A Story On The Fairyland Excursion Poems Before Tang Dynasty

Poems of fairyland excursion emerged as an important type of Chinese classical poetry as far as Six Dynasties period, which stood among the most important types: pastoral poems and landscape poems. However, poems of fairyland excursion are not attached with equal importance as the other two. Especially poems of fairyland excursion before Tang Dynasty are greatly in need of systematic study. Based on the previous study on the subject, this thesis is to have a systematic research into the poems of mystical excursion before Tang Dynasty, with the purpose of providing references for further study.This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter reviews the writing of fairyland excursion poems before Tang Dynasty in the way of forms in order to show the purpose and ways of developing the thesis. The second, third, and fourth chapters elaborate the origin and development of the three types of fairyland excursion poemsrespectively------joy of being together with fairies; the mixture of describing fairylandexcursion with pursuing Tao; reflection over one's life experience by describing imagined carefree life of fairies. The fifth chapter briefly analyzes the importance of fairyland excursion poems before Tang in the history of Chinese literature and the great influence of them on the development of poetry before Tang Dynasty.The second chapter mainly discusses the fairyland excursion poems that characterized by the joy of being together with fairies. The three sections in the chapter ftialyze the development of fairyland excursion poems of the kind in different nistorical stages. The study of fairyland excursion poems in Qin and Han Dynasty showed that fairyland excursion poems in Han Dynasty is dominated by non-rationalism and the fairyland excursion poems in Han and in Qin Dynasty are of the similar spiritual essence. This section also analyzes the features of fairyland excursion poems in Han Dynasty represented by "Worshiping Ceremonies in Suburb" and Yue Fu poems: romanticism and realism; in language that is too gorgeous to be meaningful. These features are both resulted from the poets' experience of the atmosphere in religious ceremonies of the time. The writing of the similar poems inSix Dynasties is also introduced.The third chapter analyzes the fairyland excursion poems that characterized by the mixture of describing fairyland excursion with pursuing Tao following the process of development. It begins from "Zhuang Zi". The personified and detailed description of the realm of gods' chosen ones paved way for later progress of poems that describe fairyland excursion with the intention of pursuing Taoism. The second section mainly analyzes the Taoism flavor of Ruan Ji and Ji Kang's poems. They linked the thought of becoming immortal with pursuing Tao, and fairyland excursion with mystical excursion. Consequently, reclusion and fairyland excursion began to stand side by side. The joint of pursuing to become immortal and meditation over Tao ranges from Zhuang Zi, Ruan Ji, and Ji Kang to Guo Pu. Based on the ontology of Taoism, the third section points out that Taoists sense the existence of Tao in the way of abstinence from secular world and of forgetting the worldly existence. This way of understanding Tao leads to an aesthetics that characterized by "excursion of mind". The "excursion" in "mystical excursion" means to abandon the worldly values and to make evaluation in a higher, broader register of spirit. This is how Taoists' way of sensing Tao influence fairyland excursion poetry.The fourth chapter begins with the works in "Elegies of Chu" that carry the flavor of later fairyland excursion poems, as "Grief of Parting", and "Doing Far Away" in "Nine Elegies", etc. The style of reflecting one's life experience by describing fairy land came into existence in the process of development from "Grief of Parting" to " Going Far Away". Then the author discusses the fairyland excursion poems of Cao Cao and Cao Zhi in the background of the contradicted opinion of immortals of the time. Next,...