The clear beginning is a peak in the history of Shishi Tang and China's poetry, and it is called "a generation of literature".
In the early Qing Dynasty, The Complete Tang Poetry compiled by more than ten scholars including Patten included more than 48,900 poems of more than 2,300 poets in the Tang Dynasty, which were rich in content, diverse in style and numerous in genre. It can be said that poetry reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty.
Then, there are many reasons for the prosperity of poetry in the Tang Dynasty and the blowout of poetry creation in the Tang Dynasty. The reason for this is the following：
The first reason for the prosperity of Tang poetry is that poetry, as a cultural form, is the inheritance, development and innovation of poetry.
Poetry did not come into being in the Tang Dynasty. China's poetry has a long history. China's earliest collection of poems, The Book of Songs, set a precedent for poetry creation and laid a fine tradition of "expressing one's will and singing".
Poetry has been developing, and Yuefu poetry in Han Dynasty is also very famous. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, many famous poets appeared, such as Jian 'an poems, which were "the beauty in front of the cage". Representative figures are Cao Zhi and Tao Yuanming in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xie Lingyun, Bao Zhao and Yu Xin in the Southern Dynasties, all of whom wrote many famous poems.
Many poets in the early Tang Dynasty actually entered the Tang Dynasty after the Southern Dynasties and the end of Sui Dynasty. For example, Yu Shinan, a poet in the early Tang Dynasty, was an official in the Sui Dynasty. Yu Shinan's five-character poems are very famous, and he, Chu Suiliang and Xue Qi are also called "the four great poets in the early Tang Dynasty". Their poems also have the aftertaste of Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties.
Together with Yang Jiong and Lu, he is also known as the "four masters of the early Tang Dynasty", and he wrote many famous Tang poems such as Preface to Wang Tengting, which continued to develop.
However, their creation is still classical poetry. Just when classical poetry was in the ascendant, a brand-new and epoch-making form of poetry appeared. Shen Quanqi and Song, poets in the early Tang Dynasty, made great contributions in this respect, and their determination to make progress in poetry produced complete five laws and seven laws.
Most of Shen Quanqi's and Song's poems were written by the court, and their main achievement was the active exploration and practice of temperament, which divided the four tones into flat tones. On the basis of the experience of several generations of poets, they completed the task of shaping metrical poems and standardized their creation. Since then, there has been a clear difference between classical poetry and modern poetry.
Long tunes also appeared in the Tang Dynasty. Poets in the Tang Dynasty boldly innovated and used more ancient poems with longer length and wider meter to create, and created many new styles in their creative practice, forming a unique style of ancient poems in the Tang Dynasty.
The prosperous Tang Dynasty is the most prosperous period of Tang poetry. Wang Wei and Meng Haoran, landscape idyllic poets, and Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi, twin poets of Tang poetry, pushed the development of poetry to a peak. Tang poetry entered an era of bright stars, and the poetic paradigm of this period became the vane of poetry creation in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.
It can be said that the poetry of the Tang Dynasty is an ideal field for poets to reflect their lives, express their emotions and express their talents. This is the most remarkable reason why poetry flourished in the Tang Dynasty.
The second reason for the prosperity of Tang poetry: economic development and social prosperity.
The unification of the Tang Dynasty ended the frequent changes and social unrest in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty, and the economy continued to recover and flourish. After a series of developments, such as the rule of Zhenguan and the prosperity of Kaiyuan, economic development and social prosperity also provided a good environment and soil for the development of literature and literary undertakings. Poetry has also appeared in front of the world with a brand-new look and form.
Economic prosperity and relative social stability have enabled people to live and work in peace and contentment and engage in various production and business activities, which has promoted the prosperity of the city to a certain extent. The prosperity of the city makes many poets choose to live in the city, and therefore they have created a large number of poems reflecting urban life and scenery.
For example, Yangzhou in Wang Jianshi's poem is "the night is shining, and there are many high-rise tea drinkers." Now is not an ordinary day, the wanderers are singing and singing. Chang 'an City written by poet Su Weidao is: "The fire trees and silver flowers are combined, and the stars and bridges are locked." The crowd is surging and the dust is flying under the horseshoe; Moonlight shines in every corner, where people can see the moon overhead. The singer in the moonlight, dressed in makeup, sang Plum Blossom. Wu Jin couldn't help staying out at night, and the jade leaked. "It can be said that economic development and social prosperity provide an excellent soil for the prosperity of Tang poetry.
The third reason for the prosperity of Tang poetry: the imperial examination promoted the prosperity of poetry.
"Although the gentry is a very important person, it is not good to be a scholar." In the Tang Dynasty, Jinshi was a key discipline, and the transformation of Jinshi reached its peak. After Tang Gaozong abolished the Jinshi Department, it became more and more prominent.
Students are proud to be Jinshi, so the number of applicants is increasing, but the admission rate of Jinshi is not high, only 12%. It can be seen that in the eyes of the Tang people, the Jinshi branch occupies an important position.
The examination content of Jinshi mainly includes three aspects. The first is to try to paste classics, starting with Laozi, and then trying Erya to examine students' familiarity with classics. Later, with the continuous development of poetry, classics can be selected as poetry, which is called "redemption with poetry"; The second is to test the composition, that is, to ask students to write different genres of articles within the specified time, whether it is writing poetry or fu; The third is the examination of policy questions, which mainly tests students' countermeasures against current affairs and governing the country.
It is not difficult to see from the content of the Jinshi examination that two points are directly related to poetry creation, so students have invested a lot of time and energy in poetry creation, which has directly promoted the prosperity and prosperity of poetry.
The fourth reason for the prosperity of Tang poetry: dry talk led to the prosperity of poetry.
In the Tang Dynasty, scholars and scholars were the main ways for students to become officials. In addition, there is a recommendation system, and the flexibility of recommendation provides opportunities for students who want to enter the official career at that time. At the same time, the recommendation system also promoted the prosperity of poetry.
Why do you say that? It is precisely because the Jinshi is mainly poetry, but due to the low admission rate and the difficulty of the Jinshi itself, in order to obtain the same background as the Jinshi, a group of students who take the exam no longer take the road of imperial examination and become an official, but join the ranks of self-recommendation, which is poetry. Cognac poetry is a kind of poetry written by students at that time to promote themselves, similar to modern self-recommendation letters.
"Dry" means looking for, and "One" means visiting. Gan is an act of writing poems for the examiner to appreciate in order to enter the official career, especially in the period before and after the imperial examination. Students present poems to examiners or influential literary masters to show their talents and ambitions and get recommendations.
Meng Haoran's Letter from Dongting Lake to Prime Minister Zhang is a masterpiece of cognac poetry. In the 21st year of Kaiyuan, Meng Haoran went west to Chang 'an to visit Zhang Jiuling, including a poem "Dongting Lake reported to Prime Minister Zhang". In the poem, "Clouds and clouds are falling across Yueyang City" became a famous sentence describing Dongting Lake. "It is better for politicians to be idle if they want to cross without a boat. The words "as I sit here and watch a fisherman casting, just like a fish" not only show Meng Haoran's desire to enter the official career, but also euphemistically and implicitly express his hope to be promoted and introduced.
It is also a famous poem in Zhu Qingyu's Eve of Jinshi Zhang. He vividly used metaphors in his poems, comparing himself to the newly-married bride and the examiner to his in-laws. The bride worried that her dress would satisfy her in-laws, so she asked her husband if his eyebrows were appropriate. In fact, she implicitly sought advice from Zhang Ji and expressed her concern. It is novel and unique to read.
It can be seen that dry poetry was very popular in the Tang Dynasty. It is precisely because dry poetry can be one of the channels to enter the official career that students are full of enthusiasm for writing good poetry, which also contributes to the prosperity of poetry.
The fifth reason for the prosperity of Tang poetry: an open and inclusive cultural atmosphere.
With the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, many neighboring countries sent overseas students to the Tang Dynasty to learn advanced culture and knowledge. At this time, Tang poetry, like a business card of the country, has made great contributions to the transmission and exchange of culture. After these foreign students came to the Tang Dynasty, they were not only attracted by the prosperity and power of the Tang Dynasty, but also fell in love with the culture of the Tang Dynasty, especially poetry.
Among them, Ma Lu Abe, the Japanese envoy to the Tang Dynasty, not only studied the advanced culture of China, but also passed the examination of Jinshi through hard work. He also wrote famous poems, such as "Returning to my hometown with one life" and "Looking at my hometown with a full moon". Ma Lu in Abe forged friendship with Wang Wei, Li Bai, Chu Guangxi and others because of his poems. This also shows from one side that openness, tolerance and cultural exchange also provide opportunities for the prosperity of Tang poetry to a certain extent.