The End of China's "Middle Ages"

Author: Yu Wenyan (USA), translated by Chen Yinchai and Chen Lei
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The mid-Tang period was a unique moment in Chinese literature, marking also a new beginning. Many phenomena that emerged since the Song Dynasty first appeared in the mid-Tang. In many ways, mid-Tang writers shared a spiritual affinity with the great thinkers of two centuries later, the Song Dynasty, rather than the poets of the preceding decades during the High Tang. Their self-assurance stemmed from distinctive interpretations rather than mere repetition of traditional knowledge, a trend that continued in later intellectual and cultural life. Their fascination with the "microcosm" of private spaces and leisure activities, interpreted with wit, laid the foundation for the private culture characterized by leisure that took shape in the Song Dynasty. Romantic culture not only persisted but was also continuously retold and expanded in Tang Dynasty love stories, with later writers still grappling with the issues raised by this romantic ethos. Writers claimed ownership of various phenomena and activities in diverse ways—my field, my style, my interpretation, my garden, my beloved. Yu Wenyan's The End of the Chinese "Middle Ages": Collected Essays on Mid-Tang Literature and Culture is a work published by the professor in 1996, comprising an introduction and seven essays, with translations of three classical poems and legendary works in English. In terms of the chronological scope it covers, it seems to extend the themes of Early Tang Poetry and High Tang Poetry, though its focus differs significantly. While shorter than the professor's previous two works, it covers a broader and more extensive range of topics. As for the essence of each essay, Professor Yu has already revealed it in the introduction, so there is no need for further elaboration here.
The essay, "Uniqueness and Exclusivity," views the representation of identity in mid-Tang literature as an act of exclusion or being excluded by others. On the level of personal identity, such uniqueness is expressed by claiming superiority over others, but it can also manifest as alienation, which leads to others' exclusion of the individual. In mid-Tang works, uniqueness is reflected in a distinctive and recognizable style that can be imitated by others but is always tied to a specific writer. The next essay, "Interpretations of Natural Landscapes," discusses various ways of representing landscapes, showing how the potential order of nature became a question in the mid-Tang. On one hand, texts present nature in an orderly manner, with such landscapes possessing a structural quality rarely seen in earlier poetry. On the other hand, they depict landscapes lacking inherent order, reduced to a pile of beautiful but disjointed details. The second essay is limited to the representation of physical world order, but the same issue arises in the realm of human events.
The third essay, "Interpretation," explores a mid-Tang tendency to offer speculative explanations for phenomena that either contradict common sense or interpret situations usually considered unexplainable. Such unique interpretations, lacking any evidence or textual support, often carry a tone of irony or even madness. The third essay, "Wit and Private Life," examines the exaggerated interpretation of the playfulness of private spaces and leisure activities as a discourse of private values resisting conventional norms. The fourth essay, "Early Ninth-Century Poetry and the Concept of Writing," explores fundamental changes in the representation of writing, particularly poetry writing, during the mid-Tang period. The last two essays discuss the new romantic culture that took shape in the late eighth century.