Research Of The Self-writing Of The Scholars Insong Dynasty

Literature is the reflection of writers’ lives,emotions and thoughts.It must involve the writer’s self-description,self-examination and self-image’s creation.In the Northern Song Dynasty,portraits became popular among the scholars.They wrote poems in their own portraits(people also called them photos),and they started some activities like sang some poems and songs among friends around their portraits.The scholars in Song Dynasty continued the tradition of writing mirror poetry in the Mid Tang Dynasty,too.They described their appearances in mirrors and the emotions from it.On New Year’s Eve,New Year’s day,Birthday and other special days,they all wrote poems and essays to reviewed and summarized their lives.Above all of these constituted the self-writing of the scholars in Song Dynasty.Compared with former dynasties,the scholars in Song Dynasty didn’t only regard themselves as the appendages of the imperial power any longer,and they kept definite distance from it.At the same time,they had more intense attention to themselves.Especially after not being officials,they paid more attention to the self individuals.Therefore,the literature of the Song Dynasty had accumulated rich self writing.In these self-writing of the scholars in Song Dynasty,we can see their political ideals which they wanted to address to the monarch Yao and Shun;their generous fight which they paid their lives and blood to take on the national calamity;their pursuit of the freedom of the soul and the desire for the seclusion of the landscape and pastoral;when they were relegated,they tried to restrain their negative emotion and keep optimistic attitude;the intense attention of their own health and desire of longevity.And they had the longing for daily life and the mood of modesty,introverted and tranquil mood.Because of the specific historical context and the traditional psychological characteristics of Chinese self-writing,the "tragic heroes" of the former sages and the ancient mythology had become "typed" in their portrayal of their self-images.In fact,the real purpose of the scholars’ self-writing in Song Dynasty was to record the tradition of historical biography,self-awareness and strong sense of inheritance.From these pursuit of life values and mentalities,people can see the independent and sober personality and styles of scholars in Song Dynasty.The self-images described and painted by the scholars of Song Dynasty have great significance for us to better understand the Song Dynasty,Chinese traditional culture and national psychology.