Su Shi's Liyin --mainly about the time when he was a governor of Mizhou--

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Other Title
  • 蘇軾の吏隱 : 密州知事時代を中心に
  • ソショク ノ リイン ミツシュウ チジ ジダイ オ チュウシン ニ
  • 蘇軾の吏隠 : 密州知事時代を中心に

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Abstract

A mental conflict between living as a government official and living in seclusion, has been one of the great themes of the Chinese literature. Su Shi, who was a typical Shidafu 士大夫 in Song 宋 Dynasty, also expressed a conflict like this in his poems and proses. When he was a governor of Mizhou, Su Shi repaired a Tai 臺 in his office garden. This Tai was named "Chaoran" 超然 by his brother Su Zhe 蘇轍. Su Shi contributed a prose "Chaorantaiji" 超然臺記 to this Tai, an in this prose, he interpreted "Chaoran" as an attitude, in which he never made any estimation on the difference of various kinds of things in the ordinary world. Although in conventional interpretation, "Chaoran" meant rising above worldly affairs, Su Shi dared to object to this conventional interpretation. Su Shi's attitude like this is also found in his other poems and proses written in the same period. In these poems and proses, he criticized Shidafu's fondness for things which give him joy in Liyin. The fondness for things in Liyin life is one of the very remarkable ways which were used by Bai Ju-yi 白居易 in his Liyin. Su Shi dared to declare himself against it. The attitude like this, is also found in some proses written by Sima Guang 司馬光 and Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修. In these proses, they interpreted joy of fondness for things in the morals of Confucianism. Su Shi's attitude seems to be relevant to their attitudes. In "Xizhai" 西齋 poem, Su Shi tried to describe his Liyin life as Bai Ju-yi's. But in the latter part of this poem, he expressed his dissatisfaction with Bai Ju-yi's Liyin style, and his desire to retire to his old home just like Tao Yuanming 陶淵明. From the construction of this poem, we can recognize that in the end Su Shi could not be satisfied with his Liyin life, even if he adopted his new highly metaphysical Liyin style.

Journal

  • 中國文學報

    中國文學報 48 63-93, 1994-04

    CHINESE LITERATURE ASSOCIATION, DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, FACULTY OF LETTERS, KYÔTO UNIVERSITY

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