Study On The Theme Of Southern Tang Dynasty Notebook Novels And Political Reflection

The Southern Tang Dynasty survived the chaos of the Five Dynasties for thirty-eight years,during which time a large number of literary scholars were cultivated,and these scholars influenced the development of literature at the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty after entering the Song Dynasty.In addition to the most obvious lyrical world,these literati also showed a different face in the creation of notebooks and novels.Having experienced the destruction of their homeland and reaccepted the new dynastic regime,these scholars transformed their torn emotions into nostalgia for their homeland and the past,and recorded them in the form of notebooks.As a result,the early Song dynasty’s notebooks contained a very special type of content,namely,political reflections,and they were active reflections on whether the behavior of rulers and ministers met their respective standards,whether political strategies were appropriate,and whether the literary style was decent,all of which were important factors affecting politics.While recording political events,the notebook writers consciously assumed the responsibility of historians and wanted to repair history in order to leave a legacy of wisdom,so the notebooks of the early Song Dynasty showed the obvious characteristics of sub-historical novels.This paper is divided into four introductory chapters,which explain the reasons for the selection of the topic and the value of the study,the current status of the study,and the research ideas and methods.The main reason for the selection of the topic is that in the process of reading the literature,we found that the content of the early Song dynasty’s notebooks written by the survivors of the Southern Tang dynasty was very rich in political content,which was closely related to their own experiences.This paper attempts to analyze the political reflections in the notebooks of the survivors of the Southern Tang dynasty,to understand the real emotions of the survivors behind the notebooks,and to explore the real value of the early Song dynasty’s notebooks.The first chapter examines the political and cultural background of the Southern Tang Dynasty and the early Song Dynasty,observing the living environment of the literati at that time and exploring their political thoughts based on the governing strategies and rituals of one emperor and two lords of the Southern Tang Dynasty as recorded in historical books.After entering the Song Dynasty,the survivors were confronted with different political environments and political treatment,which gave rise to the idea of reflecting on politics,thus devoting themselves to the creation of notebook novels.The second chapter collates the works on the political reflections of the survivors of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the All-Song Notebooks,six of which are Zheng Wenbao’s Recent Events of the Southern Tang Dynasty and Jiangbiao Zhi,Long Gun’s Wild History of Jiangnan,Shi Xu Bai’s Fishing Islet Lidao,Chen Pengnian’s Jiangnan Beilu,and the unnamed Jiangnan Yuzai,to sort out the contents of their political reflections,namely,the wisdom and faintness of the ruler,the loyalty and treachery of the officials,the elegance and corruption of the scholarly style,and the policies of the and corruption,and the appropriateness and lack of policies.The content is extremely rich.The third chapter explores the ways in which the literati presented their prosperity and decline.In creating their notebook novels,the Southern Tang legatees employed a variety of techniques to connote their emotions and convey subtext.They have the spirit of the historian’s "factual record" in history,adopting the style of the historian while ensuring the authenticity of the material;they also have the poetic character of literary creation,focusing on character descriptions,scene descriptions,and the expression of characters through poetic records.The author’s intentions can be explored by interpreting the way the author of the notes uses his pen.The fourth chapter explores the value of political reflective notebook novels in literary history.The political reflection-themed notebooks of the early Song inherited a tradition of notebook novels that perpetuated the tradition of Chinese notebook novels focusing on politics.At the same time,analyzing the relationship between private notebooks and privately revised history,and comparing the differences between sub-historical novels and real history,can reveal more accurately the intentions and nature of notebooks in the early Song,as well as the genre and attributes of notebook novels.