Abstract
Based on the case of the late Song literatus Wen Tianxiang 文天祥, this study aims to explore how various mantic arts played a part in, and became juxtaposed wlth, Confucian teachings in the lives of literati, and how Song literati reacted when faced with Iife crises. Given that Wen was deeply involved in both mantic arts and Confucian teachings, his IIfe experiences serve as a window through which we investigate how the juxtaposition of these two systems of knowledge came into being. One may also examine how Wen Tianxiang reacted, and which part of his knowledge associations became embodied, during the final stage of his heroic, yet tragic life. This study also goes beyond Wen Tianxiang himself, and probes into the ways in which Song Iiterati in general classified knowledge and identified with it.