The Study On The Dongjin Literature

The realization of ancient Chinese scholar-officials'ideals and value of life needed to be integrated with secular political power. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the imperial family was gradually weakened while powerful families of great influence controlled the court successively, which partly or even totally deprived the scholar-officials of the stage to realize their ideals and value of life. Living in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a war-torn and plague-frequented time, people had in-deh thoughts and understanding of life itself. In such cruel situations, men of letters had to protect themselves against hazards from around on the one hand, and they must seek a spiritual way out to realize their value of life on the other. Positively speaking, they tried to discover philosophical proofs to dispel their melancholy by way of rational thinking, such as discussing Dark Learning and writing poems of that school. Negatively speaking, they tried to comfort themselves by taking drugs, drinking alcohol, and indulging into women, luxury clothing and furniture and so on.On the founding of the Eastern Jin dynasty, there were very few men of letters but Gan Bao and Guo Pu who for the most part wrote about their frustration not to accomplish anything valuable to society. Later in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty, a number of men of letters gathered around Huan Wen, but they lacked the heroic mind and brevity to win in battles; in the mid-Eastern Jin Dynasty, Sun Chuo, Xu Xun and some others lived in Huiji Mountain away from society, either fishing and hunting or chatting and singing all day, reluctant to return to social life. In the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, Lei Cizong, Liu Chengzhi and so on lived close to Monk Huiyuan in Lushan Mountain, swearing to be devoted to writing poems about mountains and rivers. Meanwhile, members of the Xie clan centered around Xie Hun in the capital city Jiankang, writing poems and critics near the famous Wuyi Alley. They had lost the aspiration to contribute to society, and what remained in their mind was nothing but indifference, which accounts for the simple style of most men of letters at that time.In spite of the aforesaid style, however, the poetic styles varied from time to time. At the beginning of Eastern Jin Dynasty, the writing style of Jianan Period still could be found in the works of Gan Bao and Guo Pu while in the mid-Eastern Jin Dynasty, the ancient poetic style had nowhere to be found in the poems of Xu Xun and Sun Chuo. Not until the middle of Yixi did Xie Hun start to recover it to the original style featuring expressing one's emotions and speaking out one's mind. In the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, Tao Yuanming combined Confucianism and Taoism in terms of ideas and academy, which contributed to the formation of his poetic style featuring simplicity and elegance.As a generation of literature, the literature of the Eastern Jin Dynasty displayed a complex variety of styles which reflected a myriad of interests and images. The immortal-themed poems written by Guo Pu contained a complexity of multi-emotions, approximately falling into four types: depicting the endless worldly traumas, complaining one's frustrations and misfortunes, narrating one's pleasure in seclusion and expressing one's admiration for immortals. Gan Bao did not create his novels purposively. The purpose of his Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals was to establish a humble manner of narration, which turned out to have a far-reaching impact on future novel writing. Throughout Eastern Jin Dynasty, Xuanxue Poems experienced different spiritual realms, namely, Lanting, Lushang and Chaisang. The first refers to the realm embodied in the Xuanxue Poems written after the meeting held at Pavilion Lanting in the ninth year of Yonghe. It is a temporary escape from the spiritual torment, a heart-felt delight at freedom. The second refers to the spiritual realm of the poems written by Monk Huiyuan and his followers in Lushang Mountain. It is a spiritual sublimation accomplished in pious worship of Buddha, a beauty of purity and elegance. The third refers to the spiritual realm peculiar to TaoYuanming's poems. It is an integration of the personality of Confucianism and that of Taoism, presenting an interest of naivety and enjoyment. The classical literature of Eastern Jin Dynasty took shape with its distinctive features and unique value, such as a wide range of descriion, flexible contents and styles, and techniques of vivid expression. The idylls of Tao Yuanming were typical in doing so.With regards to literary ideology, very little is worth mentioning, theoretically unable to go along with the prevailing practice of Xuanxue literature. Not many works of Ge Hong are available today and his literary idea of is mostly reflected in his work Bao Pu Zi. Li Chong, a writer and literary critic, wrote a book entitled On the Imperial Academy, which was a milestone in stylistic theory and had a profound impact on the conce of future stylistics. He advocated"taking noble and grandeur as the fundamental of writing"and"avoid giving priority to flowery words". TaoYauanming had no literary critics left to the world, but his poems revealed some of his literary ideas. To sum up, the literary ideology of Eastern Jin Dynasty remained the same as that of Confucianism, that is, expressing one's emotions, speaking out one's mind and cultivating the public. The literary spirit of that time was barren and weak while what was deeply rooted in people's heart was the rational spirit manifested in Dark Learning and the educational spirit coming from their admiration for Confucianism.