Tang poetry
poetry of the Tang dynasty
Tang poetry (traditional Chinese: 唐詩; simplified Chinese: 唐诗; pinyin: Tángshī) refers to poetry written in or around the time of, or in the characteristic style of, China's Tang dynasty (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian), and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. The anthology Complete Tang Poems includes over 48,900 poems written by over 2,200 poets. However, with recovered and variant texts and modern archaeological excavations from sites like Dunhuang, the actual number of named Tang poets (and the total number of Tang poems) are much higher, at an estimated 3,700 recorded poets from the Tang dynasty. During the Tang dynasty, poetry continued to be an important part of social life at all levels of society. Scholars were required to master poetry for the civil service exams, but the art was theoretically available to everyone. This led to a large record of poetry and poets, a partial record of which survives today. The two most famous poets of the period were Li Bai and Du Fu. The Qing dynasty selection, Three Hundred Tang Poems, has made Tang poetry familiar to educated Chinese in modern times.
Periodization
The periodization scheme employed in this article is the one detailed by the Ming dynasty scholar Gao Bing (1350–1423) in the preface to his work Tangshi Pinhui, which has enjoyed broad acceptance since his time. This system, which unambiguously treats poetry composed during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (the "High Tang" period) as being superior in quality to what came before and after, is subjective and evaluative, and often does not reflect the realities of literary history.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tang poetry” is poetry of the Tang dynasty. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Tang, poetry and dynasty, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “poetry of the Tang dynasty” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3236984. The Library of Congress control number is sh85024357. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1350 and 1423.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tang poetry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.