Scholars and Their Communication

Abstract

The concept of shih (mostly refers to “scholar” or “educated person”) starts far back and runs a long, long course. In different periods, it represents different class and image, and until the Tang Dynasty, it basically means scholar or educated person. The communication of scholars can be explained as exchanges and interactions as well as information communication between scholars or intellectuals, and the most prominent feature of it lies in the fact that they communicate through written language. In the Tang period, we witness the heydays of poetic creation, so mutual exchanges through poems are turned into communicative activities of enormous appeal to many people.