Literature on Terroir and the Perception of Native Lands of the Intellectual Elites in the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Abstract

The population migration and resettlement in the south of the Yangtze River at the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, led to the concept of “native lands” becoming an important cultural symbol and political resource for the dynasty. Through literature such as historical biographies, local gazetteers, poems, and rhapsodies, as well as emigrants’ narration, the perception and imagination of the Eastern Jin intellectual elites concerning their native lands were inherited and shaped. Genres, including, in particular, capital rhapsodies, travelogue rhapsodies, and other rhapsodies on the scenery and geography of the native lands, played an especially significant role in the early Eastern Jin literary and knowledge environment. From the Yonghe era under the reign of Emperor Mu, with the military advances and territorial expansion of the Eastern Jin, the intellectual elites had the opportunity to revisit or hear about the current situation of the native lands after a decade of political isolation, such as Ba-Shu, Guanzhong, Luoyang, and the lower reaches of the Yellow River. They were able to compare this knowledge with their earlier perception and imagination that had been shaped by reading and narration, which had kindled a cultural enthusiasm for rediscovering the terroir of the native lands in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Keywords

the Eastern Jin Dynasty / intellectual elites / native lands / terroir / cultural perception

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press