A Study On Lv Benzhong's Diagram Of Jiangxi Poetry School

Jiangxi Poetry School has been considered as the fist poetry school in the history of Chinese literature. Coming into being in the late Northern Song Dynasty, Jiangxi Poetry School's influence reached its peak in the Southern Song Dynasty and lasted till the late Qing Dynasty. After the collapse of northern Song Dynasty, most poets from northern China wrote poems by imitating the techniques of Jiangxi Poetry School. Therefore, Jiangxi Poetry School is also thought of as a most important poetry school which has a lasting profound influence in the history of Chinese poetry.Studies on Jiangxi Poetry School and it's poets are focuses of the researches of Chinese ancient literature and related academic papers are published every years. The concept of Jiangxi Poetry School was firstly held forth by Lv Benzhong in his drawing of the Diagram of Jiangxi Poetry School. However, there has no overall study on this drawing. This thesis, on the basis of an overall analysis on the Diagram of Jiangxi Poetry School in different lights, will explore the significant role that the drawing plays in the shape of Jiangxi Poetry School. Other questions, such as the causes of the emergence of Jiangxi Poetry School in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the foundation on which Lv Benzhong created the drawing, and the reasons why he created such a drawing will also be explored in this thesis.The imprisonment and persecution of the members of Yuanyou Party and their relatives and the prohibition of their literary works set the historical and cultural background of the Diagram of Jiangxi Poetry School. With the political situation, literary works getting worse, a group of poets who politically sympathized Yuanyou Party and literarily imitated Su Dongpo and Huang Tingjian arose in the late Northern Song Dynasty. By imitating each other and antiphony, they actually became a poetry school.As a relative of Yuanyou Party member, Lv Benzhong had a unique and direct feeling of Yuyou Party and he had close contact with poets from Jiangxi Poetry School. He created a drawing on which he depicted 26 poets including Huang Tingjian. By imitating the Zen texts and their apprenticeship system, he entitled the drawing The Diagram of Jiangxi Poetry School.Criticisms on The Diagram of Jiangxi Poetry School appeared since Southern Song Dynasty with the focus on the selection of the poets as well as its standard. However, after a careful study on the poets on the drawing, the author of this thesis found that the selection of the poets was strictly based on their politic attitude, apprenticeship relationship, friend association, ideological origins. The creation of The Diagram of Jiangxi Poetry School is not only the beginning of the poetry schools, but also has positive influence on the generations of poets to come.