Gao Pian's Mentality and Destiny and His Creation of Poems in Late Tang Dynasty

XU Hai-bing;Academy of the Henan Justice and Police Officer;

Late Tang Dynasty;;Gao Pian;;Mentality;;creation of poems

In the fight with the peasant armies, Gao Pian's mentality may be developedinto three stages: First,to give loyalty to the government and suppress positively; Second,to wait and see, and grasp the force to protect himself;Third, to betray the government and set up a separationists' rule. At the earlier period,Gao Pian was promoted unceasingly.He had a high position and important powers. At later period, he had already lost his power, and was deserted by his friends and allies,and finally was beheaded by his subordinations. Gao Pian's mentality and destiny not only had connection with the subjective factors, such as his thoughts, status and so on,but also had relation to the objective factors,such as the reality of the society, the peasant wars in late Tangand so on. Although the number of his poems are not large, the contents are quite rich. Gao Pian's poems reflects not only his own life and mental course, but also some important historical facts of the society in late Tang dynasty. His poems may be roughly divided into following types: expressing the feelings and thoughts, the frontier fortress and women's resentment, presenting and taking friends departure,recording matters and describing the sceneries,chanting the history and recalling old times, and so on. His poems, particularly the ones which were created in earlier period when his official career was smooth, expresshis great ambition with lofty aspiration. Some poems expresshis sincere sympathy to the depressed classes in the societyhowever with loyalty to the monarch and the government. Poems of later period express his passive mood througing drinking,enjoying and wandering the sceneries. The complexity of Gao Pian's poems,ups and downs of his life and the complexity of his mentality and destiny blended together. His 50 poems belong to modem style,most of which are seven-character quatrains.Some poems which relates to frontier fortress are desolate and sorrowful, resemble the Features of the glorious Tang Dynasty. And some poems that describes the sceneries are delicate, fresh and pleasing.