Tang Dynasty Benjamin Agricultural Feelings

In the Chinese literary history, poetry of sympathizing the peasants came out very early, however, it reached its peak till the middle period of Tang Dynasty. In a few decades, almost all the poets participated in creating such kind of poetry, and they left quite a lot of fine works. This literary phenomenon, however, can never be called accidental. On the contrary, it was caused the turbulent social environment in Middle Tang Dynasty after the event of"Insurrection Waged by An Lu-shan and Shi Si-ming", and it also resulted from the long-time nourishment of literary tradition. So far as the literary tradition, poetry of sympathizing the peasants originated long ago, and the consciousness of pitying the peasants had been represented early in the Book of Odes, folk songs of Han Dynasty music bureau, and also in Tao Yuan-ming's poems. And in terms of literary trends, till Middle Tang Dynasty, poets no longer sang their ideal and ambition, instead, they started to write about the ragged reality. On this condition, the poetry of sympathizing the peasants, which described the hard life of the peasants, not only met the need of the literary trend, but also became an impetus to it.After the insurrection, Tang Dynasty fell into a unprecedented predicament, therefore brought great disaster to the peasants. The poetry which depicted such suffering were practically meaningful and deep. Hard work without harvest, the impoverishment, the psychological change from tolerance to expectations then to indignance……these were all reflected in the poetry. Moreover, it disclosed the cause of the hardships, and expressed the sympathy for the peasants.The formation of the sympathy feelings was out of several reasons. Most of the poets had an social identity of politician, and they stuck to the traditon of"policy of benevolence","people-oriented ideology","consideration to the whole country" and"education by poetry".The poetry suggested their social status and their Confucian background. The poetry also revealed their wishes to express the people's thoughts and their strong sense of responsibility. Meanwhile, the poets were deeply touched by the Mahayana doctrine and the benevolence and mercy advocation in Buddhism. A large part of the poets rose from the lower class, and they experienced the peasants' suffering themselves. When they underwent a demotion, they had a chance to be with the peasants. These experiences made them realise the corruption of the imperial court but the purity of the countrymen. For these reasons, poetry of sympathy became a tool for the poets to satisfy their own feelings.The writing of the hardships of the underclass peasants had a great influnce on that period and later ages. At that time, the grey view in the poetry caught the attention of the ruling class, hence it drove them to reform. In the field of literature, Middle Tang Dynasty was a time when the New Music Bureau Poetry Movement (i.e. Movement of New yuefu Songs) was active, and the poetry of sympathy in that stype consequently would accelarate its development. For the poetry of sympathy itself, it was a great progress, which enlightened the later poetry in Late Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasties. Furthermore, those poetry were based on social reality, and they reverved a great deal of historical information of Middle Tang Dynasty.