Study On The Jingkang Calamity And The Change Of Lv Ben-zhong’s Poems

In1127AD, Jin occupied the city of Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song, and captured the Emperors Hui Zong and Qin Zong. The Northern Song Dynasty perished, and this is known as "the Jingkang Calamity", which can be described as the most significant historical event in the Song dynasty.Lv Ben-zhong, a poet from a famous family, had gained his prestige in poetic circles in the Northern Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, he experienced "the Jingkang Calamity". He was in the city twice the time when Jin besieged the city of Bianjing, and witnessed all aspects of "the Jingkang Calamity". He fleed to the south when Bianjing sieged and never went back to the north."The Jingkang Calamity" had a significant impact on Lv Ben-zhong’s life. First of all, his living space changed from the north to the south; secondly, the quality of his life declined; the last but not the least, his mood also changed from relaxed to sad.Twice experienced the war between Song and Jin in the city of Bianjing, Lv Ben-zhong had directly described all aspects of "The Jingkang Calamity" in his poems when he was hemed in the city. After he ferried southward, he still wrote in his poems from time to time about the memories of "The Jingkang Calamity".The experience of "The Jingkang Calamity" affected the subject, content, images, and style of Lv Ben-zhong’s poems. Before "The Jingkang Calamity", the subject and content of his poems mainly concluded the following three categories:leisure song for fun, the sadness of his low official position, and his view of current events; while after "The Jingkang Calamity", the subject and content of his poems changed to the following four categories:the plight of refugees, homesick, view of current events, and longing for hermitage."The Jingkang Calamity" changed the images in his poems as well. The image of moon appeared frequently in his poems before "The Jingkang Calamity", but after that the image of the Central Plains appeared more. He liked to use the image of wild goose in his poems both before and after "The Jingkang Calamity", but the connotations were quite different. The style of Lv Ben-zhong’ poems also changed a lot. Before "The Jingkang Calamity", it was fresh like Xie Tiao’s poems; but after that, it was sad like Du Fu’s poems.There were many poets in the Song Dynasty who had the same experience like Lv Ben-zhong. From poems of the15famous poets lived between the two Song Dynastys in the book of Chinese Literary History compiled by Yuan Xing-pei and another famous poets in The Complete Poems of the Song Dynasty it can be easily found that "The Jingkang Calamity" had a tremendous impact to the change of the poetries in the Song Dynasty. Firstly, the realism was strengthened, Du Fu’s "Epic" spirit was preservated and the current affairs were put into the poetries; secondly, the spirit of patriotisms was high in the poetries."The Jingkang Calamity" injected new vitality to the poetries in the Song Dynasty, it advanced the poetries in the Song Dynasty to a new position. Thus, the important political and historical events, especially the mutational events, tend to change the face of literature and even the development path.