The literature of the Tang Dynasty is one of the most brilliant and creative periods in the history of ancient literature in China. The prosperity of Tang literature is manifested in the all-round development of poetry, prose, novels and words.
(A) Poetry in the Tang Dynasty
The highest achievement of Tang literature is poetry, which has the reputation of a generation of literature. Poetry creation has not only developed in various forms and artistic techniques such as ancient poetry and modern poetry, but also has many writers and works. The Complete Tang Poetry contains nearly 50,000 poems and more than 2,200 authors. The quantity and quality of outstanding poets and works are incomparable in other times. Tang poetry is generally divided into four periods: early Tang, prosperous Tang, middle Tang and late Tang, which is also the general division of the whole Tang literature.
Poetry in the early Tang Dynasty is the preparatory stage for the prosperity of poetry in the Tang Dynasty. Early Tang generally refers to the congenital period of Xuanzong in Tang Dynasty (6 18-7 12). Poetry in the early Tang Dynasty was deeply influenced by the poetic style of Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties. During the Zhenguan period, court poets Yu Shinan and Li Baiyao gathered around Emperor Taizong. Their works are becoming more and more royal and aristocratic, and most of them are tailored works. The skills of pondering, the rhetoric of carving and the habit of Qi and Liang accumulating over time still exist. The "Shangguan Style" represented by Shangguan Yi became a model for the creation of court poets at that time. Although the early and late Tang poems did not completely get rid of the influence of Qi Liang's poetic style, they took a new turn. The creation of the "Four Masters" has created a new poetic style different from that of court poets, which has undergone key changes in content, theme, aesthetic pursuit and style. "Four Friends of Literature" and "Song Shen" are also court poets, but they have contributed to the finalization and maturity of the metrical poems. Chen Ziang is an important figure who changed the poetic style of Tang Dynasty in theory and practice. He opposed the poetic style of Qi and Liang Dynasties, advocated restoring the tradition of elegance in the prosperous period of Han and Wei Dynasties, and put this idea into practice. In a word, the poems in the early Tang Dynasty are characterized by transition and innovation.
Poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was extremely prosperous. The prosperous Tang Dynasty lasted from the first year of Kaiyuan in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty to the first year of Yongtai in Tang Daizong (7 13-765). A large number of poets with unique styles emerged in this period. The school of landscape pastoral poetry represented by Wang Wei and Meng Haoran appeared, and other famous landscape pastoral poets include Chu Guangxi, Chang Jian, Zuyong and Pei Di. Frontier Poetry School, represented by Gao Shi and Cen Can, appeared, and other famous poets who wrote frontier poems included Wang Changling, Wang Zhihuan, Li Qi and Cui Hao. The two most outstanding poets are Li Bai, the "Poet Fairy", and Du Fu, the "Poet Sage", who reached the peak of romantic and realistic poetry creation.
Poetry in the middle Tang Dynasty is a period of continuous prosperity of poetry in the Tang Dynasty. The middle Tang Dynasty was roughly from the first year of Daizong Dali to the ninth year of Wenzong Taihe (766-835). There are many writers and schools in this period. From Dali to Zhenyuan, the poems of Wei and Liu Changqing were mainly landscape poems, and pioneers of New Yuefu, such as Yuanjie and Gu Kuang, and frontier poems of Qian Qi, Lu Lun and Li Yi were also created. After Zhenyuan, there appeared the New Yuefu Movement, represented by Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi, represented by Zhang Ji, Wang Jian and Shen Li, and Han Meng's poetic school and fantastic poet Li He, represented by Han Yu and Meng Jiao. In addition, Liu Yuxi and Liu Zongyuan's poetry creation is also unique.
Poetry in the late Tang Dynasty went into decline. The late Tang Dynasty was roughly from the first year of Wenzong to the end of the Tang Dynasty (836-907). Li Shangyin and Du Mu are two influential poets in the late Tang Dynasty, known as "Little Du Li". Lu Guimeng and Pi Rixiu inherited the tradition of the New Yuefu Movement, but many of them had a leisurely and indifferent state of mind. In addition, there are Wen, Du Xunhe and Wei Zhuang. Have made some achievements.
(B) Prose in the Tang Dynasty
Prose in Tang Dynasty mainly includes parallel prose and ancient prose, which have their own advantages in different stages and develop and grow in mutual struggle and blending. In addition, the prose in the late Tang Dynasty also showed its splendor after the creation of ancient prose reached a low ebb. All Tang Wen recorded more than 3,000 writers and more than 20,000 works.
In the early Tang Dynasty, parallel prose still occupied a dominant position in the literary world along the path of parallel prose creation in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Parallel prose was still used in Shu, Zhang Biao, Lun Shuo and other works until the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The outstanding writers who created parallel prose in the early Tang Dynasty were "four outstanding writers in the early Tang Dynasty", such as Preface to Wang Tengting and Biography of Li in Luo Dynasty, all of which were well-known masterpieces. At this time, Chen Ziang, the pioneer of the ancient prose movement, put forward the idea of restoring ancient ways, and his articles were also developing in the direction of one-dimensional prose. Generally speaking, parallel prose is developing towards prose.
The creation of parallel prose in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was still very prosperous, but it also showed new changes. In the early years of Xuanzong, Zhang Shuo and Su Qing, known as "Xu Yan's eldest son", advocated "respecting elegance and floating", and parallel prose could be transported as parallel prose.