On The Xikun Group And The Poets

The Xikun Group produced great impact on the poetic world in the early Song Dynasty. When it comes to the current situation of research, it's a pity that the scholars have set little store by the Xikun Group and their creation. The scholars take it as the royal literary creation without real content and realistic value. It's just the purpose to write this thesis, which consists of four chapters.The first chapter argues that the appearance of the Xikun Group is inevitable historically in term of the social cultural background and the tendency of the poetry. With the development of the economy, hedonism was popular. Meanwhile the imperial government carried out the scholar-politics and imperial examination system, which made the scholars improve themselves eagerly. The prosperous society and the technology, such as the invention of printing, met their acquirements. As the result the poets began to produce some creation about heaping praises and eulogies on the emperor and association with each other. On the other hand, Yang Yi, Liu Yun, Qian Wei-yan carried on the literary style of Li Shang-yin to instead the humble and tedious style of Bai-Group and the Late-Tang Group. Xikun Chouchang Ji includes three kinds of poems: of the object, of the poets' heart, of the history. From the content, the present writer concludes that the poetry in the Xikun Chouchang Ji, for example the poems of the poets' heart and history, owed realistic value and thoughts, rather than those of without deep emotion.The second chapter analyses that Xikun Group carried on and developed the style of Li Shang-yin, which reflected from four aspects. Xikun Group imitated Li Shang-yin in general literary style. In this kind of creation, some of them had the shortcomings of showing off their learning and literary quotation, but some of them observed the features of Li Shang-yin's. Then, this chapter compares the use of literary quotation in Xikun poetry with that of in Li Shang-yin's based on then- imitative psychology, reversed psychology, self-protect psychology, and aesthetic response psychology. Furthermore, Xikun poets learned from Li Shang-yin in using characters, which made their poetry filled with emotion and sense of beauty, though their creationhad not the emotion as deep as Li Shang-yin's. Finally, there gave a brief contrast between the subject and form of the poetry of Xikun and Li Shang-yin.The third chapter discusses the influence of Xikun Group, especially in the Song Dynasty. This chapter figures out definitely that Xikun form turned out a new appearance in the current poetry world, but not the simple inheriting the former poetry as Bai Group and Later Tang Group. Ou Yang-xiu assessed the Xikun Group objectively. Wang An-shi's creation coincided with Xikun's in literary quotation and the rhythm. Huang Ting-jian was effected by the Xikun Group deeply, Which led to directly the similarity between the Xikun and the Jiangxi Group.The fourth chapter researches the categories of the Xikun group from different visual angle. According to individual experience and their characteristics, the author divides the Xikun Group into three kinds. According to their individual literary style, they are divided into three schools.Based on what has been argued hi this thesis, Xikun Group and their creation has their own literary value. The poets are deserved to get an objective evaluation and obtain enough attention.