Research On Feng Shan Literature Of The Tang And Song Dynasties

Feng Shan is the grand ceremony that the ancient emperors perform sacrifices to Mount Tai.As a carrier of ideology,this ritual activity has a great effect on every corner of the royal court even on the whole nation and embodies the spirit of an era's imperial power political.To some extent,it takes on “the holy mission” of building the universal order between nature and man,and is responsible for constructing the whole ideological and cultural belief.Although there are few emperors held Feng Shan rituals in Chinese history,all of them are monarchs playing the decisive role in the founding,establishing or developing process of a dynasty,such as Qin Shi Huang(the First Emperor of Qin),Emperor Han Wudi,Emperor Guangwu,Emperor Tang Gaozong,Emperor Tang Xuanzong and Emperor Song Zhenzong.In other words,both the times and emperors who perform sacrifice rituals have a significant impact on the development of their dynasty even on the development history of ancient China.Pitching in from the ritual Feng Shan is meaningful to have a restricted view of an era's social spirit and ideological culture.Meanwhile,taking poems and literary works centered on Feng Shan as the research object,through objectively analyzing the production,development and rich connotations of ritual literature and giving the fair and sound evaluation of an emperor and his time's efforts to strengthen “the cohesive spirit” are of great research value and practical significance undoubtedly.The Tang Dynasty is commonly acknowledged as the heyday of feudal society as well as the Song Dynasty as the summit of Chinese culture by historians,and Feng Shan rituals are both performed in the two dynasties.Along with the ceremonies,a good deal of “literary works” was produced.Applying the concept of “general literature” and taking Marxist artistic production theory as the guidance,this thesis makes efforts to probe into “production” and “consumption” of Tang and Song's Feng Shan literature and their impact in the history of Chinese literature and culture.Altogether the thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter One briefly reviews the situation of Feng Shan rituals and Feng Shan literature before the Tang Dynasty.First Emperor of Qin,Emperor Wudi and Emperor Guangwu all held Feng Shan rituals.Although the background and process of their Feng Shan activities were different,they all had the significance of intensifying the political and divine power,and reflected the dynamic process of Confucian's participation in constructing the harmonious relationship between nature and human beings.In the Period of Wei,Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties,discussions on it interiorized the idea that Feng Shan can influence common people's soul.“Emphasizing imperial power is endowed,recalling previous emperors,eulogizing auspicious signs and objects,and praising achievements of rulers” are basic components of Feng Shan literature in pre-Tang dynasties,and they also established the basic pattern for the later generations.Meanwhile,The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons,a literary theory monograph of Liu Xie,also made an outlook of Feng Shan literature.It not only drew the outline of the history of Feng Shan literature,but also put forward the specific creation method and the general guiding principle for Feng Shan literature.Chapter Two focuses on Feng Shan activities and literature of the Tang Dynasty.During the Zhenguan period,the court above and the masses below held heated discussions on Feng Shan,besides,Emperor Tang Gaozong and Emperor Tang Xuanzong performed sacrifice to Mount Tai.Before and after Feng Shan rituals,different forms of literary works on Feng Shan emerged in endlessly.Works in forms of “Biao” and “Zhao” are mainly discussing Feng Shan rituals;Works in forms of“Yuezhang” and “Yucewen” are similar to the congratulatory speech and pray for God's bless;Works in forms of “Ming” and “Song” mainly sing the praises of emperors,in a word,all literary works about Feng Shan present scholars' spirituality of forging ahead with determination in the Tang Dynasty.The “production” of Feng Shan literature in the Tang Dynasty is not arbitrary but is motivated by the system,“Xianshu” and “Zhiju” are the important factors to promote various literary styles about Feng Shan literature flourish in the Tang Dynasty.In correspondence with“production”,the “consumption” of Feng Shan literary works in forms of “Biao” and“Zhao” interiorized the idea that only emperors with good morals could perform Feng Shan rituals into the common people,the “Consumption” in works like “Yuezhang”and “Yucewen” manifest the significance of praying for God's bless,while the“consumption” of works like “Song” and “Ming” spread the significance of Feng Shan rituals and ceremonies.What worth noticing is that the “consumption” of the Tang Dynasty's literature influenced the styles of this period's works like odes and so forth.Chapter Three emphasized on Feng Shan activities and literature of the Song Dynasty.After Chanyuan Treaty,Emperor Song Zhenzong chose to hold Feng Shan ritual,aiming to “inspire awe throughout the world,flaunt to the foreign countries”.Besides,he directed “A Sealed Book Affair” before the Feng Shan ritual,which unveils the prologue of Zhenzong's “instructing people by a spirit-like way”.Feng Shan literary works' content of the Song Dynasty bears some similarity to those ones of the Tang Dynasty,but their styles are widely different.Take “Yuezhang” for example,a sentence in the Song Dynasty's lyrics or odes consists of four words,besides,their creation strictly followed the traditional rules,which is the reflection of early Song Dynasty's trends of restoration.The Song Dynasty's “Three odes”(Wang Dan's Fengsitan Song,Wang Qinruo's Sheshoutan Song and Chen Yaosou's Chaojintan Song)all have the typical characteristic of the Song culture,namely,pure and fresh,convergent and introspective.The “production” of this period's Feng Shan literature was guaranteed by the system,which selected talents through prompting the officials who participated in the creation of Feng Shan literature to higher ranks and setting up special examinations.With the constant rise of the grassroots,there were divisions among Feng Shan literature consumer groups.The upper class' s consumption of it strengthened their understanding of Feng Shan rituals' classical significance,while the folk class' s consumption prompted the growth of folk's faith in Mount Tai.People's “consumption” of Feng Shan literature not only influenced the development of works like odes,but also brought the thinking public's awareness of opposing Feng Shan activity.Chapter Four mainly discusses the difference between “Tang Yin” and “Song Diao”,which are presented in Feng Shan literature of the Tang and Song dynasties,through this,to uncover the causes behind them.The Tang Dynasty had the vast territory,its social economy developed continuously,it had the wide exchanges withthe foreign countries,a good deal of countries congratulated on Feng Shan rituals,all of these formed the vigorous and magnificent atmosphere which is particularly owned by Tang Dynasty's Feng Shan literature;The Song Dynasty was being poor and weak,besides,influenced by the governors' policy of “emphasizing literature and restricting military force”,many scholars turned to pursuing the delight of life,therefore,the Song culture has its unique characteristics,namely,pure and fresh,convergent and introspective.As one of ritual literature forms,Feng Shan literature has literary value,reflects Feng Shan etiquettes,spreads the traditional propriety and music culture,and has higher cultural inheritance value.However,we should give it an objective evaluation.Feng Shan literature of the Tang and Song dynasties,with the monotonous content and style,are mainly works of officials and scholars' in the feudal ages,which aim to sing the praise of the emperors and present a false appearance of peace and prosperity.Therefore,we should have a dialectical view of Feng Shan literature,that is to say,either overvalue or depreciate it too much is inadvisable.