Yuan Literature II

2 trends when Southern Song fell:

• Yimin = loyalists = leftover subjects – minds trapped in previous dynasty
• New areas of China opened up – travels. Many Buddhist and Daoist monks went to see the great temple complex at Mount Wutai and new capital in Dadu. It brought about a sense of unity.

Implications of the end of the examination system

Since there are no more imperial examinations, the writers started to do other stuff in its place.

Poetic competitions were organized in the south. They resurrected the ideals and structure of the examination system but its main focus is literary composition independent of political mobility.

Instead of testing the standard core of shared info, they created societies that examined different writers on their ability to write poetry of a single topic.

The institutions judged the quality or the works and awarded prizes.

Some of the themes were flowers, colophons on calligraphy and paintings, parting poems, poems celebrating appointments to positions, poetic gatherings, historical sites and events, etc.

Most important themes: palace poems and “bamboo songs” from West Lack in Hangzhou.

Hundreds of colophons and independently compiled and printed collections of poems on a single theme.

Like the imperial examinations, these events and competitions resulted in large gatherings, which strengthened communication and the cultural bond between writers.