After the Yuan Army invaded the Central Plain at the end of the Song Dynasty, the Song Empire was broken. Faced with the atmosphere and historical background of the national crisis, the Song scholar-official class generally set up a moral standard and value system of “taking the world as their own duty”, regarded loyalty to the country and the emperor as the most righteous path, and made a political choice to consciously transform their identity from scholar-officials to military generals who would save the country from being battered. At the same time, patriotic climax and expression of personality became an inseparable unity. Take Wen tianxiang for example, their loyalty to the Song emperor and patriotism was highly unified with their personality, it has been widely praised by future generations. The outstanding scholars’ writings made a patriotic literature climax at the end of the Song Dynasty. It not only reflected the profound influence of neo-confucianism on the personality construction of the scholar-officials and literary intelligentsia in the Song Dynasty, but also accorded with the orthodox literary thought in the Late Song Dynasty. In their patriotic writings, their noble national integrity of serving the country with death, coupled with their superb talent and creative skills, endowed their works with the epic temperament of shining through the ages. Therefore, the Song scholar-officials’ patriotic writing made the Song Dynasty a highlight moment of patriotic writing in the history of Chinese literature.
Keywords: national crisis, patriotic writing, political choice, scholar-officials, the song dynasty China
