Research On Leisure Thoughts And Activities Of Zhou'mi

Looking from the angle of leisure history, leisure culture in Lin'an area of the Southern Song Dynasty has already developed to a certain extent where the literary intelligentsia played a very important role. Therefore, the explanation to the leisure life of literary intelligentsia of Southern Song Dynasty is an essential part in understanding the leisure culture of the entire society at that time. Although the Southern Song literary intelligentsia has been a popular subject of study, with reference to previous researches, most scholars have interpreted this topic based on its history, literature, sociology and some other aspects, but few has emphasized on the area of its leisure life.This thesis illustrates the leisure life of the Southern Song Dynasty literary intelligentsia. With reference from a special historical period during the Southern Song Dynasty as the background, its focus is on a particular group of literary intelligentsia, whom Zhou'mi was selected as the typical case to study. During this special historical period between Song and Yuan Dynasty, Zhou'mi had lived a hard life. Although he was filled of talent and ambition, he had nowhere to fulfill his personal values. In order to attain comfort and tranquility, he led a leisure life and begins to express his feelings through paintings and calligraphy. During the Southern Song Dynasty literary intelligentsia social stratum, Zhou'mi was a typical example of a person leading a leisure life. He was doing well in poetry, painting, collection, and calligraphy, loved music and opera. Furthermore, he has left behind a large collection of his poetry and writings which acted as a huge source of information for future generation to do research on his leisure activities. This article mainly depends upon the above historic information, the synthesis utilization history, the leisure study, the literature, the sociology and correlation theories from other subjects, combs from the relatively microscopic view of finding out the social background and personal conditions for Zhou'mi to carry out his leisure life. It shows the specific forms and characteristics in his leisure life which reorganize its leisure thought and the related writings. From one perspective, we can understand the esthetic interest and spiritual life of Zhou'mi, from a different perspective, the inducement of his influence and value of leisure life may provide beneficial model for posterity's leisure life. This will also contribute to the enrichment and improvement of the studies in the history of leisure in Lin'an area.The structure of the thesis consists of five parts. The preface has illustrated the concept of leisure as well as the reason of selecting Zhou'mi as the research subject. The first chapter introduced the traditional cultural heritage, cultural background, personal life and other sources of Zhou'mi's leisure thoughts, from which we can see that culture played a vital role in his leisure life. The second chapter focus on his leisure thoughts as the study subject which mainly discuss his leisure philosophy understanding, ideas and goal of leisure life, behavior consciousness as well as the conflict between leisure and the Confucian thoughts, along with his life experiences of ups and downs, his leisure thoughts has also had the corresponding change. Chapter Three summarize several characteristics of his leisure life from his notes, poetry and other related works, in which we can see his diverse leisure activities, from the individual to the collective ones. The last chapter is based on the concept of leisure from previous two chapters where it analyzes the historical value and influence of his leisure life and provide useful lessons for people today on how to carry out sophisticated and diverse leisure practices.