Mizanur Rahman Jewel :
Tang period was a golden age of Chinese literature and art. There are over 48,900 poems penned by some 2,200 Tang authors that have survived until modern times. Perfecting one’s skills in the composition of poetry became a required study for those wishing to pass imperial examinations, while poetry was also heavily competitive.
Poetry contests amongst esteemed guests at banquets and courtiers of elite social gatherings was common in the Tang period. Poetry styles that were popular in the Tang included gushi and jintishi, with the renowned Tang poet Li Bai (701-762) famous for the former style, and Tang poets like Wang Wei (701-761) and Cui Hao (704-754) famous for their use of the latter. Jintishi poetry, or regulated verse, is in the form of eight-line stanzas or seven characters per line with a fixed pattern of tones that required the second and third couplets to be antithetical (although the antithesis is often lost in translation to other languages). Tang poems in particular remain the most popular out of every historical era of China. This great emulation of Tang era poetry began in the Song Dynasty; in that period, Yan Yu ( active 1194-1245) asserted that he was the first to designate the poetry of the High Tang (c. 713-766) era as the orthodox material with ‘canonical status within the classical poetic tradition.’ Yan Yu reserved the position of highest esteem among all Tang poets for Du Fu (712-770), who was not viewed as such in his own era, and was branded by his peers as an anti-traditional rebel.
There were other important literary forms besides poetry during the Tang period. There was Duan Chengshi’s (d. 863) Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, an entertaining collection of foreign legends and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena, short anecdotes, mythical and mundane tales, as well as notes on various subjects. The exact literary category or classification that Duan’s large informal narrative would fit into is still debated amongst scholars and historians.
Short story fiction and tales were also popular during the Tang, one of the more famous ones being Yingying’s Biography by Yuan Zhen (779-831), which was widely circulated in his own time and by the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) became the basis for plays in Chinese operaTimothy C. Wong places this story within the wider context of Tang love tales, which often share the plot designs of quick passion, inescapable societal pressure leading to the abandonment of romance, followed by a period of melancholy.
Wong states that this scheme lacks the undying vows and total self-commitment to love found in Western romances such as Romeo and Juliet, but that underlying traditional Chinese values of inseparableness of self from one’s environment (including human society) served to create the necessary fictional device of romantic tension.
The Classical Prose Movement was spurred large in part by the writings of Tang authors Liu Zongyuan (773-819) and Han Yu (768-824). This new prose style broke away from the poetry tradition of the ‘piantiwen’ style begun in the ancient Han dynasty. Although writers of the Classical Prose Movement imitated ‘piantiwen’, they criticized it for its often vague content and lack of colloquial language, focusing more on clarity and precision to make their writing more direct.
This guwen (archaic prose) style can be traced back to Han Yu, and would become largely associated with orthodox Neo Confucianism.
Luo Ym (833-909), born Luo Heng, courtesy name Zhaojian, was a Chinese statesman and poet of the Tang dynasty. Luo was born in Yuhang, Zhejiang. At the age of 20, he took his first imperial exam. He failed the exam ten times. As a result, he gave himself the pseudonym Yin (the dormant). During the late Tang Period Luo Yin (AD 833-909) was known both as a poet and essayist. His poetry is powerful, majestic and distinctive. In the miscellaneous essays in the collection Slanderous Writings he was shown as a master of bitter sarcasm and originality.
From the biographical background it is known that Luo Yin came from an ordinary small landlord family. His grandfather served as a county magistrate and his father took a Ministry of Rites examination but failed to gain an official appointment. Same thing also happened to Luo Yin and like father he was also unsuccessful in the examination and had never been able to win official distinction during his lifetime.
Being a man of strong character Luo Yin often spoke out boldly and critically, a practice, which ended his hope of an official career but helped to make his name as a writer.
During the age of thirty four Luo Yin started his main prose work Slanderous Writings. By reading the preface, which he had written, we come to know that Slanderous Writings was deliberately written to bring into light the political scenario of the time. In doing so, he clearly demonstrated a tenacious spirit in the face of oppression and persecution.
Luo Yin, after ten years of the previous preface, wrote another preface to the book in which he mentioned that “When a gentleman is in authority, he should use his authority to decide between right and wrong, if he is not in authority, he should express his opinions in writings so as to warn his contemporaries and teach future generations.” Luo Yin’s ultimate aim therefore was not to work for fame or profit, nor merely to vest his feelings, but to use his own ‘garrulous’ pen to expose and cliticize society. Although he was fond of satirizing and criticizing people, he was not cynical and had a genuine passion for people of his country.
The subject matter of the collections is varied, mostly allegorical, and all deal with, on a large extent, serious topical problems faced by the government in the mid-ninth century. The poems represent the authors wish to preserve and maintain the unity of the country.
In his various writings Luo Yin also criticised the high officials of his day. In the poem entitled ‘Inscription on the Tombstone of Master Mei’, he praised a first century BC scholar named Mei Fu who, although not in authority, wrote three memorials criticizing the government. He commented, “Honour is bestowed to encourage peo to attain greater achievements, yet those in high sections dare not criticize government policy.” From this statement we come to know that when the country is well -governed, good men are raised to high positions, when the country is badly governed, good people are kept down.” Moral integrity also found a place in the essays written in Slanderous Writings.
Luo Yin observed the political scenario of his day and the criticism made by him finally contributed being unsuccessful in his official career. Luo Yin’s work, artistically, has its distinctive and unique features as well.
According to the historical background that is available it is known that he was fond of making jokes and was an uninhibited talker. His writings clearly show and represent a genuine expression of feeling provoked by experience. Though the writings in his collection take a variety of forms such as rhymed essays, anecdotes, letters, inscriptions or poems, they are all of polemic nature.
Symbolism was a common feature of Luo Yin’s Poetry. Luo Yin frequently, in his writings used symbolism as a vehicle of his criticism towards the society and inhumanity. The language used by Luo yin is filled with originality and a concern for greater humanity.
Tang period was a golden age of Chinese literature and art. There are over 48,900 poems penned by some 2,200 Tang authors that have survived until modern times. Perfecting one’s skills in the composition of poetry became a required study for those wishing to pass imperial examinations, while poetry was also heavily competitive.
Poetry contests amongst esteemed guests at banquets and courtiers of elite social gatherings was common in the Tang period. Poetry styles that were popular in the Tang included gushi and jintishi, with the renowned Tang poet Li Bai (701-762) famous for the former style, and Tang poets like Wang Wei (701-761) and Cui Hao (704-754) famous for their use of the latter. Jintishi poetry, or regulated verse, is in the form of eight-line stanzas or seven characters per line with a fixed pattern of tones that required the second and third couplets to be antithetical (although the antithesis is often lost in translation to other languages). Tang poems in particular remain the most popular out of every historical era of China. This great emulation of Tang era poetry began in the Song Dynasty; in that period, Yan Yu ( active 1194-1245) asserted that he was the first to designate the poetry of the High Tang (c. 713-766) era as the orthodox material with ‘canonical status within the classical poetic tradition.’ Yan Yu reserved the position of highest esteem among all Tang poets for Du Fu (712-770), who was not viewed as such in his own era, and was branded by his peers as an anti-traditional rebel.
There were other important literary forms besides poetry during the Tang period. There was Duan Chengshi’s (d. 863) Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, an entertaining collection of foreign legends and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena, short anecdotes, mythical and mundane tales, as well as notes on various subjects. The exact literary category or classification that Duan’s large informal narrative would fit into is still debated amongst scholars and historians.
Short story fiction and tales were also popular during the Tang, one of the more famous ones being Yingying’s Biography by Yuan Zhen (779-831), which was widely circulated in his own time and by the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) became the basis for plays in Chinese operaTimothy C. Wong places this story within the wider context of Tang love tales, which often share the plot designs of quick passion, inescapable societal pressure leading to the abandonment of romance, followed by a period of melancholy.
Wong states that this scheme lacks the undying vows and total self-commitment to love found in Western romances such as Romeo and Juliet, but that underlying traditional Chinese values of inseparableness of self from one’s environment (including human society) served to create the necessary fictional device of romantic tension.
The Classical Prose Movement was spurred large in part by the writings of Tang authors Liu Zongyuan (773-819) and Han Yu (768-824). This new prose style broke away from the poetry tradition of the ‘piantiwen’ style begun in the ancient Han dynasty. Although writers of the Classical Prose Movement imitated ‘piantiwen’, they criticized it for its often vague content and lack of colloquial language, focusing more on clarity and precision to make their writing more direct.
This guwen (archaic prose) style can be traced back to Han Yu, and would become largely associated with orthodox Neo Confucianism.
Luo Ym (833-909), born Luo Heng, courtesy name Zhaojian, was a Chinese statesman and poet of the Tang dynasty. Luo was born in Yuhang, Zhejiang. At the age of 20, he took his first imperial exam. He failed the exam ten times. As a result, he gave himself the pseudonym Yin (the dormant). During the late Tang Period Luo Yin (AD 833-909) was known both as a poet and essayist. His poetry is powerful, majestic and distinctive. In the miscellaneous essays in the collection Slanderous Writings he was shown as a master of bitter sarcasm and originality.
From the biographical background it is known that Luo Yin came from an ordinary small landlord family. His grandfather served as a county magistrate and his father took a Ministry of Rites examination but failed to gain an official appointment. Same thing also happened to Luo Yin and like father he was also unsuccessful in the examination and had never been able to win official distinction during his lifetime.
Being a man of strong character Luo Yin often spoke out boldly and critically, a practice, which ended his hope of an official career but helped to make his name as a writer.
During the age of thirty four Luo Yin started his main prose work Slanderous Writings. By reading the preface, which he had written, we come to know that Slanderous Writings was deliberately written to bring into light the political scenario of the time. In doing so, he clearly demonstrated a tenacious spirit in the face of oppression and persecution.
Luo Yin, after ten years of the previous preface, wrote another preface to the book in which he mentioned that “When a gentleman is in authority, he should use his authority to decide between right and wrong, if he is not in authority, he should express his opinions in writings so as to warn his contemporaries and teach future generations.” Luo Yin’s ultimate aim therefore was not to work for fame or profit, nor merely to vest his feelings, but to use his own ‘garrulous’ pen to expose and cliticize society. Although he was fond of satirizing and criticizing people, he was not cynical and had a genuine passion for people of his country.
The subject matter of the collections is varied, mostly allegorical, and all deal with, on a large extent, serious topical problems faced by the government in the mid-ninth century. The poems represent the authors wish to preserve and maintain the unity of the country.
In his various writings Luo Yin also criticised the high officials of his day. In the poem entitled ‘Inscription on the Tombstone of Master Mei’, he praised a first century BC scholar named Mei Fu who, although not in authority, wrote three memorials criticizing the government. He commented, “Honour is bestowed to encourage peo to attain greater achievements, yet those in high sections dare not criticize government policy.” From this statement we come to know that when the country is well -governed, good men are raised to high positions, when the country is badly governed, good people are kept down.” Moral integrity also found a place in the essays written in Slanderous Writings.
Luo Yin observed the political scenario of his day and the criticism made by him finally contributed being unsuccessful in his official career. Luo Yin’s work, artistically, has its distinctive and unique features as well.
According to the historical background that is available it is known that he was fond of making jokes and was an uninhibited talker. His writings clearly show and represent a genuine expression of feeling provoked by experience. Though the writings in his collection take a variety of forms such as rhymed essays, anecdotes, letters, inscriptions or poems, they are all of polemic nature.
Symbolism was a common feature of Luo Yin’s Poetry. Luo Yin frequently, in his writings used symbolism as a vehicle of his criticism towards the society and inhumanity. The language used by Luo yin is filled with originality and a concern for greater humanity.
