A Study On Gu Kuang

Gu Kuang, styled Bu Weng and also known by his literary name Hua Yang Shan Ren, was born in Hai Yan, Su Zhou( now Hai Yan, Zhe Jiang) in Tang Dynasty. He was one of the famous active poets in the field of literature in the period of from Da Li of Tang Dynasty to the 1st year of Zhen Guan. He has ever lived with his close relatives in Gou Rong Yun Yang Li, and studied nearby in Yuan Yang Guan in Mao Shan, Gou Rong. When he was in the teenage, he began to show talent in literature and was, therefore, appreciated by many. He was homored as Jin Shi in the 2ed year of Zhi De of Tang Su Zong(the year of 757). However, he was hard in officialdom and at last became a Taoist priest. At last, he had to live in privacy as a hermit in Mao Shan, and died there.Gu Kuang was an important poet whose poems succeed to the style in the prime period of Tang Dynasty and initiated the poem schools in the mid-Tang Dynasty. This period was the turning piont of the two styles of poems and, therefore, played the transitional role. Huang Fushi highly praised him and said, "For Li Bai and Du Fu have passed away, no poet can compete with him". Yan Yu also considered his poems prior to Yuan Zhen's and Bai Juyi's, and remarked,"Gu Kuang's poems are more than Yuan Zhen's and Bai Juyi's, and have the style of those in prime Tang". Gu Kuang was not only special in the thought of poem and writing style, but had his own personality and experience in his poems. The co-penetration of the traditional Confucianism and the culture of Buddhism and Taoism he absorbed made Gu Kuang's ideas complex, meanwhile, made his poems in a new style of esthetics. He was also a representative of the school of Wu Zhong poem in the southeast of the country of Tang. His poems were of strong regional characteristics and his own special style inside. Thereby, people afterwards highly valued him: "He develops a school of his own in the field of poetry in the period of between Da Li to Zhen Yuan of Tang Dynasty". (Jiang Yin, Research on the Poets in the period of between Da Li to Zhen Yuan of Tang Dynasty).Thus, the research on Gu Kuang goes without saying.However, the research on Gu Kuang is not enough now. Though some have studied Gu Kuang and his works in various points of view, such as A Collection of Gu Kuang's Poems compiled by Zhao Changping; Notes to Gu Kuang's Poems by Wang Qixing and Zhang Hong; Study on Poets in Tang Dynasty.on Gu Kuang by Fu Xuancong; Gu Kuang and His Poems and Gu Kuang and a Collection of Gu Kuang's works by Gu Yisheng; On Gu Kuang's Literature Theme and the Creation of Poems by Wang Qixing; New Research Founding about Gu Kuang's Poems by Deng Hongrnei The School of Wu Zhong Poetry' and the Poetry in Mid-Tang Dynasty and Several Issues about the Life of Gu Kuang by Zhao Changping. But all the studies on Gu Kuang and Gu Kuang's works are not in all round and thorough. Generally speaking, many articles now are simple and plagiarized of the ones of other writers'. And mostly, all these merely set out historical data, but not dig the depth of Gu Kuang. Moreover, because the collection of data about and the compilation of Gu Kuang'poems are not completely available, some vague description exists in nowadays collection of poetry. In addition, another several poems haven't been found. Gu Kuang's works are collected in The Collection of the Tang essays, totally three volumes, thirty nine pieces. These poems are, in the certain way, valuable for literature research and research on history, but no any article, till now, has ever made systematic analysis of Gu Kuang's essays. This, undoubtedly speaking, is a limitation in the field of research on Gu Kuang.Thereby, this paper takes a systematic and thorough study on Gu Kuang and his works in the following aspects. Firstly, the times in which Gu Kuang lived and his life; secondly, the content and theme tendency of his poems; thirdly, the artistic features and aesthetic features of his poems; fourthly, his position in literature history; fifthly, study on Gu Kuang's works.Appendix:First, study on part of the writing time of Gu Kuang's poems; second, investigation of Gu Kuang's poems that haven't been found; third, analysis of the data of Gu Kuang's becoming a Taoist priest.