North-South Literature
Sui Dynasty is a unified dynasty in the history of China, connecting the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty. In the first year of Dading in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yang Jian, the king of Sui Dynasty, became prime minister, and was accepted as emperor by Zhou Chan, renamed Sui Emperor. In the ninth year of Emperor Yangdi's reign, Emperor Yangdi crossed the river and entered Jiankang. Chen Houzhu, the last emperor of the Southern Dynasties, surrendered and died. After more than 270 years of north-south division, China has been reunified.
With the change of cultural policy after the reunification of North and South, the Sui Dynasty implemented the imperial examination system and selected talents fairly, which effectively weakened the phenomenon of clan monopoly on official career. In addition, the rulers also established a system of deliberation, supervision and performance appraisal in the government affairs hall, which strengthened the government affairs mechanism. During the period of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, he followed the tradition of the Northern Dynasties, but for the sake of "orthodox" status.
It also absorbed Jiangzuo culture to a certain extent. Confucianism and literature and art were brought into the category of political education, and Emperor Wen himself was "frugal". Under his influence, a simple social atmosphere was formed in the early Sui Dynasty, but at the same time, it was inevitable that cultural thoughts were relatively conservative. Yang Di, the son of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, succeeded to the throne, but his cultural thought was different from that of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty.
Yang Di's recognition of Jiangzuo culture is entirely out of his interest in its aesthetic attributes. At this time, Confucianism is not limited to a tool that completely serves politics. The main achievement of Sui Dynasty literature is poetry. Compared with the Southern and Northern Dynasties, its content and style have not changed significantly. The writers of Sui Dynasty literature are basically composed of two parts.
First, the old ministers of the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty, such as Lu Sidao, Su Yang and Xue Daoheng, are also representatives of the poetic style of the Northern Dynasties. Second, the literati who entered the Sui Dynasty from Liang and Chen, such as Xu, Yu Shiqi, Yu Zizhi and others, directly brought the poetic style of the Southern Dynasty into the Sui Dynasty.
In the era of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, the poetic styles of North and South coexisted at the same time, even reflected in the creation of the same writer. Although the palace poems in the Southern Dynasties have a long history, they have a very beautiful rhythm. After Yang Di Yang Guang ascended the throne, a group of scholars from the Southern Dynasties gathered around him, and the literature of the Sui Dynasty obviously developed to the poetic style of the Southern Dynasties.
For example, Lu Sidao's "Joining the Army" is a masterpiece reflecting the life of frontier troops. Obviously, the northern literati changed their poetic style when they studied the expressive techniques of the Southern Dynasties' literature and adopted the singing method of "thinking about women and seeking husbands" in the Southern Dynasties. It is Yang Di who can truly embody the innovative value of Sui poetry. He has beautiful and vivid works such as "Flowers on the Spring River and Moonlight Night".
These works not only contain the vigorous and handsome culture of the Northern Dynasty, but also absorb the fresh and beautiful culture of the Southern Dynasty, creating a brand-new aesthetic style. At the end of Sui Dynasty, the confluence of northern and southern literature was limited to the mutual influence of poetic style, showing obvious transition of harmony but difference. As far as the prose in Sui Dynasty is concerned, it is in the stage where parallel prose is difficult to develop and the prose style has not yet been revived.