On the Semantic Features of the Ci Poetry by Neo-Confucians in the Southern Song Dynasty

The Neo-Confucian ci poets in the Southern Song Dynasty,who used borrowed lexicons from The Four Books and The Five Classics in their poems or regarded the essentials of Neo-Confucianism as their internal aesthetic values,were conspicuously influenced by the Neo-Confucian doctrine.Their ci theory which integrates both artistic flavor and criticism represents the real state of mind of ci poets and their double standard.As a unique group in the Southern Song Dynasty,ci poets,though indispensable to the dominant schools of ci poets,displayed distinctive semantic characteristics in their poems.Therefore,a comprehensive study of this special group of poets and their poems could help us get a better understanding of the diversified developing trends of ci poetry in the Southern Song Dynasty and the history of the evolution of ci schools.