The Study Of Prime Minister Singing And Poetry In The Tang Dynasty

As a special literature-creating group, chancellor poet has dual identities:politician and litterateur. Chancellor poets who took office during the reign of Empress Wu were mostly active during the reigns of Empress Wu and Emperor Zhongzong. They are prominent ministers in imperial court as well as important litterateur used by the emperors. Chancellor poets accompany their emperors to tour and feast, creating a large number of responsorial poems wrote upon the emperor's order; meanwhile, many of responsorial poems they wrote between their fellow officials, relatives, and friends in response or as a gift in their daily lives are kept. Regarding composing, those poems underline ornate diction and polish, failing to completely break the chains of overelaborate poetic style of the early Tang Dynasty. However, with improved artistry in poetry, these chancellor poets' composing gradually shows new changes, such as broadened artistic conception, robust writing style and sincere feelings. Beyond that, their elaborate study on versification as well as energetic composing of regulated verses also advances the forming process of regulated verse. Chancellor poets during the reign of Empress Wu play a transitional role in the development of literature from early Tang Dynasty to its prime, which cannot be neglected.The thesis is divided into three parts. Part one is about new changes constructed by chancellor group during the reign of Empress Wu, which is split into three sections. Section one proceeds from existing historical materials, outlining chancellor group in the Taizong period. Section two is about the new changes of chancellor group during Empress Wu's period. Compared with the common practice of appointing meritorious officials and old acquaintances during the reign of Emperor Taizong, literary characteristics of chancellor group during the reign of Empress Wu are more outstanding, hence, this section analyzes chancellors' literary characteristics during the reign of Empress Wu in detail, and meanwhile investigates these chancellor group' population, native place, how they engaged in politics, and so on of this period. Section three outlines the poetic composing of chancellors during the reign of Empress Wu in terms of genre and content.Part two is about the responsory between chancellors and literati during the reign of Empress Wu. Section one mainly explore the reasons why climate of responsorial poetry permeated the whole society during the reign of Empress Wu, proceeding with several aspects including the flourish of imperial examination system, emperor's advocacy and compilation of major cyclopedia, and briefly analyzes the reasons behind the prosperity of responsory then. Section two and section three is about responsory in imperial banquet and responsory in daily life respectively. The former takes chancellors' poetic composition initiated by the emperor in imperial activities as main object to carry out an analysis and summary of background and content of these court poetry; the latter sorts out and analyzes chancellors group's social intercourse based on historical records, and take chancellors' poems wrote for other litterateurs in response or as a gift on ordinary days as object to reveal chancellors'true sentiments beyond what they wrote upon the emperor's order.Part three discusses artistic characteristics of chancellor's responsorial poetry during the reign of Empress Wu. This part sums up and sorts out chancellor poets' poetic composition, analyzing and summarizing artistic characteristics of their poems in three aspects:artistic conception, writing style, and versification. Section one is about the creation of broadened artistic conception that in Tang society's rising period, chancellors'broadened mind makes their poetry gradually transcend the fragileness and superficiality of court poetry with more magnificent artistic conception. Section two is a description of beautiful landscape, when delineating landscapes, these chancellor poets paid more attention to their personal inner world, integrated their own sincere feelings and realizations about life, which lifts the curtain on landscape poetry in the prime of Tang Dynasty's. Section three chiefly analyzes chancellors'responsorial poems in terms of versification, and acknowledges their important role in the forming process of regulated verse.