Poetry of the Tang Dynasty
1 min readThe Tang Dynasty is the golden era of Chinese poetry. Wang Bo , Yang Jiong , Lu Zhaolin and Luo Binwang were regarded as the Four Great Poets of the early Tang Dynasty.
The four pioneers contributed to the innovation of the poetic style into modern verse. They also changed the setting of the poems from imperial court to the common people’s life. During the peak of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei and Meng Haoran were well-known as the pastoral poets, for their poems are usually about beautiful sceneries of nature and simple country life.
Another group of poets represented by Wang Changling , Gao Shi and Cen Sen were called the frontier poets, since the major topic of their poetry was the ambition, hardship and homesickness of soldiers in the frontiers. Besides these two schools, a great many poets also produced excellent poems, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Han Yu and so on. Li Bai, with the title “Poetic Genius ”, is one of the pioneers of Chinese romantic poems. His poems are characterized by subjectivity, freedom and imagination.
Du Fu is the leading figure of realistic school, and is regarded as the “Saint of Poetry”. He mainly wrote about injustice of society and expressed sympathy for the poor people .
