On the Causes of Advocating Late Tang Poems in Early Song Dynasty

A difficult and blind spot in the Chinese ancient poetry studies is why the late Tang poems were advocated in the early Song Dynasty. The possible reasons are as follows. Firstly, the poets in the early Song Dynasty held different understandings to the notion of the late Tang Dynasty. Secondly, the realistic poets in the late Tang Dynasty paid less attention on the development of the new poetry movement than in the Middle Tang Dynasty. The third reason is that the intrinsic law of poetry was overlooked that no one noticed the significance of the transition from the Tang Poetry to Song Poetry on the basis of the coherent relations between these two Dynasties. Lastly but not less importantly, the influence of the social status and the cultural trends in the early Song Dynasty to poems was not taken into account.