First off, one thing to get straight, all poetry confuses me. I'm just one of those people who can't see the deeper meaning in literature unless I read it over a couple times and even then, only a so-so chance I'll actually understand it.
That being said, I do seem to notice a difference between Tang and Song poetry. Tang poetry seems to be more light hearted than Song does, not saying that the Song stuff is depressing, just saying that the subjects seem to get deeper. And this would make sense, because the Tang dynasty was more of a peaceful era than the Song dynasty which faced multiple financial and military problems.
I think that poems can be used to understand daily life well, but not a broad outlook of the dynasties like the chapters can give, because the poems are written from individuals at different places, so connected they might be able to give us a good view, but individually no.
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