A Study On Chen Mi’s Poetry And Prose In The Southern Song Dynasty

Chen Mi was known as a Neo-Confucian philosopher in the Southern Song Dynasty.There are a few papers on his Neo-Confucianism thoughts,but no special research papers on his achievements in poetry and prose.This thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter sorts out Chen Mi’s life and contacts.Chen Mi was the son of Chen Junqing,a famous minister in the Southern Song Dynasty.He was multi-talented and possessed the identities of philosopher,calligrapher and writer.This article examines Chen Mi’s birth and death years,systematically organizes his experience as an official,and makes supplementary examinations of his friends.The second chapter analyzes the themes of poems in Fuzhai Set and understands the emotions contained in various poems.Chen Mi had a wide range of friends,so the theme of socializing and rewarding singing is particularly obvious in the poems.He was good at writing object-chanting poetry,among which the three themes of chanting plum blossoms,lychee and the moon are the most prominent.In addition,Chen Mi had the ambition to make meritorious deeds,but his travels and the ups and downs of the eunuch often made him physically and mentally exhausted,longing to return to the mountains and forests,which is embodied in poems with ture feelings.Finally,he advocated benevolent governance in political measures,attached importance to agricultural development,criticized current affairs,which is expressed as a political poem with a sense of crisis.The third chapter focuses on the artistic characteristics and style of Chen Mi’s poems.First,as a Confucianist,he used moralistic languages into poems,thus his poem has Neo-Confucianism color.Secondly,Chen Mi had lived in Fujian for many years,and he often described the mountains and rivers of Fujian,thus his poems show a distinctive regional imprint.In addition,Chen Mi also thought highly of the artistry of his poems,thus he used rich rhetoric techniques.Finally,Chen Mi admired Tao Yuanming very much,and used Tao as a teacher in poem writing,showing a fresh,bright,plain and simple style of poetry.The fourth chapter classifies the prose in Fuzhai Set and summarizes its main content.From the perspective of genre,Chen Mi’s prose can be divided into several categories,including essays to the emperor,letters,miscellaneous essays,prefaces and postscripts,and inscriptions on tablets.Among them,the number of essays to the emperor is relatively small,and the main ones are admonitions to the emperor and exemption from official positions.The content of the letters is extensive,and the objects of writing or reply are mainly Neo-Confucian friends,colleagues in the officialdom and the elders.Miscellaneous essays are dominated by airy pavilions and pagodas and personnel miscellaneous,and the literary charm is quite high.The preface and postscript are short,flexible and free.The inscriptions on the steles are mainly epitaphs,and most of them are flat and straightforward,lacking new ideas.The fifth chapter explains the writing characteristics of Chen Mi’s prose.First of all,his prose pays attention to moral enlightenment in terms of ideological content,with strong Neo-Confucianism color.Secondly,He preferred discussion and used a variety of expressions in his prose.For instance,he paid attention to details in narrative,made thorough arguments and expressed strong feelings.In the end,his prose style is generally simple and plain,and also has multiple styles,for instance,its essays to the emperor are impassioned with incisive word,and the miscellaneous essays concerned with scenery are fresh and natural.