The Study Of Tax-themed Poems In The Middlesouthern Song Dynasty

“Tax-Themed Poems” is a kind of poetry that is based on subject and content classification which mainly reflect some tax problems in economy life, such as: levy, paying, tax system, tax laws and the affection of these. During the middle period of the Southern Song Dynasty, tax amount was unprecedentedly high, posing great burdens on taxpayers, which was a big concern of poets. Then a lot of “Tax-Themed Poems” with unique time feature were made. The paper studies “tax-themed poems” in the middle period of the Southern Song Dynasty as a whole.In the first chapter, the social background for the emergence of “tax-themed poems” in the middle period of the Southern Song Dynasty is expounded. The tax policy in the Southern Song Dynasty as well as the political condition, social situation and writing style in the “revitalization” period is mainly discussed.In the second chapter, the contents of “tax-themed poems” in the middle period of the Southern Song Dynasty are analyzed by applying the method of the mutual verification between literature and history; the quantity, contents, themes and characteristics of “tax-themed poems” during this period are elaborated; the correlation between poems and tax history as well as the difference between literature and history are analyzed.In the third chapter, the writers of “tax-themed poems” are studied. The reasons for the abundance of “tax-themed poems” during this period are explored through analyzing the poets: the reasons and motives for the poets’ creation of such poems are studied through researching their economic situations, the political-career assessment requirements for them, the ups and downs in their lives, etc. In addition, the common emotional inclinations embodied in the “tax-themed poems” are roughly summarized.In the fourth chapter, the social value and role of “tax-themed poems” are studied. Compared with ordinary poems featuring aesthetic function, “tax-themed poems” have a more prominent pragmatic value, and the writing of such poems bears strong objective and functions- mainly political eulogizing and satirizing, image representing and political criticism. And this could be another example of poets’ enthusiasm about criticism and the constant expansion of their writing scope in the Southern Song Dynasty.