A Study On Mei Yaochen’s Self-written Paratexts

The titles,prefaces and self-authored notes of ancient Chinese poetry are often regarded as by-products of the text,this dissertation identifies them as the concept of "Self-written Paratexts".Traditionally,the paratexts offer the readers practical assistance with comprehending the meaning of the poem,but actually the paratexts are more meaningful because they were written by the poet himself,and they play an important role in recording the poet’s life experience and social conditions of the time.Mei Yaochen was one of the most famous poet in the Song Dynasty,and he is known as "Founder of Poetry in the Song",whose poetry had a positive effect on the development of the Song Poetry.Accordingly,the "self-written paratexts" in his poetry also had a profound impact on the development of the Song Poetry‘s titles,prefaces and selfauthored notes.This dissertation takes Mei’s self-written paratexts as the research object.To analyze the intertextuality between the self-written paratexts and the texts,firstly,this dissertation investigates the specific contents of Mei’s self-written paratexts.Then combines the position of the self-written paratexts in the poem,to summarize the value and limitations of Mei’s self-written paratexts.The dissertation is mainly divided into four parts: introduction,text,conclusion and appendix.The first part is an introduction,which introduces the origin of the research,and also summarizes the research status of poets’ self-written paratexts.At present,the research on self-written paratexts of ancient Chinese poetry mostly focuses on the poets in Tang and Song Dynasty.The main body of the second part consists of four chapters.The first chapter introduces the development processes of the poetry’s titles,prefaces and self-authored notes.The second chapter mainly discussed the contents of Mei’s self-written paratexts.both the quantity and proportion of Mei’s self-written paratexts are in the forefront of the contemporary poets’.And the contents of Mei’ self-written paratexts are pretty profuse,the titles,prefaces and self-authored notes involve a wide range of contents.The third chapter cites the concept of "intertextuality" to describe the complex relationship between Mei’s self-written paratexts and the text from the degree of interpretation and style.In terms of interpretation,Mei’s self-written paratexts provide the readers with the background,origin and purpose of the text,which are authoritative interpretations from the poet himself.In terms of style,the difference in style between the paratexts and the texts makes the poems are full of stylistic tension.Although self-written paratexts are attached to the poem’s text,they still have their own relative independence.The value of Mei’s self-written paratexts lies in recording Mei Yaochen’s life experience and Contrasting with historical records or make up the omissions of historical records.However,there are some limitations in Mei’s self-written paratexts,such as Mei just only pays attention to practicality but neglects the literary polish,and the self-written paratexts’ contents may repeat with the texts’ sometimes,that may weaken the expression of emotion of the text.The third part is the conclusion,which mainly summarizes the characteristics and influence of Mei’s self-written paratexts.Mei’s self-written paratexts impart the "intellectual" quality to his poetry,later poets in the Song Dynasty often added selfwritten paratexts in their poems,which became one of the practices of "breaking style" in Song poetry.The fourth part is the appendix,classified Mei’s self-authored notes in a tabular form.