Tang Dynasty Analysis

4th Response Paper

The Tang dynasty is one of the most spectacular dynasties of Imperial China. It saw its founding in 618 by the Li family and knew, thereafter a majestic expansion and an extremely diverse growth and development for almost the rest 200 years. From these developments, the abundance of poetry is particularly distinguishable, as it was an era of intellectual, artistic and literal productivity. Since poetry occupied a paramount position, it was also a reflection of the singular conditions of the Dynasty, the way people lived during that period of time, and most of all the way of thinking and their ideologies philosophies and doctrines. Therefore, those poems highlights the essence of Confucianism and Daoism, two major schools
When Li Bo says “Last year, war: at the Sang-gan’s source. This year, war: along the Tsung-ho Road”, it implies that war became a constant basis of the empire after two years in a row, which is opposite to the ideas of both Confucianism and Daoism and which made “armies exhausted”. The metaphor he uses “Han fed the beacon fires to burn unceasing”, means that the signal lasts endlessly because war is a constant phenomenon that does not stop anymore. Violence is also a common negative theme in these poems and those from the Tang dynasty. “Soldiers die, blood splashes brush and grass” is one of the many verses that are extremely violent in contrast to the nonviolent Confucianism and Daoism. The description of the blood splashing on the ground, makes a connection again to the grass, thus, to nature. It shows how men that go against nature go back to nature and that this negativity and brutality should not be part of the empire and of the humankind’s
They are horse paintings he is describing, “a curly-maned horse”, “a lion-spotted horse” a “luminous white horse” and “war-horses” similar to those in Figure 1.Their beauty is highly emphasized. They seem to be wonderful and he insists on their uniqueness, as the skills of Cao have never been defeated by any of the other artists of the time. As a lot of poems were inspired by paintings at the time, it was said about one of the poets, Wang Wei that “in every one of his poems is a painting, and in every painting is a poem”