Studies On The Literature Of Wuguan Route In Tang Dynasty

Wuguan Route was a crucial regional intersection of the transport lines which connected the north and the south, the east and the west in Tang Dynasty. And because of its particular geographical location, it bore a depth of historical memory and abundant cultural connotations, giving the poetry creation of Tang Dynasty a specific historical and cultural implication.This thesis includes four chapters. The Introduction mainly provides a brief presentation of the status and the significance of this research, explains the ideas and methods that taken, delineates the structure of this thesis, and highlights the problems involved.Chapter one—"Investigations and Discussions of the Feelings towards’Languan Pass—Wuguan Pass’in Tang Dynasty"—overviews the history of Wuguan Route before Tang, and its reputation as "the road of fame and fortune of Shang mountain" during Tang Dynasty. From an angle of Frontier Poetry, this chapter, by studying the poems of Tang that intoned "Languan Pass" and "Wuguan Pass", explores the creative features of such themes. The magnificence, the steep of the Languan Pass, the frequent warfare of the Wuguan Pass, were repeated themes of the poetry of Tang Dynasty. The pass, not only did it concern the honors of literati, but also it had a direct impact on the rises and falls of the nation. To the poets of Tang, the intone of passes expresses their eagerness for fame and fortune, shows their inquiry into the history, and further more, with history as a mirror, their self-reflection, their exploration of life. These writings displaces clear sentiments about the passes, possesses an unique artistic conception, is of distinctive features among the literature of Tang Dynasty.Chapter two—"Studies of Poems on the Four Old", discusses the Tang people’s understanding of the Four Olds legend through looking into its’ reflection in the poetry, and expounds the historical feelings carried by those poems. Facing this relic which was of great historical values, the poets, in their writings of history, paid much attention to the historical event itself, pondering the influences of the Four Olds’act, demonstrating their own thinking, and their personal political ideals. These poets were envious of the Four Olds’ achievements, they dreamed of achieving their own accomplishments, being remembered by the history; on the other hand, they also found comfort for their own frustrations in the fact that the Four Olds in the end went away to enjoy a peaceful life. A poem heart collides and mingles with a historical thinking, the poetry of Passes presents a deep understanding of the history, a concern for the reality, it reveals the excellent historical cultivation of the poets of Tang Dynasty.Chapter three—"Yang City and Poems of Yang City Post", looking into the poems of relegation, gives an overall picture of the people and events that linked to Yang City post, sees through the process that "Yang City post" became a classical poetic image. Through a coincidence of history, an ordinary post took on such heavy, profound cultural connotation, evolved into a cultural complex that haunted thousands years of poets.Chapter four—"Analysis of Wuguan Route and the ’Blue Bridge’ Tale"—conducts a cultural interpretation of the famous Tang Legend, excavates the contained social and historical factors, and dissects its relation with Wuguan Route. First of all, the myth gave the ’Blue Bridge’ tale a special cultural character. The prototype of Madame Fan was "lady by the Han river", and the event took place at Xiang Han river system, thus the author placed the story of Pei Hang met a fairy and got married at the line of "Wuguan Route--Han River--Dongting Lake", was both out of historical reasons, and also under the influence of literary dissemination, even more directly, fiction writing of the time all shared this same characteristic. Second, this tale, under the surface of depiction of a romance between a fairy and a mortal man, it is, at nature, an immortal-taoism story that propagate Taoism. Third, this tale, as a metaphor of life circumstances, represents "seeking spiritual consolation" and "pursuing fame and wealth", two conflicting internal tendencies of the failed literati.