A Review of the Study of Literature of the Tang Dynasty in 1980s

In the early 1980s, the healthy academic environment promoted the study of literature of the Tang Dynasty. Remarkable achievements were made in obtaining a deeper understanding of the development law of the Tang literature and its ideological history, in the interdisciplinary study of Buddhism, Taoism and the Tang literature, in the study of poetic art and literature of the Tang Dynasty, of the political, cultural and military systems of that period, in the comprehensive study of poetry and other arts. Remarkable achievements were also made in sorting out the historical data and in compiling a directory of writers and research materials, in the further study of the important writers and their literary work, in the invention of multiform research methods and the adoption of orthodox methods. However, in spite of these achievements there were some disharmonious inclinations.