The Development of Literary Creation of Prose in Initial Stage of the Song Dynasty

The literary creation of prose in the early stage of the Song Dynasty underwent a series of changes and developments :First, the new dynasty witnessed the prevalence of the degraded and dispirited style of writing created in late Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties. Then came the scholastic style of revived Confucianismrepresented by Liukais writing. Following was the predominance of the extraordinarily beautiful and exquiste style adopted by the members of the Imperial Academy. Finally,it developed into the fashionable style, not only clumsy and obscure but also archaic and abstruse.Though the prose writing in early stage of the Song Dynasty did not enjoy great success,it was an important stage in the development of prose writing of Song Dynasty. It laid the foundation for the culmination of the literary creation of prose in the middle period of the Northern Song Dynasty.