″Song Poetry is the Representative Literary Form of the Song Dynasty″:A Misconception to be Corrected

The statement that ″Song poetry is the representative literary form of the Song Dynasty″ is a component part of the concept that ″each dynasty has its own representative literature″.Originating from the Yuan Dynasty,prevalent in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,and endowed with theoretical coloring by Wang Guowei and Hu Shi in modern times,the said statement has been regarded as ″the only correct viewpoint on Chinese literary history″.This viewpoint is historically meaningful,for its core lies in the fact that the ″literary forms will change with the times″,and its purpose is to emphasize the new change of the literary form;yet it is characterized by being conceptually non-historical.As it takes the literary development simply as the development of the literary form,equating the whole history of the literary development with the history of the gradual progress of the literary form,it neglects the rich and colorful characteristics of the literary development,as well as fails to reveal the law of the gradual progress of the literary form itself.Based on facts of literary history,none of the three common literary forms——shi(poem),ci(lyric poem) and wen(prose)——in the Song Dynasty had anything to do with ci,whether it flourished or represented the typical form.Although Song lyric poetry achieved what the other two forms could never achieve and replace, it did not take the place of ″the representative literary form of the Song Dynasty″ in any case.All in all,the concept that ″Song lyric poetry is the representative literary form of the Song Dynasty″ is exactly non-historical.It is not suitable at all,therefore,to use the concept in the study of the literary history of the Song Dynasty.