About the author

Peng Sun is an author in the history of Chinese ci criticism whose biographical details are extremely limited: his real name, courtesy name, native place, dates of birth and death, and official career are not reliably recorded in publicly available sources, and his writings are the main basis for understanding his profile. Two of his works are held in this collection, the representative one being Jinsu Cihua (Remarks on Ci from the Golden Grain Studio). This book belongs to the cihua genre, commenting on ci poets and their works in a loose, note-like manner, discussing prosody, diction, imagery, and style, and comparing and evaluating ci writers of successive dynasties; it is an important source for the study of traditional ci criticism. According to common classifications, Peng Sun's works touch on both Eastern philosophy and literary appreciation, suggesting that his writing combines aesthetic judgment of the art of ci with a degree of speculative reflection. Owing to the scarcity of historical sources, his concrete life experience can no longer be established, and scholars generally treat him as a ci scholar known through Jinsu Cihua, with research focusing on the book's content and critical views rather than on the author's biography.

Written (2)

Publishers

Bashu Publishing House