Study Of Poem Prefaces Of Tang Dynasty

This dissertation makes an analysis of Poem Prefaces (referred to as PPs hereafter) of Tang dynasty by following perspectives:Chapter I Originality of PPs. They are originated under the influence of the "Big Preface" and "Small Preface" of The Book of Songs, as well as a natural result of development of literature itself, especially that of poetic themes. This chapter traces the causes of poetic themes, from the East Zhou dynasty till Sui dynasty, and discusses PPs' influence on creation and appreciation of poems after their appearance.Chapter II General Introduction to PPs of Tang Dynasty. This chapter first gives a survey of PPs production in different periods of Tang dynasty, namely, Early, Zenithal, Middle, and Late Tang dynasty. Then using quantitative analytical method, the dissertation generalizes the characteristics of PPs.Chapter III to Chapter V categorizes PPs and discusses relationships between poems and prefaces and artistic features of different phases. In Chapter III, the dissertation categorizes PPs into four types according their functions and contents: title-explaining, intention-revealing, commenting, and the otherwise. Since poems and PPs belong to different literary forms-poetry and essay, they had no relevance in terms of stylistic feature. But revolving around a same theme, the two types of literary forms cooperate and dialogue with one another, fulfilling jointly the task of theme revelation. So,in Chapter IV, the dissertation further divides PPs into five categories: theme-identical; content-generalizing; outlining; background-providing; and extra. On the basis of the above dissertations, Chapter V gives a detailed analysis of PPs' features in different developing periods.Chapter VI Causes for the Evolution of PPs. Chapter VII discusses the values of PPs in terms of cognition, practice and esthetics.While analyzing these issues, the dissertation seeks to reveal uniqueness and evolution of PPs on the basis of concrete examples, so as to provide readers with a new perspective when reading poetry or literature of Tang dynasty.