Yucun's Remarks on Ci Poetry

Li DiaoyuanTibet People's Publishing House · ChinaJun 2024

3.4

Word count: 25K words
Chapters: 6

Summary

Ci is not the offshoot of shi; it is the source of shi. Of the thirty-one pieces by the Zhou grandees, eighteen are lines of uneven length. Of the nineteen Han suburban sacrifice songs, five are lines of uneven length. As for the eighteen short-flute and cymbal songs, every one consists of lines of uneven length. In the heyday of the Tang's Kaiyuan era, the quatrains of Wang Zhihuan, Gao Shi and Wang Changling circulated at the flag pavilion, while Li Bai's Pusa Man and other ci were also set to pipes and strings; in truth all were ancient yuefu. In poetry there were first yuefu, then the ancient style, and after the ancient style came the recent style. Yuefu is lines of uneven length; lines of uneven length are ancient ci. Hence one says: ci is not the offshoot of shi; it is the source of shi. Wen and Wei took flowing elegance as their standard; the pieces by the men of Southern Tang and Western Shu recorded in Huajian ji are the most archaic and gorgeous.

Editor's review

Li Tianyuan's Yucun Cihua is one of the more distinctive works of Qing dynasty ci scholarship. Its central thesis is striking: ci is not the offshoot of shi but its source. Tracing uneven-line verse back to the Zhou pieces, the Han suburban sacrifice songs and the short-flute and cymbal songs, it argues that such verse existed since antiquity, and so links yuefu, ancient-style and recent-style poetry and ci into a single genealogy. This claim may not be settled doctrine in the history of ci scholarship, but it is highly polemical and helps readers understand how Qing scholars sought to raise the standing of the ci genre. Its assessments of Wen Tingyun, Wei Zhuang and the Southern Tang and Western Shu poets in Huajian ji, judged by the standards of "flowing elegance" and "archaic gorgeousness," reflect the aesthetic orientation of Qing cihua. This edition makes the work more accessible, suiting ci enthusiasts as an introductory reference and scholars as a source for examining Qing conceptions of ci. It is best read as one voice among many; set beside Renjian Cihua and other works, it reveals the contours of ci debates more clearly.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Lovers of classical literature interested in ci studies and Qing cihua
Undergraduates and graduate students of Chinese literary theory and ci criticism
Literary-history readers curious about the theory that ci is the source of shi
Readers interested in Huajian ji and late Tang and Five Dynasties ci

Not a good fit for

Beginners seeking a systematic course in ci prosody and composition
Readers accustomed to modern literary-theory frameworks and unfamiliar with traditional cihua conventions
Readers who want only anthologies of ci and have little interest in theoretical commentary

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the overarching thesis that ci is the source of shi, then revisit individual entries.
Keep Huajian ji or the ci of Wen and Wei at hand to understand what the comments refer to.
Excerpt entries on origins and on style, and read them against relevant passages in Renjian Cihua.
You need not agree with every judgment; note as you read the points you disagree with and why.

About the publisher

Tibet People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1971

Tibet People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher known for collating Tibetan and Chinese ancient texts and publishing traditional culture. Judging from the books in its catalogue, its publishing focuses on medicine, Eastern philosophy, classics, and ancient poetry. It offers traditional Chinese medical and health-preserving works such as the Compendium of Materia Medica, Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold, and Principles of Correct Diet, as well as canonical and philosophical texts including the Book of Changes, Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, Annotated Edition of the Erya, and Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals, along with historical and geographical works such as The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores. Its authors include figures such as Li Shizhen, Sun Simiao, King Wen of Zhou, Zuo Qiuming, Guo Pu, Dong Zhongshu, Hu Sihui, and Ma Huan. The house emphasizes the collation and republication of ancient texts, balancing scholarship and accessibility, and has developed its own strengths in transmitting Tibetan and Chinese cultural classics. Public information is limited, so other publishing details are omitted here.

版权信息
序
卷一
卷二
卷三
卷四

FAQ

How should the claim that "ci is not the offshoot of shi but its source" be understood?

Li Tianyuan held that uneven-line verse existed since antiquity: from Zhou poems to the Han suburban sacrifice songs and short-flute and cymbal songs, uneven lines appear; yuefu is uneven-line verse, and uneven-line verse is ancient ci. Ci is therefore not a side branch of shi but shares its origin with, or even precedes, ancient poetry. This is a Qing argument advanced to exalt the ci genre; readers should treat it as a tendentious scholarly position rather than settled fact.

Is this book suitable for learning to write ci?

Not really. It is a cihua, concerned with the origins of the genre and with judging the styles of ci poets, not a primer on tonal patterns, rhyme and parallelism. Those seeking to compose ci should use ci manuals, prosody guides and introductory works that explain technique; this book is better used, once one has some grounding in reading ci, to understand how Qing scholars viewed the genre.

What background is needed to read this cihua?

Ideally some reading in Tang and Five Dynasties ci, especially the works of Wen Tingyun, Wei Zhuang and the Southern Tang and Western Shu poets in Huajian ji, without which the comments lack a foothold. A general sense of the evolution of classical Chinese poetic forms also helps in following the argument from yuefu to ancient style to recent style. It can be read without this background, but depth of understanding will suffer.

Related on WeRead

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Li Diaoyuan Author · China · 1734–1803

Li Diaoyuan (1734–1803), courtesy name Gangtang and art name Yucun, was a native of Luojiang, Mianzhou, Sichuan (present-day Deyang). A Qing-dynasty literary scholar, poet, drama theorist and bibliophile, he passed the imperial examination as a jinshi in 1763 and held posts including a position in the Ministry of Personnel and education commissioner of Guangdong, before being dismissed and returning home to devote himself to writing. His works include Yucun Quhua, Yucun Shihua and Tongshan Shiji. He also compiled the large series Hanhai and built the Wanujuan Library, housing some 100,000 volumes, contributing significantly to the preservation of texts and Sichuan culture. His Nanyue Biji records the landscape, customs and natural history of Lingnan in concise, wide-ranging notes, making it a valuable source for understanding Qing-era Guangdong.