Song Dynasty Relationship Between The Official Appointment System Of The Imperial Clan And Its Literature

The development and mature of literature of Imperial Clan in Song Dynasty has reached its historical high point with brilliant achievement, which is far from the former administration can be compared and has surprised the world.An important reason to promote and prosper the literature of imperial clan of Song Dynasty is its system of Song imperial clan.And the lineage and reform of the system has created extremely favorable external conditions to the literary development and prosperity of imperial clan in the Song Dynasty.However, the academic world are likely to concentrate their attention in the areas of historians system rather than literature, and there is no comprehensive study on the link of imperial clan and its literature yet.Based on the results of previous studies,this paper attempts to explore the effects on the literature of imperial clan during the process of lineage and improvement on imperial clan system in the Song Dynasty.However, the study on Song imperial clan system and its literature is a huge complex issue, given that it is hard to control such a huge topic, so I select one part which is the relationship between the Official Appointment System of the imperial clan and its literature as my study. Hoping it can cause more follow-up studies on this topic.The dissertation consists of three parts:introduction, text and conclusion.The introduction is a brief description of the current situation and the significance of the topic of this thesis.The text is divided into three chapters.The first chapter focuses on the Official Appointment System in the early Northern Song imperial clan and effects on its literature.in the early Song Dynasty, in order to prevent the imperial clan for chaos, the court granted the members of the royal clan high position but without any real job to "captive "them. This policy, which has a profound impact on the lives,ways of thinking and psychological state of members of the royal clan, does not allow the imperial clan to participate in political activities, making those talented, idealistic youth of the royal clan repressed.The members of the royal clan of this period has a high social status from birth, enjoying substantial material benefits and all the privileges, which on the one hand causes their social status aristocratic, knowing little of social reality, and their works are mostly the praises the court.On the other hand, it also causes them marginalization, their decadent life is despised and ridiculed by literati, outside of the "elite cultural circles"and their literature creation can’t keep up with the pace of the development of the literature.The second chapter is mainly about the Official Appointment System in the late Northern Song imperial clan and effects on its literature.In1070, at the claims of Wang Anshi, Song Shenzong promulgated a series of regulations, and its core content is to allow the youth of the royal clan to attend imperial examinations to obtain official jobs. Since then, some members with the higher cultural quality won the recognition of the literati through their own efforts, and gradually integrated into them. Afterwords, the tendency that they became elites gradually emerged, till the Southern Song Dynasty, this tendency was increasingly obvious.On the other hand, after the reform, their privilege was gradually deprived, making them lose a reliable source of income.Especially in the early and late Southern Song Dynasty, when the country was in turmoil,the court suspended economic aid to them,which made them sink into poverty, and some members mixed with ordinary folks,associating with the merchants. Then the imperial clan as a member of the ordinary people became the trend.Accordingly, their literature creation possessed these two tendencies but with small quantities and low quality.The third chapter diseuses the Official Appointment System in the late Northern Song imperial clan and effects on its literature.In the Southern Song Dynasty, for the continuous development of the imperial clan and the occurrence of Jingkang Catastrophe, the Official Selection System of the imperial clan come to its perfection and maturity,prompting its literature develop and prosper to richer and more diverse styles. However,with the limits of the court and their own low spiritual realm,the value of their literature is not comparable with the mainstream.The conclusion part is summarizing the literature of imperial clan in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty,and also briefly discussing its influence.