A Study Of Lv Family In Donglai Of Song Dynasty And Its Literature

Family, as the basic unit of the society, has received constant attention from the academic circle. In the past two decades, research of Song Dynasty literature from the perspective of family has been a new focus and a growing trend in the context of cultural studies. Lv family of Song Dynasty from the place called Donglai is one of the most distinguished families in Chinese history because of its great political and cultural influence and an awesome array of works. The paper attempts to study political activities and literature works of Lv Family and to explain them in the light of family culture. The paper believes, based on the study of the family, that there is a new protocol of family survival and development, which is different from the proposition that basically all great families declined during the Five Dynasties period and couldn't continue their prosperity to Song Dynasty. The paper is hoped to pave way for further academic research of political activities, literature achievements and academic standing of Lv Family..The paper is mainly divided into the following parts:Introduction. There're three sections in this part. Section one is a brief statement of motives, main ideas and structures of the research; section two is focused on the present situation of the research topic and the significance of the research; section three is devoted to an introduction of methods adopted in the paper.Chapter One studies the origin, brief biographies and in-laws affinities of Lv Family based on the epitaphs, brief biographies, ancient full-length novels, literary sketches and genealogy available. The prosperity of Lv Family can be traced back to the Five Dynasties period and later it developed into a big family with great influence in Song Dynasty when the common occurrence was that great families were doomed after thriving for about five generations.Chapter Two studies the role and achievements of Lv Family in building political power of Song Dynasty and sheds light on the achievements made by Lv Yijian, a famous Prime Minister, during his service period.Chapter Three studies the works of Lv Family, some works of its members that have been lost and scattered as well as existing reliable editions of literature.Chapter four, focused on the culture of Lv Family, believes that the two-century-odd prosperity of the family is mainly attributed to its intellectual and official background, tradition and learning. Besides, the chapter also explores the learning of Lv Family from the perspectives of Classics, History and Literary Collections.