A Study In Shao Bao And His Literature

Shao Bao, a backbone of Cha Ling School in Mid-Ming Dynasty, together with Shi Bao, Luo Qi, Gu Qing, Lu Duo, He Mengchun is called "six learned and accomplished worthies" by Qian Qianyi. Shao Bao has large amounts of poems and prose. This thesis has studied some basic problems such as Shao Bao’s family history, his experience of life, his process of making friends and travelling, his writing and etc. Further more, the thesis has carded Shao Bao’s thoughts and literary concepts, and discussed the ideological content and arts features of his poem and prose, which seeks to restore the effects and status of Shao Bao in the literature field from Mid-Ming Dynasty to early Ming Dynasty.The preface simply introduces Shao Bao, elaborates the value and the investigative situation of these topics, and cards the ideas of writing about it.The first chapter attempts to card some basic facts such as Shao Bao’s family background, his personal experiences of life, his making friends and traveling activities, his writing and so on. Shao Bao was born in Wuxi. Edified by his clan, he reads widely about history and literature; he pursues Confucian’s classics. He is gentle, obedient to his parents and an honest and incorruptible official. He successively learnt from Yu Kai, Zhuang Chang, Li Dongyang and his poem and prose were mainly influenced by Li Dongyang. Shao Bao’s been governor in many places because of transference. In officialdom, he prefers to live in seclusion. When in Jiangxi, he was influenced by neo-confucianism, which shaped Shao Bao’s literature writing. Shao Bao’s fond of making friends and the relationship between Li Dongyang and him is very close. He also made friends with other members of Cha Ling School and bosom friends outside of Cha Ling School and monks. Shao Bao has written the A collection of Rong Chun Tang. In addition, three lost poems and a lost prose were rescued today. The second chapter discusses Shao Bao’s thoughts and literary concepts. The details of this chapter consisted of carding the origin of Shao Bao’s thoughts and literary concepts. This chapter analyzes his absorption of the thought governing by civilization and propagation of neo-confucianism. By analyzing his upholding of retro thoughts and imitating the ways in analyzing Han Yu, the studies of this chapter laid the foundation for the further discussion of the ideological content and the arts features of his works.The third chapter discusses the ideological content and the arts features of his poems and prose. The main contents of Shao Bao’s poem contained writing to others, yearning and grieve over others, expressing respects to and remembering the ancients, appreciating nature scene, describing and painting the beautiful sceneries, expressing his feelings and so on. Han Tang style remained, especially following Li Bai and Du Fu, elegant and plain language, moderate, non-fame and non-wealth related significant thesis are the main arts features of his poems. His works include prefaces, postscripts and biographies, etc. His prose mainly focuses on exposition and argumentation, regarded justifiable and elegant.The conclusion evaluates the status and influence of Shao Bao in the literature field in Mid-Ming Dynasty, and draws conclusions of this thesis. At the same time, proposed some problems about the further studies of Shao Bao and the some related questions.