A History of Ci Poetry

A History of Ci Poetry is the representative work of the modern ci scholar Liu Yupan and the first general history of ci in China. In 1919, invited by Cai Yuanpei, the author taught at Peking University, where he lectured on the history of ci; this book was compiled from those lecture notes and completed in the autumn of 1922, comprising eleven chapters and about 90,000 characters. Proceeding chronologically, the book traces the more than one thousand years of evolution of the ci form—from its sprouting in the Sui and Tang, its development in the Five Dynasties, its flourishing in the Northern Song, its brilliance in the Southern Song, its dispersion through the Jin and Yuan, its decline in the Ming, to its irrigation in the early Qing and harvest around the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns—and explores the reasons for the rise and fall of ci styles in each era. The first chapter distinguishes the earliest rise of ci from poetry and yuefu; subsequent chapters discuss Wen Tingyun, the ci poets of Western Shu and Southern Tang in the Five Dynasties, the rise of slow ci in the Northern Song, the abundance of Southern Song ci poets and the seven great masters of Song ci, the growth and decline of ci in Liao, Jin, Yuan, and Ming, and the revival of Qing ci scholarship, with a final chapter offering overall conclusions. The book is richly documented and synthesizes materials on ci collections, poets, groups, forms, and criticism, combining the scholarly taste of a traditional ci poet with modern literary-scientific concepts. This Commercial Press edition is included in the 'Chinese Modern Academic Classics Series,' features an introduction by the ci specialist Liu Yangzhong, and appends 'A Brief Account of Ci,' 'Notes on the Huian Miaojue Ci Selection,' and a chronology of Liu Yupan's scholarship; 'Notes on the Huian Miaojue Ci Selection' is published in collated form for the first time and can serve as supplementary reading.