Scholars’ Demeanor Is Alive With The Lake

The spirit of reclusion is an important part of the connotation of Westlake culture, which develops from the dynasty of Tang, Song until Qing continuously. Because of the change of era and society in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China (R.O.C), a lot of changes had happened to the spirit of reclusion, comparing to the earlier dynasties. The study of this dissertation comprehensives the material about landscape, history and poetries about Westlake, trying to draw out the orbital of the Westlake reclusion literature, discover the culture spirit of the hermit in Westlake, and solve the problem about the relationship between reclusion culture, social transformation, and the disappear of tradition. The text of literature is the basic of the study, while the culture study is the topic of this dissertation.The dissertation divided into four chapters. The first chapter talks about the damage of the Westlake reclusion field when the Taiping army occupying the Hangzhou city, and the response to the war from the hermit, also concerns about culture which contains in the words of the hermit about the war. This is the history background of the way from chaos to rebuild of Westlake culture, also about the culture achievements of Westlake hermit in the next chapters.The second chapter shows the important meaning of the intellectuals with spirit of reclusion in the rebuilding of Westlake culture, by the historical facts about Ding Shen, Ding Bing, Xue Shiyu and Yu Yue; the thriving of association between hermits promoted the rebuilding too. When the scenery recovered to the old landscape, poets from alien land and ethnic minorities came and visited here, and influenced by the spirit of reclusion, came up with the ambition of reclusion.The third chapter basics on the topic of the contribution to the Westlake literature from the hermits of different places, with materials like Poetry of Westlake, which is edited by Beijing poet Hu Junzhang. After the Revolution of 1911, the center of Hangzhou reclusion culture had a tendency of moving from Westlake to Xixi. The last chapter mainly talks about the reclusion life of poets from former dynasty in Westlake and Xixi, and case studies on Chen Sanli and Zhou Qingyun. Then discover the meaning of the protection of cultural lifeblood by the hermit poets, and response to the New Culture Movement by the reclusion tradition of Westlake.As the major of protecting the tradition of Westlake, the identity of the hermit in the late Qing Dynasty and early R.O.C is important to be argued. The key of the problem is to find the motivation and the fact of reclusion. Some intellectual in relation to the Westlake is not regarded as hermit, mainly because their true spirit of reclusion is not fully realized. This dissertation also investigates their motivation and fact of reclusion, and excavates the world of spirit deeply.