The Cultural Evolution of the Tang Dynasty' ci Poetry during Its Peak and Middle Periods

Some scholars believe that ci poems came into being in the Six Dynasties,because the palace-style poems of the Liang and Chen Dynasties were the outcome of the imperial-court culture,and the rise of the Tang Dynasty' ci poetry was also related to this type of culture featured with the facts that the banquets served for the emperor and ministers and the imperial-palace life gave birth to the earliest ci poems represented by Li Bai(Li Po).After the middle Tang Dynasty,ci poems began to get involved with a frontier fortress culture and a demotion and exile culture.Zhang Zhi-he's works embodied a recluse and solitude culture,and Wang-jian's displayed the construction of three-dimensional culture of this middle period,showing the features of linking the imperial court culture upward with the scholar-officials' culture downward.Among the poets in this period,Liu Yu-xi and Bai Ju-yi excelled among the most prolific ci poets,whose significance lies in not only the creation of new genre,but also in the styles of seclusion and leisure,which embodied the transformation and development of the scholar-officials' culture in the ci poetry.Leisure mingled with a sentimental mood is the inchoation of scholar officials' ci poetry of the Southern Tang Dynasty and Northern Song Dynasty with 'the carefree mood' as the greatest feature.