A Study On Zhou Zizhi And His Lyrics

Zhou Zizhi, styled Shaoyin and also known as Zhupo, was born and brought up in X uanzhou. Though he was lucky enough to secure a position in the government later in his life, he was in straitened and humble circumstances almost all his life. Having composed a large number of birthday-congratulating poems for Qinhui and Qinhui’s son in his later years, he was despised by the literati of different generations. However, he was well kno wn for his poems all the time, whether it was in the Northern Song Dynasty or the Southe rn Song Dynasty. Needless to say, he was greatly affected by poverty all his life and alwa ys felt miserable. He was quite prolific and left a great many brilliant poems to the posterit y. He truthfully recorded how he felt as a member of the literati and officialdom in feudal China. And he presented a true picture of his pleasure, anxiety and even resentment. Ne vertheless, it is rather a great pity that his poems failed to get the attention they deserve. This paper attempts at a revivification of a true Zhou Zizhi and readers’ awareness of his confusion and anxiety as an impoverished intellectual in the alternation period of the Nort hern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. In Chapter 1, readers will have a go od knowledge of all the works in his life and his literary ideology. In Chapter 2, readers wil I get some idea of his inner world in his youth, middle age and senior years in the alternat ion period of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty and the reason for the contradiction of his original intention and plight in his declining years. In Chapter 3, readers will have a comprehensive summary of the artistic features of his poems. In Cha pter 4, readers will explore and evaluate his poems and their status in the history of Chin ese literature.