Which change in the Tang Dynasty had a profound impact on the cultural celebrities who were busy writing poems every day?

We now see that the literary achievements of the Tang Dynasty are mainly reflected in parallel prose and Tang poetry. The names of Wang Bo, Luo Bin, Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Bai Juyi, etc. are so dazzling that people only talk about parallel prose and Tang poetry when talking about the culture of the Tang Dynasty.

In fact, this is not the case. At least in the Tang Dynasty, there were several famous works advocating literary reform, which also involved reform in the ideological field.

To some extent, this advocacy of literary change is somewhat similar to the starting point of the "May 4th Movement", but the results are different.

This movement was the ancient prose movement of the Tang Dynasty, and its leaders, such as Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, wrote many articles to demonstrate this issue, and it also involved struggles in the ideological field.

Today we will talk about this matter and the books related to it.

Literature in the early Tang Dynasty was still dominated by parallel prose. Parallel prose is a literary form handed down from the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It seems gorgeous and bright, but in fact it has gradually become divorced from reality, separated from the grassroots, and has become gaudy.

In view of this situation, Wang Bo and others in the early Tang Dynasty put forward the request to change parallel prose, even though Wang Bo himself was a genius in parallel prose.

This kind of voice took shape in the mid-Tang Dynasty. The reformists headed by Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and others wrote essays and demanded that the ancient prose of Qin and Han Dynasty be restored and parallel prose be discarded.

Han Yu's works such as "Yuan Dao" and "Original Nature", Liu Zongyuan's "On Feudalism", Li Ao's "Fu Xing Shu", etc. These works mentioned the issues of human nature and the way of heaven. Ancient systems and literary styles are analyzed.

At the same time, they put forward demands in the ideological field, demanding that Confucianism be continued to be exalted and Buddhism suppressed. Therefore, issues of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were also involved.

In short, these people advocate ancient Chinese literature and agree with Confucianism, believing that this is Chinese orthodoxy. Parallel prose should be abandoned, ancient prose should be restored, the feudal system should be abolished, centralization should be strengthened, Buddhism should be rejected, and the authority and status of Confucianism should be strengthened.

Han Yu later risked his life and wrote to the emperor the "Admonishment to Welcome Buddha Bone Table", in which he admonished Tang Xianzong for respecting Buddhism. The words were sharp and quite fierce.

This led to Han Yu's demotion.

The activities of Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and others caused a literary revolution. Later Song Dynasty people such as Su Shi and Ouyang Xiu followed Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and others' ideas, continued to reform China's literary style, and finally won victory.

Although the opposition to Buddhism and other religions failed to win, it strengthened the status of Confucianism. It was the arguments of Confucian scholars like Han Yu that made the feudal dynasties after the Tang Dynasty have to face up to the politics of Confucian scholars. requirements, and brought together the indispensable "intellectuals" in these countries, and finally formed the "Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism" spirit with Confucianism as the core and fusion of Buddhism and Taoism.

To a certain extent, the ancient prose movement that began in the Tang Dynasty has some similarities with the vernacular prose promoted by the May Fourth Movement in modern times, mainly in the similarity of starting points.

Both were proposed in the face of the inability of the popular writing style at the time to adapt to society. The difference was that the Tang Dynasty demanded the restoration of ancient Qin and Han Dynasties, while the May Fourth Movement demanded the complete abolition of classical Chinese and even the abolition of Chinese characters.

The ancient prose movement of the Tang Dynasty was inherited by the Song Dynasty, and eventually became the beginning of new literature.

Although the May 4th Movement also promoted the spread of vernacular Chinese and had a huge impact on Chinese culture, it remains to be discussed whether classical Chinese should be completely abolished, and the idea of ??abolishing Chinese characters is even more extreme.