Wandering knights-errant (youxia 游侠) arose from the capital city’s multiculturalism. The image of wandering knights-errant in Tang poetry most typically embodies the interactive relationship between individuals and the space of the capital city. Through their acts of “wandering” (you 游), these knights-errant not only broke the physical barriers between different spaces but also connected private and public spaces, thereby socially transcending class divides. They were not only observers but also contributors to the capital city’s landscape, enriching its aesthetic dimensions. The image of wandering knights-errant in literary works represents a fusion of worldly desires and idealistic splendor. Wandering knights-errant exhibited traits such as valuing profit over righteousness while also aiding the distressed; they could also be extravagant and indulge in their desires. When defying prohibitions with martial prowess, they disrupted order; yet, when serving as vanguards for the monarchy, they became defenders and beneficiaries of privileges. Behind these contradictions lies the complex and unique relationship between the image of wandering knights-errant and the space of the capital city. The image of wandering knights-errant in Tang poetry expands the space of the capital city, both geographically and psychologically, and completes the personification of the capital city.

In the Tang Dynasty, a vast and structurally stable transportation-literature triangle existed among Chang’an, Lingnan, and Yangzhou. This triangle was formed by these three cities and the transportation routes connecting them. First, this triangle was a transportation framework, shaping the movements of literati and facilitating their creation of travel-related literary works, thereby possessing a powerful literary production function. Second, this triangle was a spatial structure for Tang literature, providing a foundation for studying the creative contexts of related works and interpreting their textual meanings. This framework also enabled examining the multiple literary connections among Chang’an, Lingnan, and Yangzhou. By studying the movements of literati within this transportation triangle and the dissemination of literature along the routes, it is possible to conduct research into the geographic attribution of literary works and the practice of poetic exchanges in different locations. On a deeper level, this examination reveals how the opening of north-south transportation routes influenced literary transformations, providing insights into the spatial distribution and hierarchical structure of Tang literature. Thus, this transportation-literature triangle holds significant literary value on multiple levels.

This article is based on the painting named Competition on the Jinming Pool 金明池争标图 attributed to Zhang Zeduan 张择端 of the Song Dynasty, which is the earliest known realistic depiction of the Jinming Pool among the existing paintings. Although smaller in scale than Along the River during the Qingming Festival 清明上河图, it more fully reflects the rich connotations of the imperial capital from multiple angles and at multiple levels. By comparing the painting with relevant literary works, the “loong boat competition” activities held on the Jinming Pool 金明池 during the Shangsi Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty are examined through three interrelated spaces—the performance space on the water, the imperial ritual space, and the space for the leisure of scholars and commoners—to explore Northern Song literati’s narratives of the imperial capital. These three spaces are closely interconnected: They maintain clearly defined boundaries while also embodying the dynamics between viewing and being viewed. This makes Competition on the Jinming Pool more typical than Along the River during the Qingming Festival in representing the rich connotations and political-cultural transformations of the capital. The performance space on the water, through depictions of naval exercises, water entertainments, purification rituals during the Shangsi Festival, and prayers for rain, directly reveals shifts in national policy and state ceremonies. The imperial ritual space is presented through the deliberate absence of the sovereign's figure in the composition, which hints at the public or concealed/private monarch-subject dynamics and political semiotics encoded in activities such as practicing archery, attending banquets, appreciating flowers, fishing, and composing poetry in response to one another. The space for the leisure of scholars and commoners, depicted through group portraits and distinctions in attire, impressionistically constructs typical scenes of the Jinming Pool as a site of elegant gatherings of literati and urban romance. A variety of literary forms record all of this, thereby confirming and enriching the visual language and presentation of the painting.

Although there are numerous research findings on Dongjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, little attention has been paid to its sonic environment. From the perspective of soundscape, we can discern the interrelationships between sounds, environment, and human beings. In the descriptions of Dongjing’s natural sounds in Northern Song literature, the most prominent keynote sounds are the warbling of orioles and the chirping of cicadas. The warbling of orioles endowed the capital with a sense of beauty and peace, with Ouyang Xiu’s 欧阳修 portrayal of the oriole sounds in Dongjing being particularly noteworthy. Meanwhile, the chirping of cicadas gave rise to a polyphonic soundscape of the capital. The sounds of orioles and cicadas are directly connected with the capital and imperial power in Northern Song literature. Through layered texts and intertextual references, the warbling of orioles and the chirping of cicadas become markers of daily life in Dongjing, symbols of the capital’s environment, and catalysts for the authors’ emotions. These pervasive sounds create a sense of space through their extensibility. The depictions of Dongjing’s keynote soundscape in Northern Song literature have enabled readers from the Song Dynasty to the present day to “hear” the capital. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the world and ourselves, it is necessary to delve deeply into the soundscapes present in literature.

A distinct narrative shift in the “capital story” can be observed from the Tang to Song dynasties. From the perspective of comparative reading of classic works, one can trace the developmental trajectory from the story of Chang’an to that of Bianjing and then to that of Lin’an. The transformation in textual forms—such as authorial perspective, narrative tone, and descriptive detail—is evident in the movement from Surviving Anecdotes from the Kaiyuan and Tianbao Eras 开元天宝遗事 to Surviving Anecdotes from the Xuanhe Era of the Great Song 大宋宣和遗事. The progression from the “Qujiang Lake narrative of Chang’an” to the “West Lake narrative of Lin’an” signals a spatial shift in the narrative scene from the inner court to the civil realm, accompanied by a major transformation in both narrative subjects and spatial attributes. “Liu the Administrative Aide in Huazhou” 华州参军 and “Madam White Is Kept Forever under the Thunder Peak Tower” 白娘子永镇雷峰塔, as canonical texts of the “Qujiang Lake narrative” and “West Lake narrative,” respectively, illuminate how this narrative shift in the depiction of urban romance unfolds in detail: The former presents a variation of Tang-style storytelling, while the latter reflects the maturation of the Song aesthetic. In terms of cultural psychology, if the narrative of Chang’an in the Tang Dynasty embodies a cognitive model of “capital” and “state” as psychologically identical, then the narrative of Lin’an in the Southern Song adopts a vernacular and localized perspective. The local affections it constructs would later become one of the key sources for the formation of “place identity” in subsequent eras