Zhang Xiaoxiang And The Style Of His Works

Zhang Xiaoxiang, one of ci writers of Song Dynasty, and his works seldom arrest researchers' chief concern. Evenin the history of literature there isn't much more about him. The probable reasons may lie in the following: It is said that Zhang ~vas a second-rate writer in South Song Dynasty. He died at his earls' age before his works came to be known. What' s more, it seems that people always pay attention to his patriotic ci. but ignore the style of his works. and fail to make a comprehensive evaluation. Zhang was living in such a period in which the style of ci was changing from North Song Dynasty to South Song Dynasty. Owing to this, it would be of great si~tnificance to make a deeper research on his life and his works. This paper is an attempt to examine and analyze his style from different aspects.Mv exposition consists of two parts. The first part is to solve the argument provoking problems about Zhang. Emphasis is lay on the relative history of Jin2shi examination in Shaoxing, the reason of Zhang's being promoted as a Zhuangyuan,the highest academic title in imperial examination addition, the relationship between Zhang and the key person of Qin Party would be taken into account. This leads to the conclusion that Zhang is comtemporary with Qin Xu.n, Lu You and Chen Kui. Zhang was Zhuangyuan. Qin Xun was Shenyuan.Chen Kui was Jingshi, while Lu you failed. According to norms, those who sat for Jingshi exam after Suotingshi,another kind of exam, can't become Zhuangyuan. This was the very case with Qin xun. Thirdly, the handwriting of Zhang which satisfied the emperor was perfect good. Furthermore, the worse-getting relationship between Zhang and Qin proved that only on the major issues of principle can he shows his trend of love and hate. The second part of the paper mainly expounds the forming of Zhang s poetical stx'le and its features. Firstly, I divide his ci into two kinds: political ci and life ci. I think that life ci is the key to his style, and that Zhang inherits the style of Su Shi's in his age. Zhang inherits Su's ~Sao and elegance. ~Sao" means that there is somgthing that they can place on in their poetry. Individualism is outstanding. Elegance shows that there has been a development of elegance since Su Shi began to be elegant. The approaching to elegance continued to affect Zhang. The more common names of the tunes of the poetr~' than Liu Yong shows it. Compared with Liu Yong, Zhang' s inheriting Su's style represents the change of the style from South Song Dynast to North Sone Dynasty. This kind of change is alike to the change of South Song' s landscape painting from South Song to North Song. Studying the forming and development of Zhang' s poetical style. I find that the shape of his st~'le is related to the history of South Song Taoism in South Song also has a great effect on the shape and de~elopment of his style, and his banishin~ from the court also greatl~' influences his style..1 ,fIn terms of the style of YuHu ci, there are in my opinions, similarities between Zhang and Jiang Kui Real image and imaginan~' image ~~ere delicately used to build up a kind of artistic conception. Poets like Shu Shi and Xing Qiji preferred to imaginary image. Zhang are good at carefully choosing words to arouse a kind of atmosphere that the readers may feel as if they're in a fairyland when reading. That's probably the impact of Taoism. The analysis above leads to a conclusiow it is Zhangs mind and his personal inclination that make him meticulously choose the needed images. Form his life experience, he, on the one hand. had e~er fought against the advocate to compromise with the enemy in the political struggle, but he never met the severe test in the battle field, as a result, he was lack of those hard army experience that Xin Qiji had got through: on the other hand. both his political life and the attitude towards the world were not equal to Su Shi's. The latter one such an uneven road in his political life but still facing the world with a magnanimous way. Therefore. Zhan& s works man...