Popular Literature In The Tang Dynasty

The Tang Empire is the kingdom of poetry, and the Tang poems have been shinning through the ages. Therefore, the study of Tang poems has always been a hot spot from ancient times to present day. Though the study of Tang literature is not as hot as that of Tang poems, it is becoming more and more popular. Compared with the hot study of Tang poems and Tang literature, the study of Tang popular literature seems to be ignored. In fact, the developed economy, the enlightened and compatible cultural policies of the unified Tang Dynasty have created a favorable atmosphere for the development of culture. An opening-up policy adopted by Tang Dynasty, frequent Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges, strengthened national integration have caused the culture of Tang Dynasty to show a sight of overall prosperity.The development of Tang literature appears a trend of secularization. In the late Tang, a variety of popular literary activities are great lively. However, since the popular literature has always been neglected, there are scarce documentary records of it. Coupled with the "word-for-word" teaching of some popular literary, it is not easy to spread them, and thus the study of popular literature is obstructed by both the concept and the lack of materials. Elegant literature and popular literature in Tang Dynasty are the two wings of Tang literature. That is why the study of popular literature can not be ignored if we want to carry on a comprehensive and in-depth study of Tang literature.In recent years, with the exploration of Dunhuang literature, the study of Tang popular literature is increasingly abundant and deep, but most of them focus on the specific articles, rather than from a macroscopic angle. Even some are from a macroscopic angle, they usually concentrate in the introduction of the basic content. Relatively speaking, they still lack an in-depth and all-round study. Based on the above situations, this article tends to study the causes and conditions of generation of Tang popular literary activities, the relationship between the generation of Tang popular literature and urban folk customs, the production, dissemination and consumption characteristics of Tang popular literature activities, the interaction between Tang popular literary activities and the elegant literature, and the influence of new exploratory research of Tang popular literature on the post-secular literary activities.Classification of popular literature is a divergent topic, so there are different standards concerning them. In connection with the actual situation of Tang popular literature and with reference to Zhao Jingshen' s view, the author classifies the Tang popular literature activities into oral popular literature activities and written popular literature activities in accordance with the expression forms. Oral popular literature activities include the popular talk, transformation text, scripts for story-telling, opera, ballad and proverb. Written popular literature activities are divided into the popular poetry, word text, popular Fu, song words, Tang legend, and folk songs with love as their themes and so on. of course, this classification is not absolute. The achievements of Tang oral popular literature is the most dazzling. And the participants encompassed a wide range. While Tang written popular literature has left more scholars'handwriting. Here, the author describes and summarizes the basic situations of each kind of Tang popular literature activity.The causes and conditions for the Tang popular literature are from many aspects. Except for that we often say the political and economic reasons, there are still many other reasons such as religious ceremony, multi-openness, urban prosperity as well as the people's pursuit of utility, etc., which all have contributed to the occurrence and development of Tang popular literature. The historical evolution is the historical origins of Tang popular literature; secular urban is full of public enthusiasm for Tang popular literature; the temple and wine shop are the activity centers of Tang popular literature.In the entire human literary creativity and aesthetic activities, the participants of the elegant literary activities are relatively less than that of the popular literature due to the factors such as the productivity level and the overall social cultural level. This is a general tendency of human beings for elegant and popular literary activities. Besides of this, the Tang literature shows a tendency of suiting both refined and popular tastes. It is mainly manifested by that Tang elegant and popular literature are both popular at that time. Meanwhile, many scholars have not only created the elegant literature, but also the popular literature, which can be described as the refined and popular tastes coexist.Tang popular literature, poetry, prose and other orthodox elegant literature are in a harmonious and complementary relationship. The scholars can obtain the materials from oral popular literature for recreation, and the popular literature is improved for the scholars'recreation. At the same time, it is thus more widely spread in the written form. Therefore, the interaction of elegant and popular literature in the development of Tang literary has provided useful enlightens for the flourishing development of post popular literature. Popular literary activities, as a part of the literary activities, include the production, dissemination and consumption of popular literature works. The characteristics of production and consumption generated in the Tang popular literature include practical popular literary activities, exaggerated popular literary activities and personalized popular literary activities. The practicality of popular literature refers to its utilitarian, and this utilitarian causes the popular literature activities to pay more attention to its function of aesthetic and entertainment.In the20th century, the famous American economist and sociologist Veblen claimed the theory—"exaggerated consumption". And it is suitable to borrow this theory to analyze some phenomena in the Tang popular literature activities. The key point is that behind some Tang popular literary activities, there also exist exaggerated consumption components.Various styles of Tang popular literature develop on the basis of previous generations, and especially the popular style. It has a great impact and penetration on the scholars'creation in Tang and subsequent dynasties. The subjects and contents of Tang popular literature have a rather wide range, and its artistic achievement is equally impressive. Tang popular literature not only has extremely high historical value, but also shows the social history in many ways, so it has dual values both in literary value and social value.Tang popular literary has a great impact on the aftertime literature. In fact, the Chinese ancient opera adopts a "talk and sing" form, with singing as its main form. It is deeply influenced by Dunhuang transformation text. From the subjects of later opera, many works are deeply influenced by the Tang talk and sing literature, even the Tang legend. Meanwhile, the basic elements of historical transformation text and even historical materials can also not be ignored for its impact on "huaben"in Song and Yuan period and historical novels adapted from "huaben"in Song and Yuan period. In modern times, along with the discovery of ancient literature from Dunhuang, Tang popular literature has obtained unprecedented attention and study. On the one hand, the study results of Dunhuang popular literature in Tang Dynasty are flourishing; on the other hand, the Tang popular literature continues to unleash its long time influence power.