Wang Rong And The Yongming Era

Wang Jung(483-493), a young aristocrat of that time, his life was accompanied with The Yung-Ming Era, which is regarded as the Golden Age of the Southern Dynasty. He was one of the most famous poets at that time but had almost forgotten by now. The literary movement of Yung-Ming Style(永明体),which is regarded as the most important prosodic innovation of the Southern Dynasty, was initiated by him. And also, he contrived a palace coup to enthrone his sponsor, Xiao Zi-Liang(萧子良), who was the prince of Jing-Ling(竟陵王)of Southern Qi(南齐),but finally failed and his life was cut off at a very early age. This paper, which I aimed to approach the insight on the aristocrats and aristocratic literature of Southern Dynasty, is a study for him and his literature.In this study there are two sections, the Section of History and the Section of Literature. The former is for the life of Wang Jung, concluding his ancestors and family, his official career, his character and his tragic ending. I tried to draw his portrait based on the background of the aristocracy, which is regarded as the basic social form of the Southern Dynasty. Wang Jung was highbred in the Lang-Ya Wang clan(琅琊王氏), nevertheless, his grandfather Wang Seng-Da(王僧达)was executed by emperor for his resistance to imperial power. Owing to this case, Wang Jung’s family was banished from the central aristocracy circle and hence he could not return without depending on his effort, but not only on descent. According to his genius, moreover by virtue of Xiao Zi-Liang, he accessed his purpose rapidly and became an idols of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The reason that he contrived the palace coup is also In order to defend the aristocracy from the destructive power of the Plebeians(寒门).The latter section is for the literature of Wang Jung. As a leader of the literary salon which belonged to Xiao Zi-Liang, his works representatively showed the nature of aristocratic literature. His representative work, A Preface for the Bending-Water Banquet of the Third of March (三月三日曲水诗序), was full of allusions which warped up the text as a colorful robe. When one another his work, Eulogy for the Crown Prince(皇太子哀策文),be observed through the history of literature on the court of the Six dynasties, it appears a tide of modeling which is still neglected by the academia. In the aspect of buddhist literature Wang Jung also behaved excellently. He wrote two important works, Hymns on the Famennian(法门颂)and Lyrics of Religious Music (法乐辞)In the final chapter I discussed three possible changes of perspective for the research on the Yung-Ming Style. Especially I emphasized that the Yung-Ming Style is one part of the aristocratic literature of the Southern Dynasty.