Daoqian, The Monastic Poet Of North Song Dynasty

The subject of the research is Daoqian, a monastic poet of North Song Dynasty, and his poetic works. As a distinguished poet of North Song Dynasty, Daoqian had produced many poems that lasted until present days. Among Daoqian's friends were many great contemporary poets such as Shi Shu and Guan Qin. The research of Daoqian is an effort to explore a much ignored area in Chinese ancient literature, to acquire a deeper knowledge of the lives of his contemporary scholars, and a further understanding of the literary life of Song Dynasty. Apart from that, the research tries to investigate a particular cultural phenomenon—the monastic poetry. Over a long period of time, the research of Daoqian has been neglected, less to say a comprehensive study. This research focuses on several aspects: 1.The life and history of Daoqian. By surveying the existing textual criticisms and historical data, a thorough introduction of Daoqian's birth, life and personality will be given in the paper, thus to enable the viewers to maintain a better understanding of Daoqian. 2. Daoqian's associations with his contemporary scholars. Through the examination of related materials, the research provides a picture of literary activities and scholastic circle under that specific social background, of which Daoqian's associations with Guan Qin and Shi Shu forms the center of the topic. 3. Daoqian's poetic work. The discussion pivots on the content, characteristics, and insufficiencies of Daoqian's poems. The research methods are material consultation and textual analysis. On the basis of historical data and a thorough investigation on Daoqian's poems, the research launches an artistic analysis of Daoqian's work, and hopefully an unbiased conclusion can be formulated. As a monk, Daoqian shared a similar affection for nature with most other monastic poets, and made it a major theme in his works. Apart from that, a great amount of reciprocal poems between him and his friends have been preserved in his volumes. Another style worth mentioning is Daoqian's annotative poems on the paintings. Daoqian's poems show a fine sense of elegance, and a strong desire for secluded life, and are mostly expressed with a natural, straightforward and candid tone. Furthermore, they show a strong flavor of rural life and a passion for ordinary people. However, Daoqian's poems also suffer from regrettable qualitative insufficiencies. For instance, only a small portion of his works is of the first rate. Of most poems, only a few lines are readable. A considerable part of his works is bruised by mediocre sentiment, fancy and elusive phrases and repetition. Some poems exhibit a superficial shallowness which stands no further inquiry. 4. Daoqian's essays on poetry. By digging through the historical materials, the research tries to excavate Daoqian's buried ideas, beliefs, and position on poem composition, so as to expand our view on Daoqian and his works. 5. The circulation and legacy of Daoqian's poems. As the last part of the thesis, it tracks the circulation of Daoqian's work, and analyzes his influence on the poets of late generations. Through the discussion of the said aspects, the research endeavors to give a detailed introduction of Daoqian, whose life as a representative of the monastic poets, may throw some lights on our perception of the literary and cultural life in Song Dynasty.