The narrative element in ancient Chinese poetry has run a long course from a remote source. The study on narrative is a necessary perspective to analyze ancient poetry as well as an important method to perceive the whole Chinese narrative tradition. On the basis of the inherited characteristics of previous dynasties，the narrative of Song poetry has added itself more techniques and forms，promoting the interaction of the narrative and lyric，and thus makes a significant contribution to more diversified forms of poetic expression. According to the traditional narrative theory of poetry，this thesis analyzes the narrative in Song poems and the specific creative practices of Song Dynasty poets to explore the characteristics and trends of Song poetry’s narrative. It is a subject which can help us to understand the trends and the aesthetic features of Song poetry and improve our comprehensions of narrative tradition of ancient Chinese poetry.

The narrativity of Song poetry has been enhanced over previous generations，which is initially reflected in the development of Song narrative poetry. Poets have rational understanding of the processes of events. They concern about internal causal and express them orderly and hierarchically，as a result，the narrative process has a relatively clear thread. The poets also make good use of the changes in narrative sequence to create different effects of expression.

The enhancement of narrativity in Song poetry can be traced in the developed poetry chronicle （纪事）. Poetry chronicle is a form that records certain phenomena，fragments or scenes of great importance in events，and by these phenomena，clips，scenes，or a combination of them to reflect the whole events. Song Dynasty poets are good at selecting tiny fragments in event to present the situation and express their thoughts and feelings，achieving strong narrative effects. What they have done carries forward the refined but meaningful feature of poetry. Also，the concept of ‘Shishi’ （诗史），which refers to poems serving as history，is greatly enriched and become mature. This is one of the most important achievements on poetry chronicle in Song Dynasty.

Some of Song poems take advantage of the title，preamble and comments to explain the information associated with the event，so as to create narrative environment for the body of poetry，and provide a foundation for the description，discussion，lyric in poems. The tendency of narrative refinement in titles，preambles and comments is also an important performance which reflects the enhancement of Song poetry’s narrativity.

Narrative techniques are widely applied in Song poems of various themes. The number of poetry themes in Song Dynasty which adopt narrative as the main expression exceeds those in previous generations and the range of events involved in the Song poems become more extensive. Many poems retain quite outstanding narrative features，and present different narrative characteristics as the themes change. The changes of the ways in which the themes appear reflect the changes of creative tendencies in an era.

Each genre of poetry has its unique style and characteristics，the narrative of which has different features. There are many different genres of Song poems. They carried on the narrative tradition while added themselves new elements as time goes by.

Overall，the narrativity of poetry has been enhanced in Song Dynasty. The main reasons for the development of narrative include ideological and cultural background，the internal development of poetry，and the poets’subjective pursuit. In handling the relationship between narrative and lyric，poets tend to describe events elaborately in which the emotions are implied.

The general characteristic of Song poetry’s narrative is the creation of the narrative environment（事境），through which the poets tend to reproduce the specific situations of a certain relevant events for readers to taste the unique experiences of the poets so as to convey the theme of the poetry.

Keywords：Song Poetry；Narrativity；Narrative Poetry；Poetry Chronicle；Narrative Environment；Poetry of History