The World In The Dust

It is a noteworthy literary phenomenon that the poetry containing the image of "dust" in the Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties has increased significantly compared with the previous dynasties."Dust" has the characteristics of tininess,transience,filthiness and so on.In the Wei,Jin,Northern and Southern Dynasties,a tumultuous time that saw constant wars,frequent changes of dynasties,darkness of officialdom and frequent natural disasters,poets often express their melancholy and depression about life and compare themselves to the "dust",for they all are coerced by the wind of the times,insignificant,fragile and transitory."Dust" aroused the resonance of many poets at that time.They often use the transience of the dust to describe life’s brevity and the sense of drifting alone,the filthiness to vent grievances about the the darkness of officialdom and the misery of officials,and tininess to lament the disregard for life;In their poem,a thick layer of dust and its erratic flight respectively symbolize poets’ deep love for relatives,friends and lovers and mixed feeling in life.Deeply affected by the prevailing metaphysics,Taoism,Buddhism and other trends of thought at that time,the image of the "dust" contains more profound religious and philosophical meaning in addition to its own features.This paper presents an in-depth analysis and interpretation of the thoughts and emotions that the image of "dust" conveys in the poetry of the Wei,Jin,Southern and Northern Dynasties,explores the relationship between the "dust" image and metaphysics,Taoism and Buddhism,and comprehensively combs the connotation of the "dust" image.