The Initiation into Versification: Its Influence upon the Change of Literary Viewpoint in the Middle and Late Tang

Author: Hiroshi Aikoh( Faculty of Arts, Kyoto Women’s University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 55, No. 1
Date：March 2010
Pages：109-131
DOI：10.3966/207451922010035501005

Abstract：

The literary study of the Middle and Late Tang has recently become more significant due to the fact that it served as the germinal stage of literature for the following Song Dynasty era. Viewed in this light, this paper focuses on the direct initiation into versification from a master to disciplines in Late Tang, and analyzes the cause and influence of it. Han Yu in Middle Tang emphasized in Shishuo the importance of the role of a master who preached the Doctrines of Confucius to disciplines. This paper clarifies that descriptions about initiation from a master to disciplines had already appeared in essays from that time on other arts including painting and calligraphy, that Southern-sect Chan had a great influence on the initiation, and also that it gave a new signification to versification. Moreover, this paper points to the fact that the conspicuousness of the direct initiation was deeply influenced by change in both literature and the view of literature at that time, as well as by the unknown poets who provided the foundations for literature.

Keywords：Middle Tang, Southern-sect Chan, master, Dao, change

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