| Chapter 1: | The Tang Tradition |
Chapter 1
The Tang Tradition
Early Tang: A Debut Slow but Sure
Painted on the whitewashed wall is a fairy crane,
Imposing and imbued with true spirit.
Imposing and imbued with true spirit.
-Song Zhiwen
Having endured the anti-intellectual tyranny of the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC) and the pro-Confucian orthodoxy of the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), Chinese literature and art underwent a renaissance during the Six Dynasties period (220-589) and then entered their golden age during the Tang dynasty (618-907). Political unity, social stability, and economic prosperity combined to create a genial environment for both verbal and visual arts to flourish on an unprecedented scale. This period marked the apogee of Chinese poetry, as Tang poetry as a whole was the third landmark in the development of Chinese poetry after the Shi jing (Classic of