Southern Osmanthus and Northern Pear: The Garden of Xiang Ziyin as a Site of Memory in the Writings of Southern Song Literati

Abstract

Abstract Taking an interdisciplinary perspective from cultural memory studies, this article examines how the garden of the northern refugee Xiang Ziyin 向子諲 (1085–1152), Aromal Arbor 薌林, became a site of memory for two generations of Southern Song literati following the collapse of the Northern Song dynasty in 1126–27. Investigating the dialogue of major figures such as Li Gang (1083–1140), Hu Hong (1105–61), Zhou Bida (1126–1204), Fan Chengda (1126–93), Lou Yue (1137–1213), and Zhu Xi (1130–1200) writing in a range of genres (shi poetry, song lyrics, personal letters, travel diaries, and the preface and postface to Xiang's collected works) on Aromal Arbor, the article concludes that the reason the space of his garden became a site of memory was due to the way it captured the tension between setting down roots and a nostalgic desire for return that defined the literati ethos of twelfth-century China during the “migration south.”