1. The prosperity of literature in an era is, first and most direct, manifested in the abundance of quantity. The same is true for the prosperity of Tang poetry. As for the total number of poems written in the Tang Dynasty, it may be difficult to make a comprehensive and accurate statistics today. However, the "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" compiled during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty has left us a record of the prosperity of Tang poetry (1). According to the "Preface" written by Kangxi, "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" contains more than 2,200 poets, more than 48,900 poems, and 900 volumes. Among them, there are 691 separate collections ("Tang Yin Guijian"). This collection is probably not the most complete. This is because in the Tang Dynasty, when printing was not yet popular, the dissemination of works mainly relied on hand-copying. In this way, some works may have been lost quickly due to the lack of a dissemination environment. Secondly, since the Tang Dynasty has been around for more than a thousand years, many Tang poems are likely to have been lost during the spread of the poems themselves. Han Yu said in "Tiao Zhang Ji" that the poems written by Li Bai and Du Fu were "thousands of poems in their lives, like golden leaves hanging from the trees." But "those who live in the world are not as bright as a ray of light on Mount Tai." Even great poets like Li and Du are like this. You can imagine the situation of others. Third, the "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" compiled in the Qing Dynasty was mainly based on Ji Zhenyi's "Tang Poems" as the base and Hu Zhenheng's "Tongyin Tongshu" as the proofread. Although these two families were diligent in searching for Tang poems, due to the conditions at that time, they were inevitably not able to be complete and detailed. Therefore, the total number of poems in the Tang Dynasty is far more than 48,900 (2). But in less than three hundred years, poetry creation has achieved such huge gains, which cannot but be said to be a magnificent spectacle in the history of Chinese poetry.
2. The prosperity of Tang poetry is not only reflected in its quantity but more importantly, its quality. Tang poetry has made great achievements in the perfect combination of thought and art. Not only did there appear great poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu, but also Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, Bai Juyi, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Liu Yuxi, Li He, Li Shangyin, Du Mu and a large number of outstanding poets. The general level of Tang poetry also exceeds that of any era in Chinese history. Regarding the artistry and ideological nature of Tang poetry, we will further discuss it later. Here is just one example for brief explanation. In "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty", there is a poet Jin Changxu. He only has one short poem that has been handed down. He can be said to be a very small poet. However, his short poem titled "Spring Resentment" is among the most famous. The artistic achievements are breathtaking. "When you pick up the yellow oriole, don't teach it to crow on the branches. When it crows, it will frighten the concubine in her dream, and she will not be able to reach western Liaoning." When we first read this poem, we must not only wonder why this young woman in the boudoir wants to anger the oriole on the tree, but also Drive it away from the tree and stop it from chirping? It turned out that it was the chirping of the oriole that woke her up from her dream. So what was she dreaming about? Why did she get angry when she was woken up? In the last sentence, we realized that it turned out that she was dreaming of going to Liaoxi to meet her husband, and the oriole's call woke her up, preventing her from meeting her husband in her dream. In just twenty words, the longing and infatuation of the beloved woman for her husband are vividly described. We cannot ignore the profound artistic accomplishment and artistic expression skills of the Hanfu poet. The whole poem is like peeling off a cocoon and pulling out silk, layer by layer, gradually revealed. It can be said to be both fascinating and tactful. From this we can see the exquisite art of poetry in the Tang Dynasty.