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| Tang Dynasty poetry |
| CCTV.COM 2002-08-15 11:08:24 |
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 China is a country rich in poetry. The poetic tradition developed from Shijing, "The Book of Songs" and Chuci, "Elegies of Chu", and got its peak during the Tang Dynasty, an empire of civilization and prosperity. Poets left imperial palaces and noble's manors, and threw themselves into a big world. They traveled to famous mountains and rivers, and to the frontier's deserts and wastelands where they sang to their hearts' content.
Tang Dynasty poets had sang for three centuries in different tones. They included many prominent poets living in the Tang period, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin.
"Poems of the Tang Dynasty" edited in the Qing Dynasty has collected more than 48,900 poems that were written by over 2,200 poets. But it didn't cover all the poems of the Tang Dynasty.
During the Tang Dynasty poems were recited when lovers walked under the moonlight. Poems were also recited when soldiers fought on the battlefield. People recited them in the open air or at temple fairs.
Tang Dynasty poets wrote poems to win their fame and also to mould their temperament. They poured out deep feelings for their friends and criticised injustice in the world through poems.
In the Tang Dynasty scholars must be poets. The nobility and common people were their readers. Poets recited poems, songstresses sang poems and other ranks of people, including old women and children, could also read some Tang poems. The atmosphere had affected those foreigners who visited the country at that time. As a result, Tang poetry was introduced to some adjacent countries. Sentimental people were overwhelmed with admiration for it.
 Tang poetry serves as a most brilliant page in the history of ancient Chinese literature. It's a miracle in the history of culture of mankind. The Tang Dynasty was a powerful empire with a vast territory. It inherited Chinese civilization that went back to ancient times, blended with the cream of other ethnic peoples and adopted the benefits of other nations in the world.
Tang poetry wasn't the only spiritual wealth created by the Tang Dynasty people. Philosophy and religion, building and sculpture, calligraphy and painting, and music and dance all gained their peaks in development. Tang poetry was a symbol of these creations and a spiritual emblem of the time.
It has become a way of life that has affected the Chinese people for generations.
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Editor: Liu Baoyin CCTV.com
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