"Complete Poems of the Song Dynasty" contains about 200,000 poems by about 10,000 authors. Among these works, a distinctive feature is that the Song Dynasty poetry emphasizes reasoning and reasoning, which is different from the emphasis on exegesis of chapters and sentences in the Han and Tang Dynasties. The style of study is different. What's the reason?
The Zhao and Song Dynasties ended the Five Dynasties of Separatism and re-established a centralized state. In order to further consolidate its rule, it used the fact of separatist rule to deny Li Tang's idea of ??"paying equal attention to Confucianism and Taoism" and re-recognized the importance of "exclusively respecting Confucianism". It inherited and developed the "Confucian innovation" of the Tang Dynasty and formed a rigorous system of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. Known as "Daoxue" or "Neo-Confucianism", this new Confucian thought provided a powerful explanation for the rationality of the feudal system, encouraged scholars to take moral responsibility, and promoted rational thinking in natural science and academic research. It was in this situation that Song poetry grew up.
Confucianists and Taoists who became leaders in the ideological world strongly rejected literature and even preached that "composition harms Taoism". Radicals such as Shi Jie (1005-1045) even regarded literature as a threat to Confucianism. heresy. Literary scholars generally do not object to the stipulations that "Tao comes first and text comes first" and "Tao comes last." Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072) declared: "What I call literature must be consistent with Tao." The influential literary masters such as Ou Su accepted the idea that poetry should be political, moral, argumentative, and rational. The independence of literature was obliterated. Song poetry has gradually become a tool for "conveying the truth" and "rhyming the ear of quotations and lectures" (Liu Kezhuang (1187-1269) "Bushuzhai Poetry Preservation Manuscript").
From one perspective, the Song Dynasty had a long-term confrontation with the Liao, Xixia, Jin and other regimes. There were border crises externally, peasant uprisings and military riots broke out internally, the national finances were in danger, and local and periodic social and political problems Economic crises followed. The specific political and economic environment gave the landlord class intellectuals in the Song Dynasty a spirit of active use of the world. They generally no longer indulge in political fantasies, but regard "the world as their own responsibility" and "worry about the world's worries first, and rejoice after the world's happiness". Concern for politics also leads literature to care about politics, and there is a tendency of politicization of literature. Some people use poetry to promote political opinions and discuss current affairs. And once his career is frustrated, he will write his deep life experience in poetry.
In order to cope with serious internal and external troubles, the landlord class in the Song Dynasty engaged in several political reforms, but all attempts failed. The political struggles caused by different political opinions were very fierce. The Qingli New Deal (1043-1045) in the Northern Song Dynasty was only implemented for two years and failed due to the opposition of other political forces. The Xining New Deal triggered conflicts between the old and new parties within the bureaucratic group. After a long struggle, Wang Anshi was dismissed twice. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were wars between Qin Hui, Yue Fei and others. In political and party struggles, literature that cares about reality has also become a powerful tool of struggle. The practice of using poetry to intervene in politics was once popular. The famous "Wutai Poetry Case" (1079) was related to Su Shi (1037-1101) suspected of criticizing the new law.
In addition, the unprecedented prosperity of urban economic and commercial activities in the Song Dynasty, as well as the development of science and technology such as the Four Great Inventions, also made literati's thoughts increasingly commercial and practical, which to a certain extent weakened the artistic pursuit of literature. This is an important economic reason for Song poetry.
In short, the prosperous Tang Dynasty gave poetry a sentimental, passionate, and splendid image, while the crisis-ridden Zhao and Song Dynasties could only give poetry a rational, natural, bland, and extraneous image, which also seemed more complicated. Calm and more transparent. Judging from the development rules of literature itself, Tang poetry has reached its peak, while Song poetry, after Tang poetry, can only seek another new development path. Although Song poetry is not without shortcomings such as being prone to discussion, being preachy, and lacking in vividness and imagery, the overall artistic achievements of Song poetry are still higher than those of subsequent generations. The picky and exclusive nature of Song poetry (Song people believed that "poems focus on theory and lyrics focus on emotion") objectively contributed to the growth of Song poetry. It should be said that Song poetry is the most dazzling literary and artistic form in the Song Dynasty.