感人心而天下和平: 中唐政治观念与文章新变

The new changes of literature in the Mid-Tang Dynasty were closely related to the political idea of “touching the human mind”. The literature in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty was closely associated with the idea of the people at that time, who intended to achieve peace and prosperity through setting up new rites and making new music. Therefore, literature became subordinated to ritual and music, and the literati took it as their ambition to embellish and eulogize the great age. After the rebellion led by An Lushan (安祿山) and Shi Siming (史思明), the heyday of the Tang Dynasty came to an end and the Mid-Tang people were faced with an urgent need of reconstructing the socio-political order. They turned to the idea from Yi Zhuan (《易传》), which emphasized that if the sages touched the human mind, the world would be in peace. This idea then became the new ideological basis for the Mid-Tang people to strive for the re-establishment of the dynastic order by building the recognition of their mind identity. As the new changes of the Mid-Tang literature were actually grounded upon this new ideological basis, the eulogistic literature from the heyday of the Tang Dynasty was replaced by the new literature focusing on praising and criticizing current politics so as to reform reality. The new literature was aimed to bring about peace and reconstruct a prosperous world through touching the human mind.