The Study Of Gao Side’s Prose In The Southern Song Dynasty

Gao Side was a famous minister in the late Southern Song Dynasty.Although his official rank was up to Assistant Administrator,he was often excluded by powerful officials and did not completely achieve his political aspirations throughout his life.The poetry and proses left by Gao Side are not considered first-class,but they often appear in the text with sorrowful and indignant criticisms of the social ills of the late Southern Song Dynasty,as well as concerns about the country’s thoughts.The paper places Gao Side’s proses in the history and culture of the late Southern Song Dynasty,focusing on four distinctive genres: Jingyan story,record writing,argumentative writing,and preface and postscript.The paper is divided into five chapters as follows:Chapter One studies Gao Side’s Jingyan stories.By comparing the selections for Jingyan of the Gaozong reign to the Duzong reign of the Southern Song Dynasty,it is summarized that the material selection characteristics of Jingyan stories is: combining both classics and history,and emphasizing historical biographies.His proses aimed at practical issues such as negligent official and superfluous troops in the Southern Song Dynasty,and put forward strategies for choosing officials with virtue,inspiring morale,and so on.It had important practical significance.Chapter Two discusses the artistic characteristics of Gao Side’s argumentation and reasoning in the record writings.The themes of the record writings in the Song Dynasty were closely related to the social reality.The policy of promoting education promoted the prosperity of the creation of the study record,the trend of repairing promoted the development of building record,and the public welfare granary record was closely related to the law of “Pingdi”.Gao Side’s record writings had a wide range of themes,often combining current affairs and political orders,not emphasizing physical and emotional expressions,but focusing on argumentation and reasoning,reflecting a brand new look,which is "breaking genre into the record writing”,of the Song Dynasty’s record writing.Chapter Three analyzes the creation of Gao Side’s argumentative writings with the proses on name as the main body.In the influence of Neo-Confucianism,Gao Side’s proses on name conveyed the educational concept of combination of knowledge and action as well as straightforwardness and truthfulness in terms of academics,and manifested as moral training under Neo-Confucianism in terms of self-cultivation.At the same time,Gao Side was able to integrate the principles of "the Book of Changes" into the name interpretation,to use the lines and hexagrams to elucidate the theory of life,to urge future generations to adapt to the current situation and remain silent,demonstrating the life wisdom of "using sacrifice,taking action and hiding".Chapter Four studies Gao Side’s preface and postscript.Its prologue conveys the poetic ideas of being warm and gentle,moderate and peaceful.Gao Side emphasized that poems and proses should have substance in their words,be straightforward and harmonious in their language,and focus on substance rather than refinement.At the same time,the prefaces and postscripts embodied the humanistic spirit of respecting Confucianism and valuing virtue,expressing praise for ideal qualities such as loyalty,filial piety,benevolence,and righteousness.Chapter Five summarizes the overall characteristics of Gao Side’s prose creation,namely the spirit of Neo-Confucianism and the consciousness of historical writing style.Gao Side had a dual identity as both a Neo-Confucianism and a historian,and thus interpreted reason through literature and narrated history through literature.His proses summarized historical experiences,provided practical strategies,and presented a tendency towards the coexistence of Neo-Confucianism and utilitarian spirit,which also provided considerable evidences for future researches on the history of the Southern Song Dynasty.In the literary world of the Southern Song Dynasty,where numerous scholars gathered together,although Gao Side could not be called a literary giant,his works were no lack of masterpieces.His proses not only highlighted the speculative spirit of NeoConfucianism,but also took reality into account from a historical perspective,showcasing the strong sense of hardship and social responsibility of literati in the late Southern Song Dynasty.The exploration of the value of Gao Side’s proses is conducive to understanding the mentality of the literati in the late Southern Song Dynasty,and has certain significance for comprehensively caring for the literary trend of the Southern Song Dynasty.