Abstract:
To analyze war poetry during the Tang Dynasty that was complied in the Complete Tang Poetry (Quan Tang Shi), commissioned by the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (16441911 A.D.). The theory employed here is discourse studies, which postulates that language, literature and cultural society are inseparably related. What can be concluded from this thesis is that war poetry during the Tang Dynasty consists of three discursive practices: discourses on ethnic nationalism, on class and on gender, all of which characterize dominant and counterdominant discourse. This clearly illustrates how poetry can be regarded as a discourse constructed with power relation in a complex way. Moreover, it is a kind of linguistic practice that reinforces, descends, retorts and negotiates with other mainstream thoughts disseminating and dominating the society. There are several linguistic methods employed in the discourse construction, such as vocabulary selection, antagonistic metaphors, imagery and intertextuality. In addition, the interpretation of relationship between language and ideology reveals that ideologies on nationbuilding, on monarchy, and on patriarchy are invisible mainstream concepts in the society that the authorities wanted to preserve and nature the continuation of the principle social and cultural system. The successive rituals of repetition and reproduction via the imperial examination system enable these main ideologies to remain ingrained in the structure of the Chinese peoples feelings like a second nature.