As mentioned before, China was the land of poetry. The poetry in the Tang Dynasty was the culmination of the Chinese lyric literature. In the “Complete Anthology of Tang Poems” compiled in the Qing Dynasty, there are about 50,000 poems written by more than 2,300 poets. This period saw many famous poets producing poems of almost all different styles. There were many poetic schools boasting of divergent styles, shaping up a marvelous, splendid era in the land of poetry, when “all the flowers blossomed”.
The four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty (Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Lu Zhaoling and Luo Binwang) were pioneers of Tang poetry. As was commented by Du Fu in Tang: “The styles of the poets Wang, Yang, Lu and Luo, last all times like great rivers”. These young and ambitious poets discarded the gorgeous style of the courtiers in the Qi and Liang dynasties, enlarged the contents of the poems and wrote in a vigorous style. They pursued the aesthetic conceptions of robustness and magnificence. Take a look at the following famous poem by Wang Bo:
送杜少府之任蜀州
城阙辅三秦，
风烟望五津。
与君离别意，
同是宦游人。
海内存知已，
天涯若比邻。
Farewell to Assistant prefect Du Leaving for Shuzhou
Gazing at city gate of the Qin.
And at the forts shrouded in wind and cloud,
I bid you farewell.
I am also a traveling courtier.
You are my bosom friend in the world.
Though in the remote corner,
Yet you will be like my close neighbor.
Though the poem described the complicated sentiments of the writer at the farewell who was also a traveling courtier, yet the lingering sorrow was wiped away by the cheerful lines, “You are my bosom friend in the world. Though in the remote corner, yet you are like my close neighbor”. Thus, the sorrowful sentiment was turned into the bold and unconstrained sentiment, showing the writer’s extraordinarily broad mind.
After the four outstanding poets, Chen Zi’ang was another poet who pursued after his ideal. His famous poem, “Ascending the Youzhou Terrace” was an outstanding masterpiece that transcended the times:
. 登幽州台歌
前不见古人，
后不见来者。
念天地之悠悠，
独沧然而涕下。
Ascending the Youzhou Terrace
Ancient sages I fail to see,
Future generations I fail to meet.
Lonely in a world going on forever,
I shed tears in grief.
Although he expressed his loneliness in a few lines, yet this loneliness involved no complaint against circumstances. Instead, he showed his broad mind and his enterprising spirit with his consciousness of the law of cosmos.
