A Study On The Mongolian Readings In The Tang Dynasty

"Meng Qiu", written by Han Li of the Tang dynasty, is one of important reading materials for enlightening children in the history of China. In this article, there are592sentences in total, including586allusions to historical figures. Characterized by antithesis and rhymes, each sentence was composed of four words, so it is easy to read and remember. After it was compiled into a book, this article has been of far-reaching and great significance."Meng Qiu" has made essential information available for the research on the history of children’s enlightenment education in China. Aiming at "Meng Qiu", the author studies its writer and the writer’s life, determines the approximate year when it was published in the form of a book, examines the changes to its versions and annotations, analyzes its specific contents, and discusses its value and influence. Finally, relationships between "Meng Qiu" and imperial examination are discussed according to features of imperial examination system in the middle and late Tang dynasty.Firstly, senior scholars have made great contribution concerning the writer of "Meng Qiu" and the year when it was compiled into a book. Based on existed research findings, the author comprehensively illustrates the reasons why Han Li of Tang dynasty is the writer of "Meng Qiu" and Han Li’s official experiences by collecting more related historical materials. Furthermore, it is proved that "Meng Qiu" was approximately compiled into a book within the period from Tianbao years during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang dynasty to Yongtai years during the reign of Emperor of Daizong of Tang dynasty (742-765).Secondly,"Meng Qiu" is quite popular and re-annotated by multiple scholars, so there are several different versions and annotations. In this paper,"Meng Qiu" is classified into ancient Chinese texts without annotations and texts with annotations. Aiming at the text with annotations, the author successively introduces major existed texts with annotations and sums up their origins. Then, each text with annotations is divided into five systems, including ancient annotations, Xu Guang’s annotations, self-type annotations, Korean edition and others, so as to further investigate book citation of main texts with annotations and analyze the causes of their similarities and differences. At last, styles of the texts with annotations are introduced in detail. Thus, it is concluded that the Dunhuang version of annotations is the oldest, Xu Guang’s annotations are the most influential and three categories of self-type annotations by people of the Qing dynasty have the most specific evidences, but without essential quality of reading materials for children.Thirdly, the author deeply investigates specific contents of "Meng Qiu", classifying and analyzing its allusions. Based on this, the author discusses ideological value, historical education significance of "Meng Qiu" and its special meanings for development history of reading materials for enlightening children in China.Fourthly, the author completely introduces significant impacts of "Meng Qiu" and compares it with the same category of reading material for enlightening children titled "Gu Xian Ji" which emerged within the same period. Then, the reasons for far-reaching impacts of "Meng Qiu" as a simple reading material for enlightening children are analyzed. Compared with "Gu Xian Ji","Meng Qiu" has apparent characteristics of reading material for children in terms of its genre, novel contents and distinctive features. In addition,"Meng Qiu" has certain pioneering significance as reading material about historical knowledge for enlightening children in the field of children’s enlightenment education, so it has been highlighted by scholars of all generations.Fifthly, poetry and historical studies played an important role in the middle and late Tang dynasty. After analyzing writing skills and content attributes of "Meng Qiu", the author considers that "Meng Qiu" would preliminarily develop children’s abilities to take part in imperial examinations. Then, interactions between textbooks for enlightening children and imperial examinations are discerned.