Life Views Before the Tang Dynasty and Literary Life Themes

Author: Qian Zhixi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1997-01-01
Features: The concept of life constitutes the core of human consciousness, serving as an eternal theme in literature and the very foundation upon which the spiritual backbone of literature is built. The various traditional Chinese views on life had already taken shape before the Tang Dynasty; similarly, the tradition of depicting life themes in classical Chinese literature was also established before the Tang Dynasty. This book employs a combination of diachronic description and theoretical analysis to conduct a systematic examination of the development of life concepts and literary life themes before the Tang Dynasty. Many significant aspects presented in the book, such as the origins of myth and the life consciousness of early ancestors, the maturation of secular rational life views in the Book of Songs, the life philosophy of the Hundred Schools of Thought, the immortal culture of the Han Dynasty, the life preoccupations of the Wei and Jin periods, and the Buddhist life views of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, stand out like distinct peaks in the historical landscape.