Study On Zhou Bida's Journal Articles

Journal article is a kind of diary prose featuring in: keeping the dates precisely, recording chronalogically, and keeping authentic and reliable content. There are different oppinions on the origin of Journal article, but academic authoritiy believes that the ealiest one with a resonable form is Li Ao's Records Since We Moved South in Tang dynasty. The Song dynasty saw a great enhancement in the content and the length of the text of journal article for there were many well-known scholars began to write diary text, leaving behind a great number of renowned and excellent works. But since the number of researchers in this field is small, the journal article is not given serious attention and its value is ignored to a great degree. It cannot be denied that journal article has its unique charm and academic value. We will study Zhou Bida's journal article comprehensively and systematically, and use it as a breakthrough to study and scienticifically evaluate Song Diary.Zhou Bida is a Southern Song Dynasty statesman as well as a literate. During Emperor XiaoZhong's time he was promoted to office by his knowledge and ability in writing. His was a graceful style with wide quotations, and he was ranked the top essayist in Sourthern Song Dynasty. He has 8 chapters and 11 volumes of diary text as the master in diary journal in Southern Song Dynasty. In his poems there are lines like"I wrote the past events in my diaries", showing that he had the habit of writing diary journal. Zhou Bida's diary falls into two categories: 1. travel journals on his homecoming way as he met with career setbacks, describing the natural landscape, sightseeing in the historical sites, and relavant folk activities, which reflects the social customs of the Southern Song Dynasty. These journals are most literarily valuable. 2. political affairs which are written when he was taking office. This part is mainly about government business of different periods, including political, diplomatic, and military affairs which are important to the country. As these are all Zhou's real personal experience, they can be considered real and reliable to be a supplement and confirmation to the official record of history. Zhou Bida's journal articles have great importance and value in them as they restore the scene of the lives of that time, and provide rich and valuable historical, literary, and academic information for today's research in Song history.