Appraisal of Ci Poetry

Ci Pin (Remarks on Ci Poetry) consists of six juan plus a supplementary juan, "Shiyi," which is followed by four additional entries supplied by Chen Qiufan from the Hanhai edition. The work is rich and wide-ranging in content, covering a broad scope. It seeks, as far as possible, to gather and verify the original circumstances behind the ci works of poets across the dynasties, as well as earlier critics' evaluative remarks. The six juan are arranged largely in chronological order: juan one mostly records Six Dynasties yuefu songs and lyrics, verifies the origins of ci tunes, discusses the relationship between tune and content, and examines the rhymes of Six Dynasties yuefu and the ci form; it even holds that the diction of ci composition "cannot achieve excellence unless it derives from the selected poetry and yuefu," attempting from various angles to argue for a common origin between Six Dynasties yuefu and ci. Yang Shen held that the ci form originated in Six Dynasties yuefu, and so his account begins with Six Dynasties yuefu lyrics. Juan two mainly records the ci works of Tang and Five Dynasties poets, works from the inner quarters and from recluses and monks, and related anecdotes, and explains and verifies obscure characters and expressions in the ci form. Juan three through six record the ci works and anecdotes of poets of the Northern and Southern Song, the Yuan, and the present dynasty. The supplementary juan mostly records the ci works and anecdotes of women such as singing girls and concubines. Apart from excerpts and quotations from others' remarks on ci, Ci Pin comments on more than eighty poets of the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, and Yuan, touching on the characteristics, styles, rhyming, and composition of the ci form, and holds considerable documentary and theoretical value in the history of ci scholarship.