Study Of Su Guo And His Poetry

Su Guo (1072-1123), who styled himself Shu Dang, alias Xia Chuan Jushi, was the third son of Su Shi, the leading figure of the literary world of the Song Dynasty. Su Guo was then praised as "Po the Junior" for a similar style as his father's found in his poetry. Su guo's life was closely tied to that of his father, Su Shi. In Su Guo's early childhood, his father was demoted to be a local official in Mizhou, Xuzhou, and Huzhou. He was with his father during the whole process and was unfavorably impressed by the frequent transference and a career in officialdom. The seven years in exile in Lingnan was especially hard for him and his father. The abominable living environment shaped Su Guo and he developed a tenacity and persistence in his character, made a great success in literature and a fame of "perfect filial piety". His father's constant demotions and lasting life in exile gave him too much knowledge of the snobbishness of the world, which originated his weariness of a career in government system. He worked as an official only three times in his lifetime, all of which were for low ranks of trivial power and lasted for short periods of time. The most important underlying reason is that such a profession was against the will of the poet.Su Guo's lifetime is divided into two parts by his father's passing away. In the former, he and his father depended on each other for a living while in the latter, he and his family had a hard living, meanwhile, hedidn't stop writing and became extraordinarily fruitful----he left theCollection of Xia Chuan behind him for us. The complications and intricacies of the poet's life experience which consisted of more hardships than comforts left him with various feeling in abundance. Therefore, the poetry of Su Guo is a miniature of his life story. The Su poems not only embody the deep emotions like brotherhood, friendship, and homeisickness, which are the subjects that are repeatedly mentioned, but a deep philosophical thinking is also found his poems, like relativism and absoluteness, finity and infinity, act and omission, etc. All these emotions and thoughts find their definitions in guises of natural and plain depictions. The Su poems are all-inclusive in their contents while rich and colorful in their forms, shining with a typical style of the culture of the Su family and leaving capacious room for the later generations to research and comment.A filial son who had accompanied his father who was demoted to be in the south and a poet who was devoted to seeking the eternal values with persistence, Su Guo showed his outstanding literary talent and grace in his Collection of Xia Chuan, which boasts the best of his poetry. In hopes of providing the readers with a complete figure depiction and a sound evaluation of his poetry, the author of this thesis attempts to observe and interpret Su Guo and his works from the following five perspectives: the life story, philosophical embodiment in his works, classification and analysis of his poems, appreciation in terms of art, and status and influence.