First, the prevalence of assembly and association in Song Dynasty.
As far as the prosperity of state power is concerned, Li Tang should be the first to be promoted; However, in terms of overall economic and cultural prosperity, it must be called Song Zhao. The prosperity of the club is only one of the purposes.
The prosperity of social economy brings the mobility of social members, and the tendency of loosening social structure and the mobility of social members will inevitably bring some uncertain factors to society, which will make social members feel a sense of crisis and even be directly frustrated. Therefore, it is not only natural but also necessary for people to form assemblies and associations according to regions or industries to seek mutual assistance. The wind of assembly and association in Song Dynasty became a masterpiece. During the Northern Song Dynasty, it was very common for the North and the South to form poetry societies. Wu Ke's Poems on Tibetan Sea said: "When I was young, I heard that there was a poetry society in the north, and everyone predicted it. The second picture is a poem "Spider", which has spread all over the world. I forgot the whole poem, but I remember one sentence:' I don't know I'm in the net.' It is also a good sentence. In Yuan You, Mr. Rong Tianhe is a guest of Jinling. He lives in Tsinghua City as a learning museum. Wang Shiro, Wang Nianshiro, the restaurant, Uncle Chen, and the corner comb were all present, but I can't remember the rest. Most of them are the study of leveling, which seems to be the northern poetry society. ..... Now, for more than 60 years, there were only a handful of poems collected by the poetry society at that time, but unfortunately they have not been handed down. I can only remember one or two of them today. If you want to be a poetry club, you can serve. Not good? In the Southern Song Dynasty, the atmosphere of association became stronger. As far as the wind is concerned, many dignitaries have joined the society and exchanged songs.
The article "Zhou Mi Old Wulin" Volume III "She" recorded in detail various entertainment service agencies in Hang Cheng: "February 8th was the birthday of Tongchuan Zhang Wang, and the Huoshan Palace was full of worship, with hundreds of plays competing for beauty, such as Flying Donkey Club (zaju), Qiyun Club (Cuju), Zhiyun Club (singing and earning) and Tongwen Club (drama). Qibao and Hummer will be the most. " According to the categories listed in Article 6 of the same book, there were at least 55 professional cultural and sports clubs at that time. "Dream of Liang Lu" Volume 19 "Society" said: "Scholars have the West Lake Poetry Society, and warriors have the crossbow society, all of which can climb the bow and shoot the crossbow, and they are good at martial arts. Radiation is the only way to enter this club. What's more, there are clubs that play ball and shoot water crossbows, but they are all done by people who are not officials, creating first-class rich husbands and romantic children and learning from idle people. ..... Every time we meet God's Christmas, every household in all walks of life is greeted by different societies. If you are a government official, take horses as a club. Qibaoxing presented Qibao toys to the society. There are also Jinti Club, Tiger Club, Poor Rich Money Club, Curb Cloud Club, Maiden Yin Qing Club, Sujiaxiang Puppet Club, Qingguo Xingguo Club, and East-West Horse Club, which provide exotic flowers and pines. Fish live in a different turtle fish. Rich children are young, ten leisure clubs. "There are West Lake Poetry Club, Lingua Club, Kicking Club, Chuancrossbow Shooting Club, Guangming Club, Tea Soup Club, Yejing Club, Fangsheng Club, Brocade Club, Eight Immortals Club and Fisherman Leisure Club. In addition to specific clubs such as Qingguo Club, Qibao Club, Xiangyao Club, Sumo Club, Chuannu Club, Zhiyun Club, Wentong Club, Tongchuan Club, Luhua Club, Jinti Club, Qian Fang Club, Fangsheng Club and Illuminati Club, the West Lake Old Man Record also contains many other clubs. Based on this calculation, it can be seen that Hangzhou was prosperous and there were many clubs.
Among the above-mentioned societies recorded in the literature, some are relatively pure street literature societies, such as Lv Fei Society, Yun Zhi Society, Tongwen Society, Yin Qing Society, Xiongbian Society, Gehua Society, Fahua Society and so on. Among them, except for Painting Society, Fa Society and Xiongbian Society, the performances of Lv Fei Society, Zhiyun Society and Yin Qing Society are closely related to the style of ci, and Wentong Society is directly affiliated to "Playing Ci". The article "Various Geisha Artists" in Old Wulin also lists the representative actors of these literary societies. For example, there are 20 people performing "singing opera" or "playing with words" (Wentong Society), performing "Zaju" (Fei Lv) and so on. The names of these folk arts are not only circulated among the people, but also recorded in the notes of scholars, which can also disprove the close relationship between scholars and folk literary societies at that time.
If ordinary Quyi clubs mainly perform ready-made works to entertain the audience, then literati Quyi clubs mainly focus on literary creation and evaluation, and also appreciate artists' artistic performances. Of course, folk art clubs sometimes create their own works, and there is a record of "Li" in the sixth volume of "Old Stories of Wulin". Thus, Li can not only tell stories, but also be the most famous ci writers at that time. Therefore, we have reason to believe that many of the 1598 "anonymous" works in Song Ci were written by civil society scholars like Li.
According to the textual research of Mr. Ouyang's book "Research on Song and Yuan Poetry Societies", the author makes statistics and finds that there are more than 80 poetry societies in Song Dynasty [③]. But as far as the prosperity of literature in Song Dynasty is concerned, we think this is only a small part of many literary societies.
Second, the reasons for the prosperity of literary societies in Song Dynasty
If the Six Dynasties were the embryonic period of literary societies, the Tang and Five Dynasties were the development period of literary societies, and the Song Dynasty was the maturity period of literary societies. There were "benefits" but no "societies" in the Six Dynasties. In the Tang and Five Dynasties, there were still many "Hui" and "She", but in the Song Dynasty, they were both rich and nicknamed. The emergence, development and even prosperity of literary societies make it necessary for us to examine them from the perspective of social culture.
Mr. Hu, a close friend, once divided the literary societies in the history of China into three categories: one is a literary society that manages the world or prosperous times, focusing on leisure; The second is a literary society in troubled times or decline, which mainly discusses current events and evaluates characters; The third is the literary society of adherents, which mainly expresses their hatred and grievances. [4] From Mr. Hu's point of view, we might as well regard the needs of prosperous civilization, the struggle in troubled times and the declining trend of the world as the three social and cultural backgrounds that gave birth to the literary society.
Mr. Hu's dichotomy focuses on social politics. But life is not only influenced and dominated by social politics. More often, people's activities are subject to long-term accumulated social cultural psychology and social customs, as well as individual cultural psychology and personality formed by special environment. Modern psychological research shows that peer group is the most prominent among various factors affecting individual behavior, which is called "peer group effect" in psychology. Because literary societies are mostly gathering activities between peers, it conforms to the "peer group effect theory" in modern psychology. Since ancient times, people like to target their peers in their communication. This is because peers have more similarities in experience, accomplishment and temperament, and may get more * * * songs in communication. Xiaoya Logging in the Book of Songs sings: "When logging is tinkling, birds sing. Out of the valley and into the woods. Let it sing and ask for its friendly voice. I like birds, but I still want friends. Are you a good person and don't ask for friends? " This poem not only tells us that people have the emotional need of communication ("seeking their friends"), but also have the utilitarian purpose of communication ("moving trees out of the valley"), which together is the dedication of the orchestra. Maslow, a famous contemporary American psychologist, summarized human needs into five levels, namely, the needs of survival, security, belonging, respect and self-realization. This theory is also fully applicable to explain the occurrence of human communication behavior. But as far as literary societies are concerned, people's communication needs are mainly manifested in creative desire, emotional connection, experience exchange, achievement evaluation, personality attribution and so on. In other words, the need of emotional contact, experience exchange, achievement evaluation and personality attribution between literati directly gave birth to literary societies. This is the so-called "gentlemen make friends by writing" in The Analects of Yan Yuan. The more developed the society, the more advanced the civilization, and the greater the individual plasticity, the more people have the emotional desire and practical need to communicate.
Of course, art communication always happens in a certain environment, and the social environment has a greater and deeper influence on people than the natural environment, so it is of decisive significance to the occurrence of art communication. As a specific form of artistic communication, literary societies are undoubtedly the product of social environment. Specific to the Song Dynasty, there are six reasons why the literary society can achieve comprehensive and rapid development:
First, communication is the basic need of life, and "meeting friends by writing" has long been a cultural tradition in China. The Analects of Confucius Yang Huo has four social functions: "Xing", "Guan", "Qun" and "Resentment", and "Qun" is one of them. It can be seen that the ancients have long recognized the cohesion and coordination role that poetry can play in social groups. The temporary gathering of literati before and after the Han Dynasty developed into a relatively stable association of literati in the Six Dynasties. This point has been discussed in detail above. Through regular or irregular gatherings, club members exchange poems, learn skills and talents, and at the same time enhance friendship. Ci, a comprehensive style that can integrate poetry, music (and sometimes dance), is more suitable for group entertainment than ordinary poetry, so it has a stronger role in connecting group feelings than ordinary poetry.
The second is the influence of the wind of civil assembly and association. According to the statistics of Yuanfeng Nine Domains, there were more than 40 cities with more than 100,000 households in the Song Dynasty, and there were even more than 50 cities in Huizong Chongning (A.D.1102 ~106), which was four or five times more than that in the Tang Dynasty. But as Fei Zhengqing, a famous American historian, first said when he talked about the urbanization of Song society:
Another feature of the new society is continuous urbanization. However, the real urbanization of China culture does not lie in the number of cities, but since then, cities and urban residents have played a leading role in society. Unlike the old nobles, the new gentry lived in towns to a great extent. They are more like foreign landlords than rural landlords. Because all officials and wealthy businessmen live in cities and towns, most of the leading groups are concentrated in urban areas. Therefore, high-level culture is naturally highly urbanized, and the developed interest and attitude seem to have the characteristics of urban residents rather than rural residents. ..... In the urban environment, high-level culture is more complex and diverse than before, and more residents participate in cultural activities. ..... The city life in Song Dynasty was free and luxurious. Cities are no longer composed of palaces or other administrative power centers and villages around the city walls. On the contrary, entertainment places are now the center of social life. [⑤]
With the arrival of the era of great urban economic development, folk gatherings and associations are also surging. There are regional or unemployed organizations of mutual assistance and cooperation such as "city", "society" and "society", Buddhist and Taoist associations with different purposes, more and more industrial and commercial guilds, and groups formed by classes or strata. In this regard, Mr. Xie Henai, a famous French sinologist, also has incisive opinions and detailed discussions. He said:
11~13rd century people migrated more frequently and willingly than those in Tang Dynasty, Six Dynasties or Han Dynasty. It is true that the commercial tide leads to the flow of people, such as boatmen, porters, sailors and businessmen, who sometimes travel regularly between very distant areas. More and more bureaucrats will inevitably migrate. They can neither hold public office in their hometown nor stay in the same position for more than three or four years. Finally, the hardship of rural life, the huge number and variety of small and medium-sized business owners in cities, and the attraction of cities, wealth and entertainment centers have all triggered a wave of refugees and poor farmers flocking to big cities. ..... Compared with previous centuries, in this more mobile society, property setbacks are also common. People can understand the development of some new relationships: the tendency of reunion and association (which is the same in the upper class as in the citizens) is as great as the threat of self-isolation, so it is more necessary to help each other. ..... In all walks of life, among ordinary people, literati and mobile vendors, people find that the tendency to form "benefits" between people from the same region or fellow villagers has become widespread. Finally, due to the collapse of the state-controlled market, shops and workshops are all over the city. It seems that the development of "trades" of businessmen and craftsmen should meet the needs of harmony and self-defense among members of various trades. The richness of "tertiary industry" activities explains the shocking professionalism of this trade association. [⑥]
Living in such a city, from bottom to top, the whole society is used to it. Encouraged by the wind of folk assembly and association, scholars have also set up their own associations.
Thirdly, as mentioned above, the Song Dynasty was a great turning point between China's state system and feudal culture. The binary contradiction between elegance and vulgarity seems to run through the whole academic circle, and the pursuit of harmony between elegance and vulgarity has become an ideal social and cultural operation mode. All kinds of gathering activities of literary societies, which integrate entertainment and appreciation, oral and emotional feelings, and spiritual feelings, just meet the needs of intellectuals in the period of institutional and cultural transformation in both elegance and vulgarity. There are two reasons why the Meng Liang Lu and other books quoted above call the West Lake Poetry Society "the ratio of other social groups": First, the participants are all "people who travel in all directions and live in all directions", and the refined literati are immersed in the life of the market, which can be described as "appealing to both refined and popular tastes"; Second, these people's works are "popular and popular, spreading everywhere", and their works are "elegant and popular". Therefore, from a certain point of view, "West Lake Poetry Society" is a typical example of "elegance" and "vulgarity".
Fourth, the Song Dynasty opened the door to imperial examinations, and writing poems became an important means for scholars to gain fame and fortune. In order to cope with the exam, many scholars get to know each other, speculate on their ideas, study poetry, literature and art, and burn bricks and knock on the door. Huang Jionggu, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, deeply disapproved of this kind of society. There are four clouds in his "History of Sikkim": "In the poetry club, the charm of predecessors can be seen, and because of the rich humanities in the city, it can be seen. However, there must be people and works that can be passed down. If there are countless conferences of scholars in recent days, but the people are indescribable and the literature is not good enough, is it still full of ridicule even though it has been admitted to the A-level department and held the post? "
Fifth, the Song Dynasty established the country by literature, on the one hand, it improved the status of culture and literati unprecedentedly, and promoted the prosperity of ideology and culture, but on the other hand, to some extent, the prosperity of ideology and culture and the inevitability of multiple choices were not only the important reasons for the struggle of literati political parties in the Song Dynasty, but also a wave that contributed to the prosperity of literati clubs in the Song Dynasty. When this self-consciousness and self-consciousness are embodied in the field of literary creation, it becomes the driving force for the rise of literary societies. Some people even think that the Song Dynasty was a period of literati awakening: "If Wei and Jin Dynasties were a period of awakening, and humanity beyond people's materiality was realized, then the Song Dynasty was a period of literati awakening, and literati realized the value, existence and cultural mission of a literati beyond being an official. They realize that poetry writing is the life of literati, poetry club is the organization of literati, and the spread and existence of poetry collections is the existence and value form of literati. It can be said that the literati found themselves in the poetry club. " [⑦]
Sixthly, the weakness of Zhao and Song regime made it in a passive position in the competition with neighboring nation-States, which eventually led to the country's demise. Out of anger, struggle, escape and comfort, scholars in troubled times often unite to express their ease by chanting poems. In addition, the northern scribes living in the south may also seek social support for their livelihood and career after Jian Yan crossed the south. In the early Yuan Dynasty, the imperial examination system was abolished and scholars were unemployed. Scholars often use the activities of poetry clubs to respond in unison and seek common interests. They can not only remember the past, comfort each other, but also learn poetry and kill time. Zhao Yi's Notes on the Twenty-two Histories (Volume 30) states that "the Yuan monsoon is elegant and beautiful": "Scholar-officials in the Yuan Dynasty loved literature and ink, and they must join the poetry club every year. The adherents of the Southern Song Dynasty died, sighing on the lonely bank of the barren river, lingering in the wind, and becoming a wind meeting for a long time. "
Of course, people gather and form associations for specific and special reasons. The Song Dynasty was also a period when feudal culture rose in an all-round way. People's active thinking, innovation and originality have become the direction of literati's efforts. In this big cultural background, coupled with the personal situation of the person in charge of the society, people's motives for gathering and communicating are also complex and changeable.