Emissary Literature In The Song Dynasty

The ambassador literature is an important part of Song Dynasty literature, namely,the poetry, ci and literary works written by the ambassadors during their diplomaticmissions. These works are the record and recounting of the whole process andpanorama of the ambassadors’ missions; are the description of the exotic naturalscenery and local customs; are the display and placement of the ambassadors’ longingfor their relatives and hometown; are the concern and consideration of the nationalfuture and fate. This paper consists of five chapters:Chapter one is about the general introduction of the research basis of SongDynasty’s ambassador literature. It mainly introduces the research situation of SongDynasty’s ambassador literature, the internal policies and its diplomatic relationshipwith surrounding states of Song Dynasty, the selection of ambassadors and theroadmap of the missions. These are the prerequisite of the research on Song Dynasty’sambassador literature.As a literary form, the research material of Song Dynasty’s ambassador literatureare merely confined to the record of the missions, the poetry, ci or the specific studyon a diplomat’s mission, which means the lack of an overall induction andarrangement of the Song Dynasty’s literary works with ambassador poetry, ci andarticles included. The research on Song Dynasty’s ambassador literature is inseparablewith the research on Song Dynasty’s diplomatic relationship with its surroundingstates. Liao Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, Western Xia Dynasty and Korea were the countriesthat had a frequent diplomatic relationship with Song Dynasty, in particular LiaoDynasty, Jin Dynasty. In the history of Northern Song Dynasty and Southern SongDynasty that lasted for more than300years, Northern Song Dynasty and LiaoDynasty, Southern Song Dynasty and Jin Dynasty was always in warring state. Whenboth of them paid grave cost for the wars, their rulers still returned to the negotiation table to resolve issues. So, diplomats were needed to be sent to other countries forliaison and mediation either for peace talks after a fierce combat or for normaldiplomatic relationship during peaceful conflicting period. As the symbol of peace,ambassadors always served as a bridge linking two countries’diplomatic relationship.Especially after the gradual establishment of Song Dynasty’s engagement etiquette,the standards of ambassadors’ selection, the engagement etiquette, the writing ofcredentials as well as the clothes during the mission were clearly fixed. Theseprovided basic thread of thought and material for the research on ambassadorliterature.Chapter two is about the research on the record of ambassadors’ roadmap. Whenthe ambassadors returned to Song Dynasty after they completed a mission, they mustsubmit a report to the court, namely the record of the mission, which included thedetailed places they had stopped, the roadmap, the terrain, the mileage, the laws andinstitutions, local customs and the negotiation of specific issue. The official articleswere not attached much importance traditionally, so there was few left to thefollowing generations. While these mission records involved politics, economy, folkcustoms and other aspects of social life, they were very valuable materials for ourresearch on the history, customs and culture of the countries where the ambassadorspaid diplomatic visit. In terms of politics, the content of the mission recordsmentioned some issues about Song—Jin wars and their territorial disputes. Thoughthe content was just a few, they can still serve for us to look at the internal anddiplomatic policies of Song Dynasty. As nomadic tribes, the social production of LiaoDynasty and Jin Dynasty were heavily reliant on livestock industry. And theireconomic developments were far from balance. The trade, tax collection, currencycirculation and other important forms related to economic development had gracedefects in terms of system and management. Korea was a bit more civilized thansurrounding states. By way of the mission records, the political systems, economicmanagement and architecture of surrounding states reflected their transplantation orimitation of Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty. The diet habit, clothes feature, religiousbelief and calendar of the countries where the ambassadors paid visit were also recorded in the mission material. As their duty, recording the mission process wasuniform in form, systematic in content and widely valuable in application compared toambassador poetry and ci.Chapter three is about the research on ambassador poetry of Song Dynasty. Theambassador poetry was composed in the specific historical time when ambassadorswere sent to carry out diplomatic missions. From their own point of view, theambassadors expressed the difficulties of the mission, the longing for relatives andhometown and the concern of the split of the country while describing exotic naturalscenery, cultural landscape and their experience. In the ambassador poetry, exoticscenery and local conditions were the points where ambassadors released mostfeelings. Among the poetries, some were detailed describing natural beauty, somewere vivid reflect on natural conditions, some were memorial of cultural sites andsome were truthful record of local customs. The longing for relatives and hometownwere the very things that ambassadors unwillingly to abandon when they were sentout for diplomatic missions. But as ambassador poetry, it greatly differed in LiaoDynasty and Jin Dynasty. Ambassador poetry of Jin Dynasty carried more contentwith the same theme of longing for hometown. The same exotic beauty was addedinto the poetries, but different poetry had different point of view. They were eager forpeace, but they expressed in different manners.Chapter four is about the research on ambassador ci. Ambassador poetry andambassador ci were exotic pictures made by Song Dynasty’s ambassadors. Facing thecompletely different exotic environment and arduous mission journey, a kind ofunspeakable feeling would come over to the ambassadors. Looking through collectionof ci in Song Dynasty, very few ambassador ci were found. According to content ofpresent Song ci, the content can be roughly divided into three kinds: ci expressingone’s innermost feeling of a thing; ci expressing feeling on a specific festival and folkcustoms; ci expressing one’s feeling and aspiration. These ci had similar features:their themes were about expressing feeling of a thing, the longing for people and thelonging for hometown. Their content were about longing for relatives and hometown.But compared with ci in the same period, these ci had a touch of helpless indignation and sadness and lacked the confidence of retaking the fallen land and grandambitions.Chapter five is about the significance of ambassador literature of Song Dynasty.Ambassador literature was a kind of literary form in Song Dynasty with salientcharacteristics of age. It concluded a large number of ambassador poetry, someambassador ci and the record of diplomatic missions. These literary works not onlyfilled the vacancies of ambassador literature in Song Dynasty, but also had a positiveinfluence on literature’s development of Song Dynasty. Ambassador literature was animportant part of Song Dynasty literature. It greatly accelerated the blossom of ‘travelrecord’ as well as poetry of Song Dynasty with penetrating thoughts. Meanwhile, thevalue of ambassador literature as historical material can not be underestimated. Thecontent of these ambassador literature were personal experience of the ambassadors.Though no great breakthrough was made in literary achievement, but they can behelpful as reference. Adding the lack of historical material of Liao Dynasty and JinDynasty, they were particularly valuable. In other words, to some extent, they filledthe insufficiency of the political and military historical material of Liao Dynasty, JinDynasty and Korea. They can serve as irreplaceable material for the research on theculture and customs as well as transportation and geographic conditions of thesurrounding countries.