The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in the history of literature refers to the historical stage from Jian 'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty to the unification of the Sui Dynasty. This is the longest period of division in China's history. In the past 400 years, various forces have waged fierce struggles for dominance or expanding the scope of governance, with frequent regime changes, social unrest and sharp ethnic contradictions. The important phenomenon in political life in this period is the existence of clan gate system. The monopoly of the gentry on the political power caused the phenomenon that "the upper class has no poverty and the lower class has no dignitaries as their agents", which also caused strong dissatisfaction among the civilians with the gentry's rule.
The economic and cultural development of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is also of great significance in the history of China. In the southeast, which was still quite backward in the Han Dynasty, after the successive development of the Six Dynasties, the economic center of China gradually shifted from the Yellow River basin to the Yangtze River basin. All ethnic groups gradually moved from struggle to integration. At that time, all the ethnic minorities who entered the Central Plains later became part of the Han nationality, and their culture greatly enriched the culture of the Han nationality.
Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is another era of ideological emancipation in the history of China after the Warring States Period. Various theories flourished at the same time, and some heretical ideas prevailed, which brought relative freedom and pluralism of social thought and academic culture. The rise of metaphysics, the prosperity of Buddhism and the popularity of Taoism made Confucianism in Han Dynasty decline relatively. Although these thoughts inevitably have obvious limitations, they are undoubtedly important progress in the historical process and have effectively promoted the development of literature and art in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Music, dance, painting, sculpture, calligraphy and even garden architecture, especially poetry, have all undergone tremendous changes during this period.
Lu Xun's demeanor in Wei and Jin Dynasties and the relationship between articles and medicinal liquor called the "Cao Pi era" the "conscious era of literature". With the change of social thought, literature has changed its nature as a tool to publicize Confucian politics and religion, and it is increasingly used to express writers' personal thoughts, feelings and aesthetic pursuits. This became an important turning point in the history of China literature, which brought the prosperity of literature. During this period, the upper class of society was generally keen on literary creation, which influenced the whole society. With the increasing richness of literary works, literature gradually differs from other disciplines and becomes an independent discipline. Under this background, it is necessary to discuss various problems about literary creation in theory and evaluate the gains and losses of writers in previous dynasties, which will bring unprecedented prosperity to literary criticism in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Another sign of literary prosperity in this period is the unprecedented activity of literary groups. Summer Night Group, with Cao Zhi and his son as the core, seven sages of bamboo forest represented by Ruan Ji and Ji Kang, twenty-four friends represented by Lu Ji and Zuo Si, and eight friends of Jingling represented by Shen Yue and Xie Tiao appeared successively. The emergence of these literary groups has promoted the prosperity of literature, triggered some new literary phenomena and promoted the diversification of literary styles.
The changes in society, academic thoughts and literary concepts in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, as well as the aesthetic pursuit of literature, brought about changes in poetry. From the subject matter, there are homesick poems, epic poems, fairy poems, metaphysical poems and palace poems, as well as pastoral poems created by Tao Yuanming and landscape poems created by Xie Lingyun. In terms of poetic style, the five ancient poems are more colorful, and the seven ancient poems have also made significant progress. As the beginning of formal poetry, "Yongming Style" appeared. Several basic forms of China's ancient poetry, such as five laws, five unique poems, seven laws and seven unique poems, were all formed during this period. In rhetoric, the pursuit of beauty is becoming more and more popular. Algae decoration, parallel couples, melodies and allusions have become common means.
The literature of this period includes Yuefu folk songs, ci fu, novels, literary theories, etc. in addition to literati poems. Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is also an important stage of literary development. Confucianism has lost its exclusive position and gradually declined. Metaphysics and Buddhism and Taoism have had a great influence on people's thoughts and literary concepts from their rise to prosperity. Literary creation not only gradually got rid of a lot of bad habits of quoting classics, but also paid attention to the free expression of writers' emotions and explored the expression forms of works in many ways. Literature in this period mainly includes three forms: Ci Fu, Parallel Prose and Prose. Compared with the prose of Han Dynasty, prose has obvious changes: from plain and dignified appearance to clear and concise appearance; The creation of ci and fu also presents a new pattern, and the appearance of lyric fu is an important symbol of this change; Under the influence of paying attention to duality, melody and algae decoration, parallel prose appeared and matured.
Literature and art in Sui and Tang Dynasties;
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China was unified from north to south, with a vast territory, developed economy and frequent cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. On this basis, people of all ethnic groups in Sui and Tang Dynasties jointly created splendid culture. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, architecture, block printing, astronomy and medicine were all in the leading position in the world. Philosophy, history, famous artists come forth in large numbers, and religion is prosperous. The literature and art of the Tang Dynasty are brilliant through the ages. Sports is also in an unprecedented era of prosperity.
Tang Poetry, Prose and Legend
The prosperous Tang Dynasty was the golden age in the history of China's poetry. Up to now, there are more than 2,000 poets and nearly 50,000 poems. Tang poetry reflects the rich content of social life in the Tang Dynasty and has a perfect artistic form.
There were many poets in the Tang Dynasty. Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi are of course world-famous great poets. Besides them, there are countless other poets, like the stars all over the sky. There are more than 2300 famous poets today. More than 48,900 of their works are preserved in the whole Tang poetry. Tang poetry has a wide range of themes. Some of them reflected the class status and class contradictions of the society at that time and exposed the darkness of feudal society; Some praise the just war and express patriotic thoughts; Some depict the beauty of the motherland's rivers and mountains; In addition, some people express their personal ambitions and experiences, some express their children's love, some tell the friendship of friends, the joys and sorrows of life and so on. In short, natural phenomena, political dynamics, working life, social customs and personal feelings can't escape the poet's keen eyes, making their writing the theme. In terms of creative methods, there are both realism and romanticism, and many great works are examples of the combination of these two creative methods, forming an excellent tradition of China's classical poetry.
There are various forms of Tang poetry. There are basically two kinds of ancient poems in Tang Dynasty: five-character poems and seven-character poems. There are also two kinds of modern poems, one is called quatrains, and the other is called metrical poems. Quatrains and metrical poems are five words and seven words respectively. Therefore, there are basically six basic forms of Tang poetry: five-character archaic poetry, seven-character archaic poetry, five-character quatrains, seven-character quatrains, five-character rhythmic poems and seven-character rhythmic poems. Classical poetry has a wide range of requirements for rhyme and meter: in a poem, the number of sentences can be more or less, the chapters can be long or short, and the rhyme can be changed. Modern poetry has strict requirements on rhyme and meter: the number of sentences in a poem is limited, that is, four-line quatrains and eight-line meter poems. The words used in each poem have certain rules, and the rhyme cannot be changed; Rhyme also requires that the middle four sentences become antithesis. The style of ancient poetry is handed down from the previous generation, so it is also called ancient style. Modern poetry has strict rules, so some people call it metrical poetry.
The forms and styles of Tang poetry are colorful and innovative. It not only inherited the tradition of Han and Wei folk songs and Yuefu, but also greatly developed the singing style. It not only inherited the five-character or seven-character ancient poems of the previous generation, but also developed into a long and huge system of narrative romance; It not only expanded the use of five-character and seven-character styles, but also created modern poems with particularly beautiful and neat styles. Modern poetry was a new style of poetry at that time, and its emergence and maturity was an important event in the history of Tang poetry development. It pushed the artistic features of China's ancient poems with harmonious syllables and refined words to an unprecedented height, and found a typical form for ancient lyric poetry, which has been especially loved by people so far. However, the metrical poems in modern poetry are easy to be bound because of their strict metrical restrictions, which is a major defect brought by their advantages.
Prose writers Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan have made great achievements in their prose. Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan were famous essayists at that time, ranking first among the "Eight Masters in Tang and Song Dynasties".
Han Yu emphasized that writing articles should not only pay attention to form, but also have ideological content, be "meaningful" and be creative, and "don't copy every word of predecessors". Han Yu's prose is sincere, magnificent, concise and vivid.
The most successful of Liu Zongyuan's prose are fables and landscape travel notes. He used fables to expose the political decay and social darkness at that time, and became a kind of satirical literature with fighting characteristics. Liu Zongyuan's landscape travel notes are picturesque and have fresh and beautiful words. Donkey of Money and Little Stone Pond are his representative works.
With the economic prosperity of the legendary cities in the Tang Dynasty, a "legend" appeared in the Tang Dynasty to meet the needs of citizens' cultural life, that is, a short story with many strange plots. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, legendary novels flourished, with representative works such as Biography of Conan Taishou, Biography of Li Wa and Biography of Liu Yi.
Art and sports
Many outstanding painters and calligraphers have emerged, among which Yan and Wu Daozi are the most successful. Wu Daozi was called "painting sage" by later generations. The most famous calligraphers are Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan.
Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes is the essence of China Grottoes art and one of the largest art treasures in the world. It profoundly shows the wisdom and outstanding talents of our people.
Mogao Grottoes is located on the cliff of Mingsha Mountain in the southeast of Dunhuang. There were more than 0/000 original caves/kloc-,and there are 492 existing caves, 67% of which were dug in Sui and Tang Dynasties, also known as Thousand Buddha Cave.
There are many statues in the Mogao Grottoes, all of which look lifelike, the largest of which is as high as 33 meters.
The walls of the cave are painted with colorful pictures. The existing murals have a total area of more than 45,000 square meters. Among them, the representative works are "Flying in the Sky through the banners" and "The Fairy Playing the Pipa and Singing and Dancing". The murals in the Mogao Grottoes reflect the rich life of the society in the Tang Dynasty, showing scenes of ploughing, harvesting, raising livestock, playing music and dancing, as well as the image of various ethnic groups trading with Chinese and foreign businessmen, reflecting the prosperity of economic life and the hardships of working people in the Tang Dynasty.
During the sports period, the ancient sports in China developed into an unprecedented era of prosperity, and wrestling, tug-of-war, swing and Go were widely popular. The most popular sports are polo and football, and even women take part. Polo, football, Go and other activities spread to Japan in the Tang Dynasty.