Tang Poetry

Tang poetry is written during the Tang dynasty (600 – 900 CE). This is known as the golden age of Chinese poetry. The Quan Tang Shi (complete tang poems) includes more than 48,900 poems written by over 2,200 authors. Among the most famous tang poets are Wang Wei, Li Bo, Du Fu.

Poetry plays an important part in the society during Tang dynasty. All scholars are required to master poetry for the civil service exams. Because traditional Chinese writing style is very difficult to master, only a small fraction of the society is fully literate. People in this group is selected to work for the government. For this reason, poetry is popularly used by these scholars in court life. There is a significant merge between poet and politician.

In traditional China, art is valued when it is public and conventional. Therefore, poets write in style and conform with each other. Tang poetry is evaluated largely on social and political context in which it is composed.