Essentials Of Music Poems Of Tang Dynasty

Since ancient times, most of the refined scholars have some knowledge in music. Given a brief review of Quan Tang Shi, one can find that from the first poetic reference to musical instrument in Qin by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, more than 400 poems written with the names of musical instrument such as lyre, lute, zither, horn, flute, pipe, reed-pipe sprang up in merely one dynasty of Tang. Poems with the theme of longing for true friends, indignant feeling of unrecognized talents and homesickness are even more numerous. What's more, there are voluminous works with description of music instrument on the topic of following emperor's orders, poets get-together, imperial competictive examination and monk poems. However, appreciation and comment on those poems are centered on merely several poets and in limited works( e.g. "Pi Pa Xing" by Bai Juyi, "Ting Ying Shi Tan Qin" by Han Yu, and "Li Ping Kong Hou Yin" by Li He).Setting feelings of listening to singing, instrumental music and recorded music in Quan Tang Shi as the research subject, this paper aims to reveal the historical and cultural reasons for the emergence of music-themed poems as well as its cultural meanings by analysing social background of Tang Dynasty, cultural system, artistic view of the dominators, communication between scholars and musicians and the interactions among them. Besides, some typical cultural connotations such as home consciousness, longing for true friends are interpreted through major categorization of those poems. The use of artistic techniques (including "blank" art, myths and legends) are also illuminated in this way.