The Literary Writing Of The Yan Ziling Fishing Platform Before The Yuan Dynasty

Yan Ziling,a hermit at the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty,was a classmate of the Emperor Guangwu when he was young.After Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty,he tried to hire Ziling as an official for many times.Ziling refused and returned to the Fuchun River in Tonglu as a hermit,fishing all day.Later generations named the place where Ziling had fished the Stream Yanling and the Fishing Platform.Later generations wrote a considerable number of works relevant to Yan Ziling,whose legendary experiences and high characters were admired by later literati.At present,some scholars have noticed and have done research about the works of the Fishing Platform.However,there are some deficiencies in the aspects of literature collection,works interpretation,background analysis and research angles,which are necessary and valuable for further exploration.In view of the large stock of works in the Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties,we take the works of the Fishing Platform before the Yuan Dynasty as the research object,hoping to understand more about Yan Ziling and the seclusion culture,as well as to explore the changes of culture and literature in different dynasties.The Introduction is the preparation work before the research.The first step is to do the literature review in order to discover existing problems which will be tried to avoid and improve in this thesis.Then clarify the concept of the research object and the significance of the research results.The Fishing Platform works to be studied in this thesis include not only the works specializing in Yan Ziling and the Fishing Platform,but also the works where they are just mentioned.In the Chapter One,we introduce the general condition of existing Fishing Platform works in the pre-Yuan Dynasties.Comb basic documents to have an overall grasp of works to research.According to incomplete statistics,there are 779 pieces of works.First of all,list titles of these works in the form of tables,dividing into eight parts:historical biographies in the Han and Jin Dynasties,poems in the Southern Dynasties,Tang poems,Tang articles,Song poems,Song articles(excluding Fus),Song lyrics,and Song Fus.Next,make a brief introduction of basic features of works in each dynasty and their causes.The part from Chapter Two to Chapter Five is the main body of this thesis,doing diachronic research about the Fishing Platform literature by dividing it into dynasties.At each stage,we firstly introduce the main ideological tendency of the Fishing Platform works at this time,then analyze the works by combining social backgrounds,cultural trends and authors'experiences,finally interpret important works as cases.The experience of Yan Ziling determines its huge space for interpretation.The colorful images of Yan Ziling created in different dynasties are like a mirror,reflecting distinctive social cultures and author mentalities in each dynasty.The Chapter Two is based on 5 historical biographies:Liu Zhen's DONGGUANHANJI,Anonym's HOUHANSHU,Huangfu Mi's GAOSHIZHUAN,Yuan Hong's HOUHANJI,and Fan Ye's HOUHANSHU.Try to outline the process of the development of Yan Ziling's images and his stories.The sentence told Hou Ba by Yan Ziling "The benevolence makes all happy and the flattery leads to death" and the story where Ziling put his foot on Liu Xiu's belly causing a comet are unique in Fan Ye's HOUHANSHU,which were mentioned for most times in later works relevant to the Fishing Platform.Therefore,it could be determined that later generations accepted Yan Ziling story mainly through Fan Ye's HOUHANSHU.In the Chapter Three,we analyze works in the Southern Dynasties.Among the five poems in the Southern Dynasties,the two poems written by Xie Lingyun are worth noting.The poet who turned to the nature after failing in official career expressed the desire to recluse,reflecting his loneliness.Wang Yun's P,resenting to Mr.Xiao in the Retu,rn from Do,ng Yang by the Stream Yanling is the first poem specializing in Yan Ziling.The Chapters Four and Five which focus on works in Tang and Song Dynasties are the top priority of this article.Works in the Tang Dynasty have distinct characteristics according to times,Among works in the early Tang Dynasty,only Hong Ziyu's The Temple of Yan Ling and Wang Ji's For Mr.Li's Birthday could be seen today.Works in the glorious age of Tang Dynasty,in the mid-Tang Dynasty and in the late Tang Dynasty,all reflected social backgrounds and mentalities at that period.In the glorious age of Tang Dynasty,confident people formed both the popularity of secluding aiming to be an official and the dream of retiring after succeeding,represented by Li Bai.In the mid-Tang Dynasty,due to the An-Shi Rebellion,the literati represented by Bai Juyi turned to the mid-seclusion combining seclusion and office,as well as fame and fortune.Moreover,works in the mid-Tang Dynasty opened the moral perspective in the Song Dynasty.In the late Tang Dynasty,the literati put Ziling's seclusion into practice and carried out rational thinking.Du Mu whose works reflected the mind of being an official and Fang Gan who was a real hermit are two cases worthy of discussing.During the Tang Dynasty,the focus of works changed with the rise and fall of the dynasty as well as the ups and downs of writers.Compared with works in the Tang Dynasty,the focus of works in the Song Dynasty is highly concentrated.People in the Song Dynasty found moral colors in Ziling's story.Fan Zhongyan's The article of Te,mple of Mr.Yan in Tonglu is the most far-reaching article among all works of the Fishing Platform.The excellent status of both Fan Zhongyan and his article brought the originally unnoticed Yan Ziling and Fishing Platform into the center of literati's vision.Fan's writing angle where Yan Ziling contributed greatly to the morality influenced profoundly later works of the Fishing Platform.The national policy of praising literati and inhibiting military commanders and the fashion of respecting literati helped literati to enjoy special treatments,leading to their sincere sense of identity and responsibility to the dynasty.The rise and diffuse of the neo-Confucianism decided that the literati regarded self-cultivation as an effective way to govern the country.The combination of the loyalty to the dynasty and the faith of neo-Confucianism led Ziling who played a key role in the process of rebuilding the morality to be interpreted as a moral benchmark of virtue to help the government in the Song Dynasty.The Song Dynasty was an era when Ziling was moralized and socialized.The process of upgrading Ziling was also the process of reshaping him.Yan Ziling who was interpreted to inspire the morality gained official recognition.Finally,the Chapter Six breaks limitations of the times,taking an overall observation of Yan Ziling written by people in the pre-Yuan Dynasties.In this chapter,two questions are focused on:controversial reasons for seclusion and the issue that Ziling secluded for fishing or for reputation.We try to generalize multidimensional images of Yan Ziling in the eyes of literati before the Yuan dynasty.