The Stele Scriptures Of The National Academy Of Southern Song And The Illustrations Of The Book Of Odes

During the period of Southern Song Dynasty,Ma Hezhi portrayed a series of paintings to illustrate the poems in the Book of Odes at the request of the emperors.It is said in the history of art that Gaozong and Xiaozong wrote the calligraphy of each poem in the Book of Odes first and then Ma Hezhi added the illustration paintings to them with a series of works entitled Mao shi tu(The Illustrations of Book of Odes).Also,Gaozong had in the early Shaoxing Era of Southern Song Dynasty the classical scriptures engraved into steles in the National Academy of Southern Song Dynasty,writing personally the scriptures of the classics,to display clearly its cultural status of the authority,with such seven scriptures as Book of Changes,Shangshu,Book of Odes,Spring and Autumn surviving in Hangzhou Confucius Temple at present.This article is intended to study related issues on Mao shi tu(The Illustrations of Book of Odes),by sorting out the related records in the documents and literature about Ma Hezhi and Mao Shi Tu,with the Stele Scriptures in Hangzhou Confucius Temple as the contrast and reference,starting from the imperial scripting,taboo and other aspects of the study of Mao Shi Tu(The Illustrations of Book of Odes),and discuss them with the Southern Song court poetic fashion as the background,in order to prove Mao Shi Tu(The Illustrations of Book of Odes)not the product of political and religious propaganda,unlike the Stele Scriptures,but representing the unique poetic expression of the royal family of the Southern Song Dynasty.