Research On Wei Xiang And His Poems

Wei Xiang (1033-1105) who styled himself Zijun was born in Qiantang (nowHangzhou). He enjoyed a certain fame in politics and literature in the mid-late EarlierSong Dynasty. There are16volumes of his works left now, including7volumes ofpoetry with a total of1165poems, but these works did not arouse enough attention inthe literary world. This thesis tries to do comprehensive research on his poetry.Together with the study of socio-cultural and political background of his time, thethesis starts with the basic work of chronicling his life and poems and focuses on hismentality of poetic creation, style and literary achievement so as to attain a relativelycomprehensive description of his poems and locate him properly and objectively inthe poetic circle of his time.Wei Xiang was heavily influenced by the positive thoughts of the ConfucianSchool as he grew up in the age of its full revival. However, failure from the twopolitical reforms and subsequent fiece party struggles discouraged him. Theultramundane mentality resulted from the cruel reality and unsuccessful career madehim care more about inner heart and persue detachedness, which are fully reflected inhis poetic creation.Being officers for some romote areas most of his time, Wei Xiang’s politicalcareer was not smooth. As a result, he had lots of chances to see beautiful naturalsceneries and historic spots, meanwhile, he also had plenty of time and energy tocultivate himself with fine “Ya”. His poems created a group of images centeringaround “Ya”, jade, cloud,bamboo and wine, to name just a few, which made hispoems have a touch of “Ya”. This element is closely related to his view of life,political career and the fashion of the time.Wei Xiang pursues naturalness. He infuses it throughout his poetic creationprocess, from creation motive to choosing topics, from poetic structure to diction ashe regards it as the basic principle and best choice.Wei Xiang attached greatimportance to study and reference previous poets and poems. His poems, distinctively his style, also had some features of poetic styles of his time. His poems also reflectedthe mentality of many unknown poets who shared similar life experiences and werenot in the cultural mainstream. Therefore, his poems, through its quantitity and value,can contribute to the full display of poetic styles of Song Dynasty in a certain degree.