Friends who’d like to study Mandarin in China may discover that the poetry of the Tang Dynasty represents the highest level of the literature of the Tang Dynasty, therefore, can be considered to be the symbol of that period.
Friends who’d like to learn Chinese in China may also discover that the “Quán táng shī” has collected about fifty thousand pieces of poems which were composed by more than two thousand and twenty poets, among which the large number of outstanding poems and the poets were incomparable with other Chinese dynasties. As can be seen by friends who’d like to study Chinese in China that the development of The Tang poetry can fall generally into four phases, the initial stage, the full stage, the middle stage, the late stage.
During the initial stage of the Tang poetry, the official literates were mainly the followers of the previous dynasties, whose literature style were extravagant and secretarial. So they could be quite hard in comprehension for friends who’d like to learn Chinese in China.
The emperor Tang Taizong was quite fond of the poetic style of the Qi and Liang Dynasties, the leading poets of that style were Shàng guān yí,Shěn quán qī ,Sòng zhī wèn and wén Zhāng sì yǒu, who were either the high-ranking officials or the relatives of the noble families, to study Mandarin in China , the elegant and graceful , formal and beautiful poems of the previous dynasty are still recommended for extensive reading.
However, as to the literature style of Shàng guān yí,Shěn quán qī ,Sòng zhī wèn and Wén zhāng sì yǒu, there had been considerable modifications in the outlook and the features of their poetry, such as the instilments of the emotional elements and composing techniques after experiencing the ups and downs of life, friends who’d like to learn Chinese in China must be quite curious about their main works.
Such as the verses of “què fēi shān yuè shǔ,chán zào yě fēng qiū.” quoted by Shàng guān yí; and the gǔ yìfrom the poet Shěn quán qī, the tí dà yǔ lǐng běi yìfrom the poet Sòng zhī wèn, and Ascending to the Xiang Yang City and Little Thoughts during a Spring Day of the Du Shenyan, all of which were well organized couplets to be appreciated by readers wanting to study Chinese in China.
The artistic features and some basic categories those poems fell into must be an interesting question to be explored by readers who’d like to study Mandarin in China, well, the poems above mentioned were mostly the eight line poems with five characters to a line, which is referred to be wǔ yán jué jù in Chinese, or eight line poems with seven characters to a line, which are usually called qī yán jué jù, or even the melodious and spaciousness Yuefu style poetic works.
However, the contributions of the above mentioned poets was mainly confined to the standardization and clarification of the Tang poetry, the real person who’d brought in critical turning point for the shifting of style of the Tang poetry was the Four Literary Eminences in Early Tang and Chén Zǐ’áng, who are worth-noticing for readers who’d like to learn Chinese in China.
The reason for their significance lies in that they had helped in shifting the style of court and official towards the spaciousness and universal, of the mild and extravagancies to that of the bright and freshness, passionate and boldness, and in retreating from the royal extravagancies to ordinary people’s daily lives, therefore, their works are enjoyable for friends who’d like to study Chinese in China.
It should be recognized that the Four Literary Eminences in Early Tang and Chén Zǐ’áng had had great contributions to the development of the Tang poetry; they had gradually regularized the orientations of development for the Tang dynasty and paved way for the prosperity of the Tang poetry as well. Therefore, to study Mandarin in China, the early poets of the poetry are just worth-appreciating. People who’d like to study Chinese in China must be quite familiar with the poets of the full Tang, such as the famous Libai, Wangwei and Meng Haoran, whose work are still popular in the modern China.