Abstract
The paper asserts that in considering the changes in the primary concerns of the literati of the Song Dynasty, it is essential to take into account the historical events that shaped these concerns. The paper mentions that it is of central importance to note that the Song dynasty experienced massive changes during the early 12th century. The paper relates that the Song dynasty consists of both the Northern and the Southern Song; prior to the year 1127, the Song dynasty is referred to as the Northern Song, but by the year 1127, the Jurchen armies had conquered all of northern China, causing the Song dynasty to flee south.

From the Paper
"In considering the changes in the primary concerns of the literati of the Song Dynasty, it is essential to take into account the historical events that shaped these concerns. Here, it is of central importance that the Song dynasty experienced massive changes during the early 12th century. The Song dynasty consists of both the Northern and the Southern Song. prior to the year 1127, the Song dynasty is referred to as the Northern Song. However, by the year 1127, the Jurchen armies had conquered all of northern China, causing the Song dynasty to flee south. Thereafter, the..."

Tags:song, dynasty, literati

Abstract
This paper examines the economy of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE). It discusses its changes, successes, failures and the influence of Wang Anshi and his reforms. The paper also explores the factors that led to increased economic growth.

Tags:Song Dynasty, China, Northern Song, Southern Song, economics, Wang Anshi

Abstract
The Literati where highly educated men who shared a common culture of Confucianism, refined men who also vied with each other at poetry, painting, and calligraphy. This paper examines the role of the literati in government between the 11th and 13th century.

Tags:literati, song, dynasty

Abstract
This paper contains in-depth research on the life of emperor and artist Hui Tsung. The author of this paper discusses Hui-Tsung as a sophisticated antiquarian, whose talent and vision became an increasingly important factor in Chinese art. What differentiated Emperor Hui-tsung's painting style and that of the Literati was the emperor's main focus on Taoistic idealistic realism. Numerous historians of art believe that the Northern Sung Dynasty period produced the greatest realistic landscapes in China's history. This extensive paper also covers in detail the different views and aspects on the history of art in China.
Topics covered in this paper include:
Introduction
The Northern Dissident Literati
Su Ch'e
Confucianism and Taoism
Emperor Hui-tsung
Li T'ang
Xia gui
Conclusion
Chinese footnotes
Bibliography

From the Paper
"According to a translation from the German Tripod Mitgdeider Home Page, which includes an anthology of Chinese Poets of the Sung Dynasty, Ou Yang hsiu was an outstanding proselytizer and poet of the ' Northern Sung '. His pen name was Tsui weng, which has been translated as "the old gray drunk". Ou Yang's father died when he was four years old and he grew up in difficult conditions. It is said that his mother taught him reading and he was forced to write in the dirt, having no money to purchase paper. Later he took the civil service exams and became politically active. He belonged to the progressive fan Chung Yen and was eventually deported to a remote area of China. Despite this set back, he devoted himself to transforming the poetry and prose of his period. Although He was a devotee of the T'ang poet and the famous philosopher Han Uye, his work was smoothly elegant and unique having almost a musical quality."

Tags:art, asia, history, china, biography

Abstract
This paper examines poems about women, which reflect the culture of humankind and its history from the Tang dynasty, and yet, also reflect life today. The author points out that, in the five-character verse poem, "To My Daughter on Her Marriage into the Yang Family", by author Wei Yingwu, the girl in the poem may have left for her new marriage by boat instead of by limousine, but the love that the father feels for his daughter shares the same bittersweet emotions of any parent when the wedding couple says their vows in 2004.The paper relates that the poem, "Endless Yearning II", by Li Bai (701-762), with its folk-song-stylized verses could be a love song put to music by one of the present musical artists and understood by audiences of all ages.

Table of Contents
To My Daughter on Her Marriage into the Yang Family
Endless Yearning II

From the Paper
"The author expresses the realities of life on earth with its pain and burdens. However, he also waits for his turn to be on the other side or paradise with his love, in the mountain wind and blue skies so far above. He hopes that his love can reach up to her, and his tears convince her of the aching of his heart. However, when reflecting on these clear yet complex words, one understands that there is much more beyond the simple telling of a love song hints and innuendos and insights into other depths of meaning. On a deeper level, like many poets during the Tang period, the storyteller yearns for a distant and boundless heaven that appears in another dimension and awaits an individual's death."

Tags:father, realities, complex, storyteller, song

Abstract
This paper discusses how, instead of dictating right from wrong, Taoism emphasizes the ideal of so-called pure talk, stressing that people should only talk about the good side of everything, to create a sense of positive energy and harmony between the spirit and the universe. The paper looks at how the epoch of Taoism came in the form of the Song Dynasty, which many historians consider the first modern era of Chinese history. The paper further explains that during this Dynasty the leadership and the emerging commercial classes embraced, for the first time, the spirit of the Tao to an imperial level, because of the economic and social changes gripping China at the time.

From the Paper
"For most of early Chinese history, Taoism was often "the philosophy and consolation of the gentleman in retirement, of the political failure." (DeBarry, Chan & Bloom, p.50) It was a religious philosophy distanced from the political administration of China, rather than embraced by the rulers of the empire, unlike Confucianism or even Buddhism. Taoism was a religion of "seclusion and cultivation," that seemed alien to the demands of the workaday world, much less the ways of rulers. (DeBarry, Chan & Bloom, p.50) Taoism stood in marked contrast to Confucianism's advocacy of n rigidly hierarchical to life that seemed to ideally suit the ways of an emperor operating under a mandate of heaven. However, the epoch of Taoism would come in the form of the Song Dynasty, which many historians consider the first modern era of Chinese history. "

Tags:energy, harmony, Confucianism

Abstract
This paper analyzes a paragraph from "The Analects" of Confucius as detailed in the historical perspective brought forth by Zhu Xi in his interpretation of this philosophy. The paper discusses the universal world view of the good or ren in Zhu Xi's innate beliefs about humanity, and explains that the 'qi' provides a great obstacle to the innate goodness that resides in human nature.

Tags:confucius, religion, analects

Abstract
This paper reviews the contribution of Zhu Xi to neo-Confucianism as recurring Chinese response to periods of upset or confusion. The paper discusses his texts for distribution, ideas of 'li' in relation to 'xi' as these justified a superior examination system, learned and moral officials, and all other ideals that had to do with Ancient ideals. The paper further discusses both a religious and cultural impact on the role of the scholar.

From the Paper
"Zhu Xi (1130-1200) and his Influence in the Song Dynasty. Introduction Zhu Xi's commentaries on the works of Confucius and Mencius are said to have shaped China's religious and other thought, through the next several centuries. (Ching 2000) Zhi Xi and his followers gave much time to explaining the eternal forces of li, as the principle of spirit or energy and xi, of the physical world, that influenced one another. He restored Confucian ideas of a proper social order to be gone about in different ways. One sees that his neo-Confucianism was consistent with what he saw as so important in cosmology. "

Tags:zhuxi, songdynasty, influence

Abstract
The paper compares and contrasts two Guanyin sculptures from the Song Dynasty.

From the Paper
"The purpose of this report is to compare two wooden sculptures of Guanyin, both from the Song Dynasty in the mid-tenth through late thirteenth century in China. The first is a monumental rendition of this image that is in the Eugene Fuller Collection of the Seattle Art Museum. The second is found in the Sackler Museum at Harvard University. The Fuller Guanyin is a wood and polychrome sculpture that stands ... centimeters tall. Large scale wooden sculptures dating to..."

Tags:Song Dynasty, Guanyin

Abstract
In this article, the writer discusses that Song dynasty and other landscape painting was much influenced by daoist ideas of the supremacy of nature. They were admired in Japan where monks sometimes taught artists just as occasional Japanese reached Chinese monasteries. The writer maintains that the rise of landscape painting in China helped to inspire Japanese monochromatic art that soon evolved on its own in response to Zen Buddhist influence. Several examples are mentioned of both genres with 6 figures.

From the Paper
"Landscape painting has remained the preeminent form of Chinese painting into the present. The term of shanshui or `mountain and water' refers to landscape painting as understood by the Chinese in rather a continuum from the 4th and 5th centuries. By the 11th century, landscape painting had become the most important form in China, stimulated and influenced by ..."

Tags:landscape, japan, monochrome