Twenty two centuries of nostalgia in classical Chinese poetry

A burgeoning literature on nostalgia has identified the construct’s features, affective content, triggers, and psychological benefits across cultures. It has been argued that nostalgia is a fundamental human emotion. If so, these properties of nostalgia ought to be detected historically. We tested this possibility by relying on classical Chinese poetry, a unique vehicle given its historical relevance to ancient life and ability to express emotion. Content analyses of 600 poems revealed that, across dynasties, nostalgia was perceived and experienced similarly to today. In particular, the central (and also peripheral) features of the construct “nostalgia” were similar, the affective tone of nostalgia was mostly positive, its triggers paralleled contemporary ones (with visual stimuli and close others being most salient), and its psychological benefits were the same (with social connectedness being most prominent). The findings point to nostalgia as fundamental human emotion and open up promising directions of inquiry.