Study On The Thought Of Song Maocheng's Jiu Yue Ji

Song Maocheng was a famous classical novelist in the late period of Ming Dynasty,who lived from Longqing period to Taichang period.Song Maocheng was bom in a cultural family.His ancestors were descendants of Song Dynasty's royal families and they were relocated in Songjiang in the Ming Dynasty.Although experienced twists and turns,Song clan was still a noble family in Songjiang area.Song Maocheng was a man of good sense of chivalry and admired antiquity.He liked to make friends and traveled all over the country.His circle of friends was very extensive,including cabinet ministers and hermits,which had an important influence on Song Maocheng's literary creation,especially the novel creation.Passing the imperial examination is the goal of Song Maocheng's life because of the heavy mission from the family.He devoted himself to passing the imperial examination from the age of thirty.He passed the imperial examinations at the provincial level when he was forty-four years old.But he had failed in the examinations afterwards and then died of grief.Song Maocheng's poetry was valued by the people,but he preferred to write novels and unofficial history,and he had written Jiu Yue Ji.Song Maocheng had a progressive view of women and respected for women's independence and equality of personality.Under the dual influences of late-Ming mind philosophy and traditional Confucianism,Song Maocheng's works often implied the contradiction and entanglement of sense and sensibility.At the same time,under the impact of the commodity economy,Song Maocheng's views on love and marriage had a strong economic color,showing a rational and realistic side.He had read history book very extensively,liked to comment on social affairs and paid attention to national politics,therefore his works had mark of historical literature.He had struggled between the lofty ideals for country and cruel scientific reality all his life.He liked to write novels and unofficial history,but he had to take responsibility of the family to participate in the imperial examinations,even if it was a very difficult road.The chivalric novels in Jiu Yue Ji also have the uniqueness of the times.Song Maocheng didn't simply advocate force or praise virtue and punish vice,or criticize the reality,but on this basis revealed the positive of life,fulling of philosophical meaning.In the late period of Ming Dynasty,with the popular of Zen,Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism were combined.Song Maocheng actively sought relief in the teachings of Buddhism and Taoism after he suffered from failure in the examinations,serious illness and family misfortune and other hardships.He made Buddhist and Taoist thought into the Confucianism,and sought spiritual comfort to escape from reality,in order to maintain the balance of the inner world.