The Study of A Prose Style “Zengxu” in The Tang Dynasty
Abstract
The Zengxu-wen in Tang Dynasty originates from the fashion of social intercourse
at the moment of friends’ leaving. The roots of Zengxu lie in Zenda- shixu and
Youyan- shixu in the Six Dynasties. Under the influence of imperial examinations and
bureaucrat systems, the Tang’s scholars urged to visit the powerful officials for seeking
their positions in officialdom and for this reason they leaved hometown to rove all over
the country that made the Zengxu-wen be in full flourish.
The process of Zengxu Wen went through the four simultaneous courses of
Zhongshi- zongxu、Zengxu-bingshi、Yixu-daishi、Wushi -tuxu. About the mid-Tang
Dynasty, Zengxu-wen finally became a dependent prose style apart from a poem’s
attachment. To sum up the intentions of writing elements , the changes of Pain-san
styles and quantity of writing, the Tang’s Zengxu-wen could separate into four period
of the rising、the growing、the prospering and the declining. Zengxu-wen was sent
as a present to officials, scholars, monks, and relatives etc. The materials of writing
included many aspects like the officials’ transferring to another place, retiring for illness
and receiving an order as an envoy abroad, the scholars’ imperial examination , Ganye
（seeking to interview with requests for favor）and Yingpi（receipt a position to be an
official）, the monks’ propaganda teaching and roam solitude, the relatives’ talking
something prides each other and guiding the business etc. As for the living
psychology, Tang’s Zengxu-wen expressed a positive attitude to face the society and
create a clear politics. In philosophy, it showed not only the spirit of combine with
Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, but also the connotation of argument when the
Taoism and Buddhism were banned. At aesthetic ideology, Zengxu-wen spread a
grandeur form of art when Painwen was a prime style in the early Tang. Then entering
a prospering stage, Zengxu-wen presented both an elegant intension and a wonder queer
writing technique of the Tang’s prose by the plot and diction’s creation in the base of
“take the poem as the prose”. The two manners made Zengxu-wen become an
important style to appear the beauty of Tang’s proses in art. Conclusively, Zengxuwen
not only reflected the social life but also preserved important documents and
records in Tang Dynasty. The expanding course just lay in the formation of literature
group and the dissemination of recipients. However when the scholars changed their
attitude and the elegant culture vulgarized, Zengxu-wen declined obviously in late-
Tang . The development is a miniature appearance in the transformation of the type
in Chinese culture. Hence, the evolution of Zengxu-wen just presents the transferred
phenomenon of Tang’s culture.