The Study On The 18 Scholars Of The Northern Qi Dynasty Who Followed The Northern Zhou's Emperor Into The Northern Zhou Dynasty

In the late of the Northern Dynasties,the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty were established successively.With the Chen Dynasty in the South,the three formed a situation of tripartite confrontation.Therefore there were two cultural regions in the North at that time,the eastern region with the Northern Qi Dynasty's ruling center in Shandong and the western region with the Northern Zhou Dynasty's ruling center in Guanlong area.Shandong had rich cultural heritages,developed economy and talents.While in the Guanlong area,people lived in destitution,economy developed relatively slowly and cultural situation tended to be conservative for a series of wars.Politically,the atmosphere of the Northern Zhou Dynasty was relatively clear.Besides,the monarch was sort of man who had made his efforts to cement his sovereignty and ambitious to unite the northern areas.While the northern Qi was in a state of disorder,the monarch just sought for sensual pleasure and didn't make any progress.Therefore,in the year 577,the Northern Zhou Dynasty's emperor led his army to attacked the Northern Qi Dynasty which was defeated and completely collapsed in April for a loss of morale within the army.After defeating the Northern Qi,the Northern Zhou recruited large number of far-sighted and talented people,of which eighteen scholars,including Lu Sidao,Xue Daoheng,Li Delin,were representatives.The eighteen scholars who followed the Northern Zhou's monarch to some degree were received courtesy and respected out of the need of political stability and soothing.However,they were under the pressure of suspicion and suppression for their identity.As a consequence,their mentality changed from positiveness to negativeness.So did their writing styles.During the Northern Qi Dynasty,instead of singing praise of the great and expressing sentiments,the eighteen scholars began to express their ambitions by the use of objects,to reflect on life and to summarize the gains and losses,which had improved their thoughts and lyricism in literary creations greatly.On the other hand,the eighteen scholars also brought the Northern Zhou the integration and collision between the western and the eastern in the aspects of the national cultures,political ideas and social ideas.The literature of the western and that of the eastern were integrated and promoted each other after the eighteen scholarsjoined in the Northern Zhou.The development of literature gradually was free from the politics and began to focus on aesthetic appeal and emotional expression.The ideology of two regions also influenced each other.The "Guanzhong standard policy" in the area of Gansu Province was gradually replaced by the concept of political unity.The Confucianism and its academy also developed.The fusion of the thought and literature between two regions not only promoted the harmony of nations,eased conflicts between Han and others,but also made political system more compete.Moreover,it had a great influence on the development of literature.For example,the poetic style of expressing ambition by use of objects influenced the poetic creation in early Tang Dynasty and also made the writing style of Jianan develop further in the poetry in early Tang Dynasty.In short,this process promoted the formation of unified and multicultural situation in the Sui Dynasty.Most of the eighteen scholars engaged in politics of the Northern Qi,Northern Zhou or Sui Dynasty.And this was precisely the united process between the western and the eastern.Therefore,the eighteen scholars best embodied and witnessed the integration of the thoughts and literature in the late Northern Dynasties.From Shangdong to the area of Gulong,from disruption to unity,the Eighteen scholars' s ups and downs,changes in mentality and literary creation reflected the process of integration.Therefore,study on the eighteen scholars' personal experiences,literary creation and change in their thoughts can explore the state of fusion between literature and thought in late Northern Dynasties,understand the development of literature of the Northern Qi,the Northern Zhou and early Sui Dynasty.