Zhang Jiuling And The Poems In The Height Of Tang Dynasty

Zhang Jiuling is not only a famous statesman and thinker in the beginning and prosperous period of Tang Dynasty, but also an important poet at that time. Because of his special status in Tang Dynasty politics, his high prestige in literature, as well as the thoughtful and vigorous way he composed poems, Zhang Jiuling was the catalyst that brought in a new period of literature and he opened the golden period of Tang Dynasty poetry.Zhang Jiuling's poems, whether those recollecting his experiences and expressing his ambitions, or those describing the beauty of the nature and his travels, or those written for the Emperor, embody the elegant aesthetic characteristic, which is resentful but not angry, sorrowful but not sad, mild and tactful. In their ideological content, their emotional features, and their use of art techniques, his works all demonstrate the poetic innovations developed at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. Added to this, they also give an expression to the ideal style that was expected from poetry at the height of the Tang Dynasty. Because of this, Zhang Jiuling's poems were highly influential on the poets of this period.The period in which Zhang Jiuling lived in was a period of transition. It was the key period in which the poetic style of the early Tang Dynasty began to gradually change into the new writing style that would later come into being at the height of the Dynasty. Because of his high status as an imperial government minister, during that time of transition Zhang Jiuling not only explored the new poetic tendency, but he also accelerated the rate of its transformation. He thus made a great contribution to this transitional period of Tang Dynasty poetry. Because of his status as the Prime Minister, Zhang Jiuling was, for decades, the leading figure in the literary field during the golden age of Tang Dynasty poetry. At this time, besides his own method of writing poetry, he emphatically advocated a liberal and boundless aesthetic level and directly promoted a number of prominent poets. With his authority as Prime Minister therefore, Zhang Jiuling undoubtedly gave a direct impetus to the real development of poetry of the high Tang Dynasty period.