Tang poetry


Tang poetry refers to poetry written in or around the time of, or in the characteristic style of, China's Tang dynasty, and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. The Complete Tang Poems includes over 48,900 poems written by over 2,200 authors. During the Tang dynasty, poetry continued to be an important part of social life at all levels of society. Scholars were required to master poetry for the civil service exams, but the art was theoretically available to everyone. This led to a large record of poetry and poets, a partial record of which survives today. The two most famous poets of the period were Li Bai and Du Fu. The Qing dynasty selection, Three Hundred Tang Poems, has made Tang poetry familiar to educated Chinese in modern times.

Periodization

The periodization scheme employed in this article is the one detailed by the Ming dynasty scholar Gao Bing in the preface to his work Tangshi Pinhui, which has enjoyed broad acceptance since his time. This system, which unambiguously treats poetry composed during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong as being superior in quality to what came before and after, is subjective and evaluative, and often does not reflect the realities of literary history.

Forms

The representative form of poetry composed during the Tang dynasty is the shi. This contrasts to poetry composed in the earlier Han dynasty and later Song and Yuan dynasties, which are characterized by fu, ci and qu forms, respectively. However, the fu continued to be composed during the Tang dynasty, which also saw the beginnings of the rise of the ci form.
Within the shi form, there was a preference for pentasyllabic lines, which had been the dominant metre since the second century C.E., but heptasyllabic lines began to grow in popularity from the eighth century. The poems generally consisted of multiple rhyming couplets, with no definite limit on the number of lines but a definite preference for multiples of four lines.

The pre-Tang poetic tradition

The poetic tradition inherited by the Tang poets was immense and diverse. By the time of the Tang dynasty, there was already a continuous Chinese body of poetry dating back for over a thousand years. Such works as the Chu Ci and Shijing were major influences on Tang poetry, as were the developments of Han poetry and Jian'an poetry. All of these influenced the Six Dynasties poetry, which in turn helped to inspire the Tang poets. In terms of influences upon the poetry of the early Tang, Burton Watson characterizes the poetry of the Sui and early Tang as "a mere continuation of Six Dynasties genres and styles."

History

The Tang dynasty was a time of major social and probably linguistic upheavals. Thus, the genre may be divided into several major more-or-less chronological divisions, based on developmental stages or stylistic groupings. It should be remembered that poets may be somewhat arbitrarily assigned to these based on their presumed biographical dates ; furthermore that the lifetimes of poets toward the beginning or end of this period may overlap with the preceding Sui dynasty or the succeeding Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The chronology of Tang poetry may be divided into four parts: Early Tang, High Tang, Middle Tang, and Late Tang.

Early Tang

In Early Tang, poets began to develop the foundation what is now considered to be the Tang style of poetry inherited a rich and deep literary and poetic tradition, or several traditions. Early Tang poetry is subdivided into early, middle and late phases.
  • Some of the initial poets who began to develop what is considered to be the Tang dynasty style of poetry were heavily influenced by the Court Style of the Southern Dynasties, referring to the Southern Dynasties of the Southern and Northern Dynasties time period that preceded the short-lived Sui dynasty. The Southern Dynasty Court poems tended towards an ornate and flowery style and particular vocabulary, partly passed on through continuity of certain governmental individuals who were also poets, during the transition from Sui to Tang. This group includes the emperor Li Shimin, the calligrapher Yu Shinan, Chu Liang, Li Baiyao, the governmental official Shangguan Yi, and his granddaughter, the governmental official and later imperial consort Shangguan Wan'er. Indeed, there were many others, as this was a culture that placed a great emphasis on literature and poetry, at least for persons in official capacity and their social intimates.
  • Representative of the middle phase of early Tang were the so-called "Four Literary Friends:" poets Li Jiao, Su Weidao, Cui Rong, and Du Shenyan. This represents a transitional phase.
  • In the late phase the poetic style becomes more typical of what is considered as Tang poetry. A major influence was Wang Ji upon the Four Paragons of the Early Tang: Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaolin, and Luo Binwang. They each preferred to dispense with literary pretensions in favor of authenticity.
  • Chen Zi'ang is credited with being the great poet who finally brought an end to the Beginning Tang period, casting away the ornate Court style in favor of a hard-hitting, authentic poetry which included political and social commentary, and thus leading the way to the greatness that was to come.

    High Tang

In High Tang, sometimes known as Flourishing Tang or Golden Tang, first appear the poets which would come to mind as Tang poets, at least in the United States and Europe. High Tang poetry had numerous schools of thought:
The poets of the Middle Tang period also include many of the best known names, and they wrote some very famous poems. This was a time of rebuilding and recovery, but also high taxes, official corruption, and lesser greatness. Li Bo's bold seizing of the old forms and turning them to new and contemporary purposes and Du Fu's development of the formal style of poetry, though hard to equal, and perhaps impossible to surpass, nevertheless provided a firm edifice on which the Middle Tang poets could build.
  • In the early phase of the Middle Tang period Du Fu's yuefu poetry was extended by poets such as Dai Shulun who used the opportunity to admonish governmental officials as to their duties toward the suffering common folk.
  • Others concentrated on developing the Landscape Style Poem, such as Liu Zhangqing and Wei Yingwu.
  • The Frontier Fortress Style had its continued advocates, representative of whom are Li Yi and Lu Lun.
  • The traditional association between poetry and scholarship was shown by the existence of a group of ten poets, who tended to ignore the woes of the people, preferring to sing and chant their poems in praise of peace, beautiful landscapes and the commendability of seclusion. They are: Qian Qi, Lu Lun is also a part of this group, Ji Zhongfu, Han Yi, Sikong Shu, Miao Fa—or Miao Bo –, Cui Tong, Geng Hui, Xia Hou Shen, and the poet .
  • One of the greatest Tang poets was Bai Juyi, considered the leader of the somewhat angry, bitter, speaking-truth-to-power New Yuefu Movement. Among the other poets considered to be part of this movement are Yuan Zhen, Zhang Ji, and Wang Jian.
  • Several Tang poets stand out as being too individualistic to really be considered a group, yet sharing a common interest in experimental exploration of the relationship of poetry to words, and pushing the limits thereof; including: Han Yu, Meng Jiao, Jia Dao, and Lu Tong.
  • Two notable poets were Liu Yuxi and Liu Zongyuan.
  • Another notable poet, the short-lived Li He, has been called "the Chinese Mallarmé".

    Late Tang

In the Late Tang, similarly to how eventually the earlier duo of Li Bo and Du Fu came to be known by the combined name of Li-Du, so in the twilight of the Late Tang there was the duo of the Little Li-Du, referring to Du Mu and Li Shangyin. These dual pairs have been considered to typify two divergent poetic streams which existed during each of these two times, the flourishing Tang and the late Tang:
  • The Late Tang poetry of Du Mu's type tended toward a clear, robust style, often looking back upon the past with sadness, perhaps reflecting the times. The Tang dynasty was falling apart, it was still in existence, but obviously in a state of decline.
  • The poetry of Li Shangyin's type tended towards the sensuously abstract, dense, allusive, and difficult. Other poets of this style were Wen Tingyun and Duan Cheng Shi. These poets have been attracting gaining interest in modern times.
  • There were also other poets belonging to one or the other of two major schools of the Late Tang. in one school were Luo Yin, Nie—or Zhe or She or Ye—Yizhong, Du Xunhe, Pi Rixiu, Lu Guimeng, and others. In the other group, were Wei Zhuang, Sikong Tu, Zheng Gu, Han Wo, and others. During the final twilight of Tang, both schools were prone to a melancholic angst; they varied by whether they tended towards metaphor and allusiveness or a more clear and direct expression.
  • Yu Xuanji was a famous female poet of Late Tang.