Ideal Against Reality Illustrated By The Poetry Of The Number One Scholar Huang Gongdu

Huang Gongdu achieves the Number One Scholar in the Imperial Examination at the eighth year of Shaoxing eras in the Southern Song Dynasty of Emperor Gaozhong’s tenure. He is full of talent and prestigious among the masses. People at that time always say that he would easily skyrocket in his official career. However, being the very best among the elites of his generation, Huang always grumbles and grieves in his poems. This thesis analyzes the content of his poems from two aspects Ideal and Reality to reveal his ambivalence between his aspiration and disposition, and to discuss its connection with his poetry creating.In addition to the introduction and the conclusion, this thesis can be divided into three chapters. Starting from the special status of the Number One Scholar in Song Dynasty, the introduction presents the basis of this thesis, including object, significance and status of the research. Chapter One is a brief introduction of Huang Gongdu and his works Zhi JiaWeng Edition, mainly about his family of the Imperial Examination, his career resume, descending of his edition and the evaluation on it. Chapter Two is divided into three parts to detail Huang’s contradiction. Part One is named For His People and for His Own. It expounds that concern about their nation and their people is a good traditon of scholars in the history and is also a moral prevailing custom of Huang’s time. Then, from Huang’s poems, it sets out the typical image of the scholars, who is the very Huang Gongdu. Meanwhile, this part illustrates that Huang also encounters a great misfortune in his career, from then on, he struggles with his humble positions. It also indicates the reasons why he can’t give up his post and retire into himself. Part Two is centered on Huang’s insistence on resistance to Jin and his lamentation over incapability of serving his country. Part Three is also expanded into two respects. One is his keen consciousness of feat and fame, which drives him keep forging ahead when in deep distress. The other is his mental process of thinking about retreat and the reason why he finally can’t achieve that. Chapter Three is for the effects on his poetry caused by his ambivalence. It discusses that his poetry has two different styles imitating both Jiangxi Poetic School and Tao Yuanming. The conclusion is to state the symbolic meaning of his tangled life journey and to summarize its effects on his poetry.