific analysis of the changes of the poetry creation during Anshi's Rebellion. After the rebellion breakup, the poets renewed their social statues and created new poetry that coincided with the current situation. Most of the poets of Prosperous Tang Dynasty were still optimistic, confident and broadminded. This is the mainstream of the literary creation in the wartime. But, their poetry had changed from enthusiasm to calm in aesthetic psychology, from extraordinary splendid to simplistic in cultural characteristic. At the same time, the abrupt warfare weakened some poets' vitality, which made their poetic creation from external world to internal world in aesthetic taste.Based on what has been argued in this thesis, the poetic creation in Anshi's Rebellion not only carried on that of Prosperous Tang Dynasty, but influenced the following literary creation deeply and profoundly.