| From the internal view of Chinese culture, the secularization of Liu Yong's poems means that the mental outlook and esthetic connotation of the poems have degraded from the elegance represented by Confucianism to the secularity represented by life and storytelling of worldly people. Liu Yong has improved the tune-patterns of poems and changed the aesthetic connotations and tastes in the respective of literary writing.Secularity depicted by Liu Yong includes a wide range of phenomena happening in the worldly life of ordinary people, such as affluence of cities, boisterous carnivals, inner feelings of ordinary women, enjoyments of worldly life, and etc. Nearly every aspect of economic prosperity and physical enjoyments in North Song dynasty has been absorbed into Liu Yong's poems. Liu Yong was insightful in describing secularity, exposing emotions and passions of secular people in various ways. Especially, he described prostitutes through a careful description of subtle expressions in their eyes, special textures of their skin, their smiling faces and their slender waists.At the same time, Liu Yong was quickly accepted by singers, and his poems were widely spread. By using popular language, He added allusions to his poems, making them less abstruse for ordinary people. He imitated voices and tunes of singers to make popular languages sound more vivid and touching.From the viewpoint of cultural sociology, the secularization of Liu Yong's poems was grounded on economic prosperity in cities of Song dynasty which was demonstrated in cities'affluence and luxuries, the prospering of dinning halls, brothels, tea houses and famous parks, the popularity of jubilations, picnics, night club and storytelling among ordinary people. All these provide plentiful cruel materials for Liu Yong's literary creativity.From the viewpoint of genetic study of poems, the secularization of Liu Yong's poems occurred under combined influences of three factors:Liu Yong-Singers-Listeners. Demand and request of singers for new poems became the original and direct motivation of his writing, so the secularization of his poems was intended to satisfy needs of ordinary people.From viewpoint of cultural psychic structure, Liu Yong was self-contradictory. On one hand, he failed in imperial examination system and escaped from culture of Confucianism to life of worldly people, and secularity provided him a sense of escapement and salvage. Therefore, the psychological reason for the secularization of Liu Yong's poems is his choice of being a libertine instead of a hermit. On the other hand, the influence of Confucianism was not eliminated from his inner world, so he still lingered on seeking success in imperial examination while he enjoyed secular happiness. His wavering between secularity and Confucianism and his self-contradictory physic formed the complicated background of the secularization of his poems.In spiritual level, Liu Yong was more libertine than most other poets in his same time, with an insightful, overall and bald spirit of rebel. His poems even showed an inclination to baldly chase physical enjoyments, which cannot be found in poems of other poets. The thoroughness of his libertine and grass-root spirit, adding to his deep attachment to prostitutes, has been the most special intrinsic origins of the secularization of Liu Yong's poems. |
