The Study On Shao Yong’s Literature

As one of "five Scholars of the Northern Song Dynasty", Shao Yong together with Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi laid a solid theoretical foundation for the development and evolution of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. Compared to other four scholars, Shao Yong made extraordinary achievements in the literary field, especially in the poetry field in addition to the construction of philosophy and historiography. However, for a long run, due to the impact of traditional poetic view and the prejudice towards the idea that Neo-Confucianism attached great importance to morality and little importance to literature, poetic critics didn’t pay enough attention to the literary achievements of Neo-Confucianism poetry with the Collection of Yichuan Jirang created by Shao Yong as the representative from beginning to end. However, in the Notes on Poets and Poetry created by Yan Yu in the Southern Song Dynasty,"the poetic style of Kang" in which argument played the leading role was impressively in parallel with the masters of poetry of the Song Dynasty, and completely showed the strong individuation. This was also the identity verification of poetics towards Shao Yong’s poetry, and had significant cognitive value. In the past decades, the discussion on the relations between Neo-Confucianism and literature in the academic circles has been increasingly deepened. Shao Yong who created the greatest number of poems among the scholars of the Song Dynasty aroused great interest among the researchers as the typical case in the creation of Neo-Confucianism poetry, and abundant research achievements have been made. As a whole, the study on Shao Yong and his literature hasn’t completely got rid of the observation of field of view of Neo-Confucianism, and hasn’t completely revealed the literalization feature of "the poetic style of Kang" in many aspects either. As a matter of fact, Shao Yong’s poetry was the concentrated expression of the integration and penetration of his philosophy and literature. The ideology of Neo-Confucianism was one of the most important elements to form his poetic style, but it exerted no obstruction against Shao Yong’s creation to have independent value of literature history. In the article, based on the specific poetry text and the actual literature style of Shao Yong, having its foothold on literature itself, discussion is made in terms of the interactive relations with Neo-Confucianism. Besides, it is put in the rheologic field of classical poetry to investigate the origin and impact of its literalization for the purpose of having a relatively clear awareness about independent value of Shao Yong’s literature. The study is generally divided into four parts.In Chapter One, the literature origin of Shao Yong makes discussion on the rich nutrition absorbed from the poetry heritage of the previous generation. Compared to other Neo-Confucianism scholars, Shao Yong had his literature pursuit on his own initiative, and his literary concept was also very open. This determines that he could combine his own characteristics and develop a new style based on the absorption of creation experience of the predecessors, and find out a new road for the development of Neo-Confucianism poetry.In Chapter Two, discussion is mainly made in terms of the individualized features of Shao Yong’s literature creation. The Collection of Yichuan Jirang focuses on argument as far as the expression form is concerned, while the plain and happy realm of poetry was shown spiritually. Both have deep relevance. In addition to poetry, Shao Yong also created many essays handed down in the world. Although the overall achievement on that was far less than that on poetry, it has certain cognitive value of literature.In Chapter Three, the study is made on the impact of literalization of Shao Yong’s poetry after the Song Dynasty. Such kind of impact is not only at the level of literary skill, and especially shown on the shaping of personality ideal of scholars of the later generations and the comfort for the mentality world.In Chapter Four, the preliminary exploration is made on the general situation that Shao Yong’s poetry spread outside China. The Collection of Yichuan Jirang also exerts a wide range of communication and influence in the cultural circle of East Asia. Besides, it was inscribed in Japan and Korea for many times. There are Korean publications and inscriptions handed down in the world today. In this chapter, from the perspective that Shao Yong’s poetry was accepted in the Korean times, it is shown that the moral personality of Shao Yong and the Collection of Yichuan Jirang are not only upheld in the Neo-Confucianism field, but also have far-reaching guiding significance towards the extraterritorial creation of Chinese poetry.All in all, although the Collection of Yichuan Jirang created by Shao Yong was not the best one in the poetry of the Song Dynasty, he was involved in the establishment of the spirit in the poetry of the Song Dynasty practically with his own literary achievements, and played an important driving role in the formation of the style of the poetry of the Song Dynasty. It should take some position in the writing of the literature history.