A Research On The Relation Between Songish Confucianism Interwaven With Buddhism And The Poems Of Song Dynasty

The Confucianists of Song Dynasty adopted Buddhism in their establishment of Songish Confucianism to such a great extent that the later generations have the appraisal of "externally Confucianism and internally Buddhism" to the Songish Confucianism. The Songish Buddhism had a distinct phenomenon of having Confucianism to verify Buddhism and Buddhists becoming Confucianized. The cultural phenomenon of Songish Confucianism interwoven with Buddhism formed a unique Cultural trait of Song Dynasty. And hence had great influence on literature. Among the three major literary forms in Song Dynasty, namely, Poems, Ci and verges, the poems best embody the cultural background of the Songish Confucianism interwoven with Buddhism, and the influence on them by such a cultural characteristics. Reflecting on the existing researches of Poems in Song Dynasty, we can find that Scholars have made great effort and achievement in their study from the point of view by Songish Confucianism and Buddhism respectively. Whereas few of the studies about poems of Song Dynasty are made from the pointed of view by interweaving the Songish Confucianism with Buddhism. This dissertation intends to have a tentative research on such an issue, and this is the motivation of my choosing it as the theme.The dissertation is composed of three parts: introduction, main body and Conclusion. The main body is divided into six chapters.The introduction part is about the background of thesis-choosing, the basis for the research, the content of the research and problems intended to solve.Chapter one: Combing the traces of development about Songish Confucianism and Buddhism in Song Dynasty. Describing the correlation between Song Dynasty men of Letters and Songish Confucianism, Buddhism respectively. This is the basis of the argument of the dissertation.Chapter two: Expounding the interweaving situation of Songish Confucianism and Buddhism in Song Dynasty. Thus to reveal the unique traits of culture in Song Dynasty, they are as the following four aspects: the self-restraint view of pursuing uprightness in mind and spirit; the knonledge view of studying the nature of things; the thinking view of being critical inner-mindedly; the aesthetics view of pursuing race and simplicity. This is the theoretical basis to support the dissertation.Chapter three: Revealing the poetic theory in Song Dynasty under the interweaving of Songish Confucianism and Buddhism. First, revealing the poetic view of People in Song Dynasty, which makes the men of letters and Songish Confucianists as the objects of study; Second, revealing poetic arts of thinking characteristics of people in Song Dynasty: namely, "taking sounding in stillness" in drawing materials; "subtle Comprehension" in poetic conception; "flexible handling" in poetic expression; "living participation" and "self-proving" combined in poetic appreciation, third, arguing that the two aspects of contents strengthened and emphasized in Song Dynasty poems are as the following: the strengthen of rational awareness, the interest in expressing themes of subtleties and trifles. Last but not least, analyzing the poetic aesthetics of the poems in Song Dynasty, arguing that they are of simplicity, sophistication and of classic elegance in aesthetic taste. This is the core of the dissertation.Chapter four, five and six are about case studies of the dissertation.Chapter four: This chapter describes the interrelation between Songish Confucianism, Buddhism and the poetries created by the contemporary poets such as Ouyang xiu, Mei Yaochen, the three men of Songish Confucianists in early Northern Dynasty, Yang Yi and Monk Zhi Yuan.Chapter five: This Chapter describes the correlation between late Northern Song Dynasty poets and the Songish Confucianism, Buddhism. Those poets include Wang Anshi, Huang Tingjian and the poetic school of Jiangxi. The early poetries created by Wang Anshi bore an obvious spirit of worldly concerns and pragmatism. In his late years after he retired to live in JiangNing, he created some poems th...