In spite of this, the Turkish attacks did not cease.  After a series of imbroglios within the country in which a group under the leadership of the powerful Ts’ui gentry family had liquidated the supporters of the empress Wu shortly before her death, a T’ang prince finally succeeded in killing empress Wei and her clique.  At first, his father ascended the throne, but was soon persuaded to abdicate in favour of his son, now called emperor Hsueang Tsung (713-755), just as the first ruler of the T’ang dynasty had done.  The practice of abdicating—­in contradiction with the Chinese concept of the ruler as son of Heaven and the duties of a son towards his father—­seems to have impressed Japan where similar steps later became quite common.  With Hsuean Tsung there began now a period of forty-five years, which the Chinese describe as the second blossoming of T’ang culture, a period that became famous especially for its painting and literature.

5 Second blossoming of T’ang culture

The T’ang literature shows the co-operation of many favourable factors.  The ancient Chinese classical style of official reports and decrees which the Toba had already revived, now led to the clear prose style of the essayists, of whom Han Yue (768-825) and Liu Tsung-yuean (747-796) call for special mention.  But entirely new forms of sentences make their appearance in prose writing, with new pictures and similes brought from India through the medium of the Buddhist translations.  Poetry was also enriched by the simple songs that spread in the north under Turkish influence, and by southern influences.  The great poets of the T’ang period adopted the rules of form laid down by the poetic art of the south in the fifth century; but while at that time the writing of poetry was a learned pastime, precious and formalistic, the T’ang poets brought to it genuine feeling.  Widespread fame came to Li T’ai-po (701-762) and Tu Fu (712-770); in China two poets almost equal to these two in popularity were Po Chue-i (772-846) and Yuean Chen (779-831), who in their works kept as close as possible to the vernacular.

New forms of poetry rarely made their appearance in the T’ang period, but the existing forms were brought to the highest perfection.  Not until the very end of the T’ang period did there appear the form of a “free” versification, with lines of no fixed length.  This form came from the indigenous folk-songs of south-western China, and was spread through the agency of the filles de joie in the tea-houses.  Before long it became the custom to string such songs together in a continuous series—­the first step towards opera.  For these song sequences were sung by way of accompaniment to the theatrical productions.  The Chinese theatre had developed from two sources—­from religious games, bullfights and wrestling, among Turkish and Mongol peoples, which developed into dancing displays; and from sacrificial games of South Chinese origin.