| As a successful politician and militarist of early West Han Dynasty, Zhang Liang (cited as "Zhang" afterwards) has enjoyed a legendary and colorful life span. During his childhood, he has showed the heroic personality by assassinating Emperor Qin in Bo Langsha, which, though unsuccessful, has offered him another opportunity to learn military strategy after Huang Shigong and laid the foundation to help Liu Bang establish Han Dynasty as well. Though he has won the reputation as "the teacher of emperor" at that time, he, however, chose to retire, which has been elaborated in related chapters in Historical Records and Book of Han Dynasty. Thus, the boldness, strategy and wisdom of Zhang have left a deep impression on the literati of each following dynasty and been widely cited in the poems of Tang Dynasty.The former researches dealing with Zhang’s character are quite limited and mainly concentrate on the aspects like life-span, military thought, managing thought and politic strategy of Zhang. And there are only four papers concerning the reception research of Zhang’s character in poetry, which, however, only cover the summary and the cause analysis of the four most frequently-appeared topics related to Zhang and basic reception of Zhang in poems of Tang Dynasty instead of systemic and detailed research.This thesis, on the basis of former studies, begins with the reception of Zhang in poems before Tang Dynasty and unfolds the main body from three aspects, namely the types, angles and causes about reception of Zhang’s character in poems of Tang Dynasty. Moreover, many famous poets in Tang Dynasty also have a close relationship with the reception of Zhang’s character, which has been discussed as another chapter. Besides, it is covered in this thesis as well that poets after Tang Dynasty have an overturned view towards the reception of Zhang’s character on assassinating Emperor of Qin. Thus, after the comparative and sample study of obvious characteristics and cause about the reception of Zhang’s character, it has been concluded that poets of Tang Dynasty tend to consider Zhang in an artistic way and reception of Zhang has been deeply influenced by social and political backgrounds, circulation of historical documentations, and mental conditions of poets. As for the types of reception, Zhang’s character as a hero when revenging for Han, his character as a strategist and contributor when acting as the teacher of emperor, and his character as a sage and cynic when retiring from the outstanding political role have been relatively discussed. And the allusion of Zhang in poems have been appreciated when talking about the arts of reception. And at last, as for the cause of reception, it has been put into detailed analysis concerning three factors including social and political backgrounds, circulation of historical documentations and mental conditions of poets. |
