The Writing Of Resurgence By The Southern Song Literati Under Gaozong’s Reign

Resurgence was the most significant political agenda under Gaozong’s reign of the Southern Song dynasty.It was also a major theme of the literary writing in that period.Resurgence served as a clue through which political events and literary expression in the early Southern Song were interconnected.The literati under Gaozong’s reign wrote profusely on the concept of resurgence in a variety of genres such as official document and poetry.On the one hand,resurgence was a political ideal that the literati under Gaozong’s rule sought to construct.The feats achieved by the rulers of the previous resurgent dynasties such as the King of Xuan in the Zhou dynasty,the Emperor Guangwu in the Han dynasty and Suzong in the Tang dynasty not only set goals and hopes for the early Southern Song literati,but also offered them copious materials which they could use to express political views and to make political decisions.Following the clues of inheriting ancestral feats,reclaiming lost territories,appointing the good and the talented and confronting adversities,the literati under Gaozong’s reign created a genealogy of previous resurgent dynasties,thus providing Gaozong with norms of ruling.Their construction of this genealogy in the imperial exam essays demonstrated the high level of critical thinking skills that were demanded from them.Among the previous rulers,the best example for Gaozong to follow was the King of Xuan in the Zhou dynasty,whose achievement of "Coping with domestic affairs while combating external invasion" was recorded by the The Book of Songs.The emphasis of the early Southern Song literati on the King of Xuan’s return to the ancients was closely associated with their reflection upon Wang Anshi’s reform,demonstrating the complex dynamics between conservatism and revolution in the Southern Song resurgence.On the other hand,the contradiction between "revival" and "continuation" as the connotation of resurgence underpinned the conflict between the pro and anti-war national policy under Gaozong’s reign:the pro-war side argued that resurgence entailed the recovery of the lost territories,and the anti-war side was satisfied with the survival of the Zhao family.The literati under Gaozong’s reign had to pick sides between the two connotations of resurgence,which formed tension with Gaozong’s viewpoint on the issue and was therefore indicative of the literati’s morals.Cao Xun was a famous envoy in the early Southern Song.The three diplomatic missions he undertook under Gaozong’s reign between Song and Jin witnessed the construction of the concept of resurgence and the transformation of national policies.The writing of resurgence in Cao Xun’s poetry revealed the subject-literatus split behind the hope of resurgence and represented the fragility and the complexity of the literati’s morality.The poems composed by Cao Xun in the post-Qin Hui era not only demonstrated his involvement in the political and literary resurgence,but also reflected the fading away of the concept of resurgence in the post-Qin Hui era.