Zhang Dai lived in the late Ming Dynasty. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, eunuchs were good at power, courtiers were in power, spies were rampant, party struggles were fierce, and internal and external troubles became more and more serious. Virtuous and loyal, or banished, or punished. At the same time, a trend of anti-Neo-Confucianism and anti-Confucianism emerged in the ideological circle.

The left wing of Wang Xue, represented by Wang Gen and Li Zhi, openly flaunts the lust for profit and desires as human nature, opposes the affectation of Neo-Confucianism, and advocates the innocence and frankness. This is undoubtedly a rebellion against traditional ethics and a challenge to Cheng Zhu's neo-Confucianism of "keeping the natural principles and destroying human desires".

under the impetus of this trend of thought, literati, while dissatisfied with the society, have pursued individual liberation: indulging in debauchery, indulging in landscapes, and pursuing material and spiritual satisfaction to the greatest extent.

On the one hand, they flaunt elegance, leisure and refinement, and in the romantic scenery, landscape gardens, pavilions, flowers, birds, fish and insects, Four Treasures of the Study, calligraphy and painting, eating and drinking tea ceremony, rare antiques, acrobatics and games, they deliberately create artistic tastes that are pleasing to the eye, leisure and free from vulgarity, and gain the interest of life and artistic poetry through enjoying and lingering.

On the other hand, under the banner of rebelling against the rites and laws of Ming Dynasty, they indulge in sensual pleasures, indulge in extravagant desires, burn incense and burn incense, instead of being ashamed, they are proud. "Human feelings are fast with debauchery, and social customs are high with extravagance.

Extended information:

Zhang Dai (October 5, 1597-168? ), at the beginning of the word Weicheng, later the word Zongzi, and later the word Tiansun, was called "Shigong" because of the Book of Stone Chamber, so it was also called Shigong, named Taoan, and later named Liuxiu Jushi, Diean, Gu Jian (an old man in Taoan, Gu Jian), Ke Danlu, etc., a native of Shanyin, Zhejiang (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang), and his ancestral home was Jianmen, Sichuan (therefore,

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, historians and writers, together with Tan Qian, Wan Sitong and Cha Jizuo, were called "the four great historians in eastern Zhejiang" in history, and they were famous for their essays and "the master of essays" in literary creation.

Zhang Dai was born in an official family. He suffered from phlegm disease in his early years and lived in his grandfather's house for illness. Besides being called "the river is flooded today" by his uncle Tao Huxi, he also said, "If you paint with poems, you can't paint well; Taking poetic poetry as poetry, poetry will be bad "and so on;" During the apocalypse and the early years of Chongzhen, he wandered freely, leaving a lot of poems.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), he took part in the provincial examination and failed, so he did not become an official. After the Ming Dynasty's death, he first avoided the military disaster and lived in seclusion in Siming Mountain. After the military disaster, he stuck to poverty and began to devote himself to writing, including Dream of Taoan, Dream of West Lake and Book of Stone Chamber.

In the fourth year of Kangxi (1665), he wrote the epitaph for himself, which meant that he was born to die. Later, he died in September of the 19th year of Kangxi (168) at the age of eighty-four, and was buried in Shanyin.

Baidu encyclopedia-Zhang Dai