The Recreation Activities And Poetry In Tang Dynasty

When it came to the Tang dynasty, poetry creation reached a zenithal period. InChinese history, Tang dynasty was a powerful and prosperous era in the economicaland political, cultural areas. In this dynasty, multi-ethnic fusion added some differentingredients to the communication and inheritage of culture. Besides these, the solideconomical foundation, open political environment, vigorous cultural heritage andcolorful social life, pushed the literature to an extradinary high level in Tang dynasty.Poetry was a usual and direct literature form of the Tang generation to expressfeelings and speak out their ideals. At that time appeared an abundant works whichwere majestic, gorgeous and of various types. Besides, the poets’ identity also varieda lot. The poetry could reflect almost every level of life in the Tang society andshowed the spirit of the Tang Age.Poetry in the Tang Dynasty has very rich themes, such as frontier poem, scenicpoem, pastoral poem or history commenting poem and Yongwu poem, imperiallyassigned poem, allegory poem, memorial poem, farewell poem, boudoir-plaint poem,and so on. Plenty scholars who study on this topic have worked out deep andthorough researches with a broad range of research contents.Recreation activities occupy an important position in the ancient people’s sociallife. Through recreation activities, people can achieve physical fitness, good moodand mind cultivation. Since that Tang dynasty was politically strong, economicallyvigorous, culturally advanced and materially rich, people were prompted to pursue aricher spiritual life. And recreation activities just met their needs. During the processof the recreation activities, people wrote poems to record the scenes and process.They can just describe a picture with words or to express their deep thoughts andemotions after watching the activities. Poetry about recreation activities can be concluded as a dependent form of poetry, though the number is not as many as otherkinds of poems. At least it had a considerable number which is worthy of deepcollation and research. However, recreation poetry of Tang dynasty can not onlyshows the style of the recreation activities in Tang Dynasty, but also providedvaluable information for the research of the condition and culture of our ancientrecreation activities, which is of rich historical value.The thesis is written by taking Quan Tang Shi as the research text. In the thesis,texts and verses involve the description of recreation activities are collected andresearched. Deep discussions and presentations have been made on many aspects ofthe Chinese recreation activities. Among this, all of the poems which speciallydescribed the recreation activities or verses referred to them are divided intorecreation poem of sports type, recreation poetry of entertainment type, seasonalrecreation&poem three parts to analyze their artistic characteristics. The target ofthis thesis is that through the collection and research of recreation activities andpoems about the activities to show the social life style and ethnic habits, as well ascultural exchange and integration of the Tang dynasty.There divides into five chapters to discourse the theme, besides the introductionpart：Due to the whole environment of the economics, politics, culture and ethnicfusion, people in Tang dynasty have a sense of competition. The ruler of the Dynastyis a typical example of this. It is this kind of awareness that makes Tang people morepassionate and aggressive. People in Tang dynasty took this competitive spirit intorecreational activities which are not just a way to relax and entertain, but also amethod to select talented people. The first chapter is to collect and analyze recreationpoem of sports type, including three general sports events: hunting, ball games andancient wrestling. In it there are five small items. All in all there are about more than180poems.After dinner and tea time or at leisure time, people like to entertain themselvesthrough all kinds of recreation activities. The types are various, such as Chinese chess which is quiet and elegant, full of wisdom; gambling which containsopportunism, to win or to lose was uncertain; string acrobatics, thrilling; and gamesfor children, etc. The literati sometimes take in these activities or just watch orcomment or write it down. So, that is the reason why recreation poetry comes out inthe poetry-prosperous Tang dynasty. From those works we can have knowledge ofthe activities. Chapter Two collects and analyzes recreation poetry of entertainmenttype. It has seven general events: Chinese chess, gambling, dancing and music,dining, gamecock, acrobatics and children’s game. It can further be divided into22small items. All in all, there are almost700poems of this type.Our traditional festival has a long history, contains thick cultural accumulation,and gradually forms a special seasonal culture. Recreation activity is one of themany kinds of traditional customs and festivals. The seasonal activity includes manykinds, like watching lanterns on Lantern Festival, playing football and gamecock onTomb Sweeping Day, boat racing on Dragon Boat Festival, climbing the highlandson Chung Yeung Festival and so on to celebrate and memorize, worship, pray forblessings. Meanwhile, family members and friends get together to talk and play thusenhancing relationships, relaxing body and adjusting moods. The third chaptercollects and analyzes seasonal activities including four kinds watching lanterns onlantern festival, playing football and gamecock on tomb sweeping day, boat racingon dragon boat festival, climbing the highlands on Chung Yeung. All in all, there aremore than200poems.Due to the development of the recreation activities in the Tang dynasty,recreation poetry has formed its own characteristics even though it is not soprosperous like the pastoral poem or scenic poem. Chapter four analyzes the artisticand aesthetic values of the recreation poetry in Tang dynasty. There are few poems toparticularly describe the recreation activities. Most of the situation is that recreationpoems are attached and interspersed with other contents. The use of metaphor,personification, hyperbole and other rhetoric was often seen in this kind of poems,thus making the activity more vivid and people in the activities full of life. The style of the recreation poetry varies with the activities and the situation when the activityoccurs. For example, when it is mental activity, poets tend to use words that canshow a kind of quietness.The flourishing age of Tang dynasty brings people a comfortable life. People inTang dynasty like playing and recreation activities and enjoying the pleasure andhappiness physically and mentally brought by recreation activities. Recreation poetrywritten in this period shows people’s entertainment activities in a picturesque way. Itpresents the properties of Tang recreation culture from a multi-angle and to someextent reflects social life state and national habits of Tang dynasty. Chapter fiveanalyzes the recreation culture and its social life in the angle of recreation poetry.From the creation of recreation poetry, the Tang recreation culture is ofentertainment, competition, folk-custom, openness and creativity. We can also seethe social characteristics of Tang dynasty like to do as what the superiors do; theliterati’ advocating force; female’s participation, communication between monks andTaoists and foreign exchange.