The Cultural Direction Of Imperial Examination And The Evolution Of Poetry Style Of Qi And Liang Dynasties In The Early Tang And High Tang

In the time of early Tang and high Tang, the imperial examinationwas on the way evolving from a childish-type to an adult-type. It hadstrong power to guide the development of social culture. In Tang Dynastyof poetry, the evolution of poetry style of Qi and Liang Dynasties wasclosely connected with it.The part of introduction summarized the predecessors' viewpointsand achievements in the research field of imperial examination andTang poems, proposed this article methods to think and research, that is,taking the change of cultural direction in imperial examination in theearly Tang and high Tang as a background, contemplates the destiny ofthe poetry style of Qi and Liang Dynasties in that time, and divides it intothree stages, namely, the time of Emperor Gaozhu and Taizong, EmperorGaozong and Empress Wu, and the Emperor Xuanzong, then makes somediscussions on them.In the time of Emperor Gaozhu and Taizong, the official culturaldirection in imperial examination took Confucian moral character andknowledge as the most important things, but in fact, as a result of thecultural influence come from Southern Dynasties, the literary abilityreceived quite a lot of attention, and this tendency became more obviousin the later period. Just because of this, on one hand, the poetry style ofQi and Liang Dynasties was criticized theoretically by the holders ofConfucian values on poetry, on the other hand, it was actually liked andstudied by the ruler and ministers of Zhenguan time. But, in this processof acceptance, the pursuit of elegant and legitimate style in Confucianliterary values had some power to restrain and rectify it.In the time of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu, literary abilityreceived more attention and Confucian values less in the imperialexamination, so that the ability to write poetry become more and moreimportant in officer selection and an official subject in the highestimperial examination at last. As a result, the palace poets received and developed the forms and skills of Qi and Liang poetry. This also affectednumerous intellectuals. But at the same time, Four Outstanding Persons,Chen Ziang and so on, who had Confucian thought background, orset-backs in their official careers, hold an opposite point to the way thatselects officers by poem examination, and criticized seriously the climateof valuing and developing the forms and skills of Qi and Liang poetryexcessively.In the time of Emperor Xuanzong, these two kinds of culturaldirection, that is, valuing literary ability and valuing Confucian moralcharacter, which repelled each other before in imperial examination, wentto union. This policy made a lot of people who had literary ability as wellas the will to relieve the world mount to the stage of both poets andpoliticians in the high Tang. To the poetry style of Qi and LiangDynasties, they had the manner that developed the good and discarded thebad, and performed improvement and innovation when inherited it. Theytook its theme, system, rhyme form, rhetoric and so on as carriers, put onit their own yearning for honor, the spirit of themselves and the age theybelonged to. Among them, Zhang Yue was the director and advocate, butWang Wei, Wang Changling, Li Bai, Du Fu were the outstandingrepresentatives.The conclusion summarized the arguments above, pointed out that inthe early Tang and high Tang, the cultural direction was still unstableand inconsistent in the imperial examination, and the poetry style of Qiand Liang Dynasties as a literary type which opposite to Confucianesthetical values, an extreme style of literature, whose destiny in culturalinheritance would change with the cultural direction inevitably.