Gao Bing’s Collection of Tang Poem and Four-Period Theory on Division of Tang Poetry

The Collection of Tang Poem compiled by Gao Bing,a poetician in the early Ming Dynasty,is the most influential anthology of Tang poetry in the Ming Dynasty.It is also a theoretical production which advances its insights on poetics by means of both comments and selections.Its theoretical contribution lies especially in how to divide the Tang poetry into periods: based on the various viewpoints on this problem put forward since the Tang Dynasty,it establishes the four-period theory once and for all.This theory is significant both for the history of literary criticism and for the development of the study of Tang poetry in the Ming Dynasty.