The Material Culture And Poetry In Song Dynasty

The "material culture" in this thesis refers to the culture embodied by things and constructed by people.Therefore,"material" is limited to artifacts.The material culture of Song dynasty is unique.It is reflected in the unprecedented material prosperity,the awakening of material consciousness,and the scholar-bureaucrats’ dominance over the trend of material culture.Reviewing Song poetry from the perspective of material culture can not only provide new thread to the study of Song poetry by means of observing people from the perspective of things and getting the big picture from small details,but also endow material culture with richer connotation.There are four chapters in this thesis.The first chapter,"Imported Objects:Korean Pine Fans and the Antiphony of Northern Song Dynasty",combines the names and descriptions of things research with the special things research.Firstly,through the method of textual criticism,it ascertains that Korean pine fans are foldable circular patterned fans made up of pine or willow barks.Then,focusing on the poetry antiphony about Korean pine fans in the second year of Yuanyou,this thesis examines the dominance by scholar-bureaucrats in the cultural proliferation of Korean pine fans and the interaction between poetry and objects.Eventually,the Korean pine fan shaped by scholar-bureaucrats returned to Korea.Chinese literature finally had influence on the Sinosphere.The second chapter,"Gifts:Su Shi’s Poetry and Cultural Effectiveness",is carried out through the method of material system research.The number of gift poems in Song Dynasty surged.The artistic innovation of Su Shi’s gift poems had an important impact on literary writing and gift-giving activities.Gift poems exerted powerful cultural effects and gradually constructed a network of poetry and literati,thus promoted the development of literature.Gift poems were widely applied in the secular life in Song dynasty,resulting in the "materialization of poems",which was one of the reasons for the decline of Song poems.Song poems,changing vulgarity into elegance,leaded to the "poeticization of things",and opened up the poetic quality of gifts.The third chapter,"Antiquities:Poetry and Aesthetic Mentality in the Song Dynasty" is carried out through the method of material system research.Antiquities occupied an important position in the material system of the Song dynasty,which profoundly influenced the academic research,artistic appreciation and literary composition of that period.Scholar-bureaucrats led the ethos of the infatuation for antiquities in Song dynasty.The rich cultural connotations and aesthetic functions of antiquities were unfolded in their poetry.At the same time,antiquities also shaped the concepts and mentalities of scholar-bureaucrats.Antiquities carried historical memory and condensed into fixed aesthetic association of poetry.Using antiquities in the present showed the cultural spirits of Song people who enslaved things instead of enslaved by things.Writing antiquities into poetry formed a strategy of time.The culture,mystery,virtue and power contained in the antiquities were not only the qualities that attracted Song people,but also the ego that Song people viewed from antiquities.The strong concern about the details of antiquities in Song poetry was influenced by the scientific spirit of Song dynasty.The fourth chapter "Writing:The Characteristics,Causes and Influences of Material Writing in Song Poetry" belongs to intrinsic research on material literature.The characteristics of the material writing of Song poetry were embodied as "multiple","elegant","fine","ingenious" and "cultural"."Multiple" benefited from the material prosperity,convenient transportation and poets’ aesthetic normalization of Song dynasty,thus enriching the theme and function of poetry,and opening up the poetic quality of some secular things."Elegant" sublimating things from desire objects to aesthetic objects,was due to Song people’s introspective attitude which emphasized the spirit of material."Fine" was influenced by Neo-Confucianism and scientific spirit,which embodied the change of people’s way of observing things."Ingenious" was influenced by Zhuangzi,Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism.It enriched the expressive force of material from the spatial dimension,expanded the capacity of poetry,and also influenced the formation of garden art paradigm in Song dynasty."Cultural" was influenced by the cultural spirit in Song society and Song people’s understanding of the relationship between material and people.It freed poetry from the shackles of cliches and added the cultural temperament to material.