A Study Of Aesthetic Imagery And Archetypes In Tang Dynasty Labour Poetry

Poetry of the Tang dynasty has an extraordinary status in traditional Chinese culture due to its unique rhythm and profound connotations,and poetry based on the theme of labour is an extremely important part of Tang poetry.The study of Tang poetry has long produced many fruitful research results,but the study of Tang poetry on the theme of labour is still relatively weak.In fact,labour poetry is a unique genre with distinctive aesthetic imagery and rich cultural archetypes,and a systematic analysis of this can help to promote an understanding of the aesthetic connotations and cultural values of labour in the Tang,and thus enrich the study of Tang poetry.On this basis,it also helps to inherit the excellent Chinese cultural traditions and to explore the practical value of the combination of labour and aesthetic education that Tang poetry has to offer.The poetry of labour in the Tang dynasty is extremely rich in terms of genres,and can be divided into three main categories: agriculture,handicrafts and other labour(mainly gathering labour),each of which has its own characteristics and origins.In the case of labour poetry on agricultural themes,it can be broadly divided into idyllic poems,poems on the family,poems on farming,poems of compassion for the peasants and poems of seclusion,depending on the sub-themes.The desire to return to nature and the harmony of family and society are at the core of the aesthetic imagery of agricultural labour poetry,with garden poetry focusing on the aesthetic imagery of nature,family poetry on farming,and social poetry on farming,while poems of compassion for the peasants and poems of seclusion are both strongly subjective,but the former tend to be realistic and worldly,while the latter tend to be transcendental and out-of-this-world.Handicraft poetry can be divided into sericulture poetry,architecture poetry,artisan poetry and mining poetry,depending on their specific occupations.Both sericulture and architecture poetry are often associated with the labour system of the time,with sericulture poetry focusing on women and architecture poetry on men,both of which have in common a moral assessment of the poet.The artisan and mining poems,which are also craft poems,are less subjective in their moral assessment and more neutral in their subject matter,which is often a tribute to skill.Between these two categories,however,the artisan poems often serve as metaphors for the poets themselves,based on their cultural archetypes,while the mining poems are often associated with myths and legends and are therefore charmed.Outside of these two categories,labour poems tend to represent the gathering of labour that is dependent on natural resources,a form of labour that is distinctly individual and natural,with less interaction with society.These poems can be divided into poems about fishermen,woodcutters,shepherds,lotus-pickers and herbalists,depending on the type of work and the person doing it.The poems of the fisherman and the woodcutter are both strongly romantic,often used as metaphors for the escapist,reclusive mindset of the world,and almost always depict elders.The poems about herd boys are almost always about children and show typical innocent imagery.The boundaries are blurred in the Tang poems,where the imagery is closer to eroticism than to labour,and the poems are closely associated with young girls.The poems on herbalism,on the other hand,represent the largely mature Daoist ideology of the two Han dynasties and the Wei and Jin dynasties,and their cultural archetypes are mostly derived from Daoist myths and legends.These sub-genres of poetry differ greatly in their aesthetic imagery and cultural archetypes because of the different perspectives and people they depict,but as part of a larger genre,there are commonalities between poems about farming and farming,between poems about building and craftsmen,and between poems about fishing fathers and woodcutters.In addition to the cultural archetypes that are common to all genres,there are several widespread value archetypes that complete the construction of the ideal order within the poet’s creator.The first type of archetype was influenced by Confucianism and advocated a return to the simple society that existed before the Qin dynasty,typically during the reigns of King Wen and Duke Zhou,and poems related to servitude such as poems of compassion for the peasants and poems on construction often fall into this category.The second category of archetypes,influenced by Taoist thought,goes even further,advocating a return to the primitive communist society before the Three Dynasties,when neither private ownership nor hereditary monarchs had yet arisen.The third category does not have a specific ideal social goal,but rather emphasises a return to the heart and wisdom of the human being,thereby establishing human values.Poems by fishermen and shepherd boys are typical of this third category,with the theme often emphasising one’s own spirituality.There are,of course,some poems that do not make a purposeful choice,but rather highlight the ’purposelessness’ of the aesthetic;some of the lotus-picking and mining poems fall into this category.In general,the poetry of labour in the Tang dynasty is characterised by a ’discrete’writing style,as most of the poets were non-manual labourers.Nevertheless,in terms of their aesthetic properties,labour poems still have a rich aesthetic connotation.The aesthetic imagery of agricultural labour poetry tends to express the ideal of social and domestic beauty more frequently;the aesthetic imagery of labour poetry on handicraft subjects expresses the damage to the good family;other types of labour poetry,mainly gathering labour,favour aesthetic imagery of an individual and natural nature,and their values point not only to the natural beauty of the individual but also to the beauty of the family,which is close to nature.From the perspective of creative archetypes,the cultural archetypes of Tang labour poetry are evident,including borrowings from well-known preQin allusions,as well as a large number of archetypes from the Han and Wei-Jin dynasties.Specifically,the cultural archetypes of Tang labour poetry point to three types of value:the first is the ideal society of the pre-Qin period of the ’rule of the first king’,which consists of figures from history and culture such as King Wen and the Duke of Zhou,and is intended to represent the ruler’s inspirational and promising society as a refuge for labourers.The second category points to the society of the first people before the Three Dynasties,or the primitive communist society of the ’small state and few people’advocated by Laozi,and is intended to represent a life of freedom under the natural order.The third category of poetry is related to the second in terms of cultural archetypes,but does not emphasise a return to nature and antiquity,but rather aims to show man seeking to realise his values through a return to his heart.In addition to these three categories,there are,of course,some poems that lack a sufficiently clear value archetype or purpose,and these poems emphasise the purely ’purposeless’,or aesthetic,nature of the poem,with poems with romantic overtones such as those about lotus-catching.On the whole,Tang labour poetry is rich in aesthetic imagery and cultural connotations,and its values involve profound reflections on ideal politics,ideal society and ideal life.Based on their rich connotations and profound moods,the labour poems of the Tang Dynasty embody unique ideological values.In the final analysis,the greatest ideological value of Tang labour poetry is the promotion of the value of labour based on the family orientation.