The Research On The Leisure Entetrainment Activities Of The Northern Song Dongjing

The Chinese feudalism has made tremendous developments in politics, economy and culture duringthe Northern Song dynasty. Dongjing, as the capital city of the Northern Song dynasty, accomodated thepopulation of about one million five hundred thousands.There are from all stratums, upper nobles,bureaucratic scholars,especially,citizens as a class have landed on the stage of history.Because of thedevelopment of economy and the progress of the society, people have more spare time after working.Having a better spiritual life is in large demands. So leisure entertainment have developed dramatically andhave already reached a new level not only in scale but in in’s contents.Centered on the great novel 《Reminiscences of the prosperous DongJing》by Yuanlao Meng, anovelist who lived during the Northern and Southern Song dynasty,this thesis intends to give you a clearpicture of the leisure entertainment development of the Northern Song dynasty in the point of view ofhistory. Acording to the novel 《Reminiscences of the prosperous DongJing》:The capital city not onlyriched in leisure entertainment resources but also had many locations for entertaining. Leisureentertainment mainly centered on professional entertainment places like GouLanWaZi, garden ornon-professional places such as tea lane, drinking bar, food store, temples, up and down the Bian river, etc.Entertainment places spread around the city, however, it mainly centralized on places overcrowded withpeople such as PanLou street, MaXing street, some city gates and nearby crossroads.Leisure entertainment activities include: music, dance, rap art,drama,magic,games,sports, flowerappreciation, fishing, and so on.There are famous artists in almost every fields.Grand entertainmentactivities mainly focus on traditional festivals.Catering is the most developed industry of the capital cityand having a taste of the table delicacies has become an important part of leisure entertainmentactivities.Each class have already actively participated in leisure entertainment, whether it is the emperor,nobles, bureaucratic, literary intelligentsia, or ordinary citizens.Each class has its own way to enjoythemselves by partcipating in activities that are appropriate to their social status.Leisure entertainmentactivities have perfectly adjusted the social lives of the capital city.Common citizens are the mainparticipants of leisure entertainment activities.Leisure entertainment activities during the Northern Song dynasty has a strong local town customs which form a unique landscape of the city.Large numbers oflocations,rich in contents,long lasting of time,wide participants have become the characteristic of theleisure entertainment activities of the capital city.The prosperity of the leisure entertainment activities in the capital city largely relied on stability inpolitics,development of economy,tolerance of culture policy and the formation of market system and viceversa, these elements also have a great impact on politics,economy,culture,and social customs. AfterDongJing was occupied in1127, leisure entertainment activities still continued its development andfunction by the new regime relocated in LinAn, southern of China. Through cultural cummunication,leisureentertainment activities were introduced overseas. However,these customs did have a great impact on theroad of history.