A Study On Song Dynasty's Disciplined Fu

The disciplined fu's features are mainly limited rhyme and dual,and it is the stictest type in the cifu literature.Disciplined fu originated in the early Tang Dynasty,but many of its factors have been pregnant with parallel fu in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.After the emergence of disciplined fu,it gradually became one of the contents of imperial examination,and developed with the help of imperial examination.In the Tang Dynasty,disciplined fu experienced three periods of full development:forming,prosperity and new changes.By the Song Dynasty,the style of disciplined fu was quite mature and stable.From the current research situation,the research field of Tang Dynasty's disciplined fu has produced a lot of achievements,but the research field of Song Dynasty's disciplined fu is scattered and unsystematic,so it is necessary and meaningful to conduct a comprehensive study of Song Dynasty's disciplined fu.The imperial examination in the Song Dynasty provided the system guarantee for the creation of Song Dynasty's disciplined fu.Among the subjects of imperial examinations in Song Dynasty,Jinshike had the greatest influence and was also the main position of testing fu.Zhuke,Zhike,Wuke and other subjects did not test fu.There were three levels of testing fu in Jinshike examination:Palace test,province test and county test.The testing fu activities of these three levels were not synchronized.Among them,the testing fu activities of province test and county test had an inestimable significance for the long-term existence and prosperity of Song Dynasty's disciplined fu.In the imperial examination of Song Dynasty,there was a phenomenon of "selecting people by fu"."selecting people by fu" meant not only that the imperial examinations used the literary style of disciplined fu,but also that the imperial examinations tended to use disciplined fu to determine the position of the candidates.The phenomenon of the imperial examination had a great social impact.The majority of the candidates attached great importance to the writing training of disciplined fu,and the guidance books of disciplined fu were prevalent in the world.Besides,the fashion of emphasizing fu in the imperial examination played a great role in the overall development of the Song Dynasty's disciplined fu.The concept of disciplined fu refers to people's understanding and views on disciplined fu.It mainly answers the question of what disciplined fu is and involves the value judgment of the subject.The study of Song people's concept of disciplined fu should start from two angles.In Song Dynasty,people had two standpoints to treat and discuss disciplined fu.One belonged to the writers of disciplined fu,who mostly took part in the imperial examination;the other belonged to the commentators on the imperial examination policy,who were basically officials.Because of their different identities,these two kinds of people had different perspectives on disciplined fu.Those writers of disciplined fu,or to say it in another way,those candidates who wrote disciplined for examinations,generally regarded it as a "tool for official career".Those who discussed the imperial examination policy were already in their official career,and they often regarded disciplined fu as a tool for selecting talents,namely the "tool of selecting scholars".When people regarded disciplined fu as a"tool for official career",they generally did not recognize how noble the value of disciplined fu was,and showed a "have to" attitude of writing disciplined fu.When they regarded disciplined fu as the "tool of selecting scholars",they divided into two camps.One was the supporters of the poetry and fu,and the other was the opponents.There was a long-standing debate between the two camps.The early Song Dynasty's disciplined fu still stayed in the shroud of the fashion of Tang Dynasty's disciplined fu.The disciplined fu of the Tai-zu and Tai-zong period was clear and beautiful.Its composition strategy was called "writing disciplined fu by imitating ancient fu" because many dialogues existed in the works.Furthermore,the disciplined fu of the early Song Dynasty tended to sing praises for the emperor's achievements.All these characteristics showed that early Song Dynasty's disciplined fu was influenced by Tang Dynasty's disciplined fu.In the period of Chun-hua,Song Tai-zong tried to reform the fashion of the imperial examination and the style of disciplined fu.However,there were some problems in the specific strategies,which led to the failure of the reform efforts.Zhen-zong Dynasty's disciplined fu was deeply influenced by Xikun style.While it inherited the style of Tang Dynasty's disciplined fu,some new changes emerged.Xia Song was a representative writer of disciplined fu in this period.His disciplined fu's style came into rich and colorful from fresh and beautiful,and there was much flavor of romantic love in his works.Xia Song's disciplined fu of mountain and forest themes had been greatly diminished,and the works of historical themes had increased significantly.Of course,there was still a tendency to eulogize merits and virtues in Xia Song's disciplined fu,but the way of eulogizing had changed from straightforward to profound.In the development course of the Song Dynasty's disciplined fu,the Ren and Ying Dynasties were an important period.During this period,the features of disciplined fu changed from Tang Dynasty style to a new way,and an amazing prosperous condition emerged.During the period of Tian-sheng and Ming-dao,the court regulated the proposition of disciplined fu,which made the subject matter of disciplined fu related to the political life of the country,and presented the "imperial climate" which Song people prided themselves on.Song Xiang and Song Qi were important writers of disciplined fu in the period of Tian-sheng and Ming-dao.Their works were full of "imperial climate" and the style was rather elegant.During the period of Qing-li reform,the new policy of imperial examination tried to simplify the writing procedure of disciplined fu.As early as the second year of Qing-li,Ouyang Xiu tried to change the disciplined fu,which became the early preparation and theoretical source of the idea of simplifying the disciplined fu's writing procedure of the new imperial examination policy of Qing-li reform.The new imperial examination policy of Qing-li reform soon went bankrupt,but it was implemented once in the sixth year of Qing-li and had some adverse effects.During the period of Huang-you and Zhi-ping,the development of disciplined fu ushered in its golden age.Famous scholars emerged in succession and famous works were created in a large number.At that time,the grand occasion was unprecedented.In addition,after the baptism of the ancient prose movement,the language style of disciplined fu also tended to be plain and smooth.The first fault of the development of Song Dynasty's disciplined fu appeared in the Shen-zong Dynasty.On the eve of Xi-ning reform,the court held extensive discussions on whether to abolish the poetry and fu test.In the end,the supporters of the confucian classics test gained the upper hand,and in the fourth year of Xi-ning,the poetry and fu test was completely deposed.After the death of Shen-zong,Zhe-zong assumed the throne at a very young age,and the government of the dynasty was dominated by Empress Dowager Gao.Restoring the old ancestral system became the main theme of the Yuan-you period.After more than ten years of abolishment,disciplined fu returned to the imperial examination.Generally speaking,the creation of disciplined fu in Yuan-you period was quite good.Li zhi and Su Shi were the representative writers in this period.Before the Xi-ning reform,Su Shi had already succeeded in the imperial examination.His creation of disciplined fu during Yuan-you period had not so strong utilitarian purpose,so he could take everyday things as the theme of expression and make disciplined fu show a certain tendency of daily life.The works of Southern Song Dynasty's disciplined fu handed down to this day is not very rich,so we can only have a limited peek at the development of the Southern Song Dynasty's disciplined fu.Disciplined fu in the early Southern Song Dynasty had a distinct flavor of the times,while disciplined fu in the middle and late Southern Song Dynasty was deeply influenced by Neo-Confucianism.From the perspective of the content and subject,the Song Dynasty's disciplined fu can be divided into two categories,one is "politics" disciplined fu and the other is"ceremony" disciplined fu.The "politics" disciplined fu mainly focuses on discussion,which can best embody the ideological nature of Song Dynasty's disciplined fu.Moreover,the "politics" disciplined fu mostly focuses on the emperor,and regulates the emperor's behavior and moral character in many ways,such as advocating that the emperor should love the people such as the son,courtesy officers,fear the destiny of heaven,and act on the officers' advice,etc.This phenomenon can be explained that the literati and scholars in the Song Dynasty consciously restricted and restrained the unlimited expansion of imperial power.The "ceremony"disciplined fu mainly describes various ritual ceremonies.These ritual ceremonies are not real things in real life,but written records in Confucian classics.Therefore,these "ceremony" disciplined fu have obvious tendency of knowledge.Among these"ceremony" disciplined fu,the social function of rites and music has been paid full attention.Among the descriptions of various ritual ceremonies,the description of auspicious rites is the most abundant.In addition,there is a lot of knowledge about ancient music in the "ceremony" disciplined fu.In the actual writing process,the Song Dynasty's disciplined fu will be regulated and restricted by the imperial examination procedures,habits and techniques.Procedure refers to the format of answer sheet in the imperial examination,and it is the test criterion that the candidates must abide by.The imperial examination procedure of the Song Dynasty makes detailed regulations on the arrangement of the answer sheet of the poetry and fu test.The imperial examination procedure also requires disciplined fu must be written in official rhyme,not in falling rhyme,not in overlapping rhyme,not to be taboo,and so on.A little carelessness will lead to the dismissal of the imperial examination.The writing habits of disciplined fu are mainly embodied in its structure.The structure of Song Dynasty's disciplined fu can be divided into four parts:head,item,abdomen and tail.Abdomen can also be divided into five parts:chest,upper abdomen,middle abdomen,lower abdomen and waist.In total,it is eight paragraphs,and it is composed of "one rhyme controls one paragraph".In the specific writing,it is very important to explain the title,which can be said to be the most important part of disciplined fu works.When people in Song Dynasty talked about the writing of disciplined fu,they often mentioned "competing in difficulty,dexterity and novelty" in order to "be superior to others".Only by being superior to others,the candidates can be invincible in the fierce competition of imperial examinations.Scholars in Song Dynasty attached great importance to the various techniques of disciplined fu writing and regarded it as a magic weapon to win in the imperial examination.Therefore,they discussed the skills of disciplined fu writing such as topic recognition,proposition,choice of events,word use,rhyme and so on very subtly.Wang Yu-cheng,Fan Zhong-yan and Lou Yue are the writers of disciplined fu who are worthy of case study.There exists a phenomenon of "insincerity" in Wang Yu-cheng's disciplined fu creation.Wang Yu-cheng was a scholar with strong Confucianism,but in the period of banishing to Shang Zhou,he mainly expounded the thought of Huang and Lao.This part of Wang Yucheng's disciplined fu did not represent his real thought,but catered to the rule of Huang and Lao advocated by Emperor Song Tai-zong.The reason why Wang Yu-cheng actively catered to Song Tai-zong's political ideas was to seek internal migration,which had a strong utilitarian purpose.Fan Zhong-yan is the writer of Song Dynasty,whose disciplined fu speads to this day at most.He also compiled the Blance and Mirror of Disciplined Fu.However,many people have a wrong understanding of Fan Zhong-yan's disciplined fu and the Blance and Mirror of Disciplined Fu.In the Song Dynasty,Fan Zhong-yan was not a famous master of disciplined fu in people's minds,nor did he value it so much.Fan Zhong-yan's disciplined fu creation mainly has two periods:one is about eightth year of Da-zhong-xiang-fu,the other is about fifth year of Tian-sheng.Since these two periods are all before the Qing-li reform,the view that Fan Zhong-yan's disciplined fu is closely related to the Qing-li reform is not accurate.Because the Blance and Mirror of Disciplined Fu mainly compiled the Tang Dynasty's disciplined fu,its influence in the Song Dynasty was limited.Lou Yue's disciplined fu was mainly written at the beginning of Song Xiao-zong's ascension to the throne.It mostly focused on the war,and made a comprehensive analysis of the conditions and strategies of the war.These disciplined fu works with the war theme vividly show Lou Yue's patriotic enthusiasm.After a systematic study of the Song Dynasty's disciplined fu,it is found that the creation of the Song Dynasty's disciplined fu has a profound realistic basis.It is not only less declining than people imagine,but also very prosperous.The Song Dynasty's disciplined fu has formed a unique style different from the Tang Dynasty's disciplined fu,which has considerable academic research value.