The plum blossom poetry, either in quality or quantity, has witnessed extremely great changes in in the Two Song dynasties. There are over 4,700 poems about the plum blossom in The Whole Song Poetry. Instead of the sustenance of the sentimental moods, these poems carry the symptoms of moral significance. The high image and symbol of the plum blossom has hence become a research trend. However, among the various plum blossom poetry, the images and symbolic meanings of the plum blossom varies and should not necessarily be confined in the aspect of morality.
This research takes the plum blossom poetry in The Whole Song Poetry published by the Center for Ancient Chinese Classics & Archives, Peking University (CACCA) as the research object, adopting cultural methodology, imagery theory, aesthetics methods, as well as contextual analysis and biographical methods to comprehensively develop a new thesis--A Corner of Literary History: the Image and Symbol of Plum Blossom in Plum Blossom Poetry in the Song Dynasty, which explores the roles that the plum blossom plays in the lives of scholars and the common people in terms of food, clothing, housing, transportation and entertainment during the Song Dynasty. By writing poems, scholars recorded how plum blossoms has occupied their material life, as well as consciously employed different literary techniques to shape the lofty image of the plum blossom. As a self-symbol of morality, the high image of the plum blossom hence became unique. But overall, the images of plum blossoms as depicted in plum blossom poetry in the Song Dynasty are very diverse, with each image being a symbol of the poets’ emotions. This is a result of literati’s unconscious generation of other plum blossom images. Human emotions are varied, complex and cannot be absolutely classified, which can be likened to the growth of the plum blossom, which experiences from being serene, blooming, full blooming, blowing off and bearing. Its diversified images symbolize deep love, common human feelings and leisure moods so as to express the poets’ life and experience. These are the research results concluded from the plum blossom poetry in The Whole Song Poetry in combination with the backgrounds of the poets. In turn this is then utilized to observe the scholars’ mental states and their social life, which in other words is the interaction between literature and society, ultimately enabling the formation of the conclusion of this thesis.