A friend said, isn't the cultural aesthetics of the Song Dynasty just a word "elegance"?
That's true, but "elegance" is the overall cultural aesthetic of the Song Dynasty, and the aesthetic of poetry has passed "elegance" in the late Tang Dynasty and even in the court poetry period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Even after epigraph replaced the entertainment function of poetry, Song poetry was a little too elegant-"elegance" caused people to lose their enthusiasm for creation, so epigraph almost disappeared after it began to flourish in the early Southern Song Dynasty.
If we discuss the aesthetics of Song poetry from this angle, it is not only "elegance", but more importantly, it is to turn elegance into vulgarity and take vulgarity as elegance. Su Dongpo took poetry as his ci in order to open up the upper theme space of ci, reduce the elegance of poetry and make it more integrated into life. This is actually what all poets in the Song Dynasty are doing.
Although Song poetry is also appealing to both refined and popular tastes, judging from the change of poetic style, people in Song poetry strive to make it appealing to both refined and popular tastes, and enrich their creation with their passion for life, thus continuing the fate of poetry being replaced by epigrams.
Therefore, regardless of the various styles and schools in the Song Dynasty, in general, the aesthetic words are probably "taking vulgarity as elegance, blending elegance and vulgarity".