A Study Of Ci Poetics In Ming Dynasty

The ci poetry of Ming Dynasty functions as a link between that of Song and Yuan Dynasties and that of Qing Dynasty. It is an indispensable link in the history of Chinese ci poetry. This paper studies ci poetry in respect of the classical documents and classical literary theory. In terms of documents, the dissertation deals with the critical documents on ci poems of Ming Dnasty and affirms their value. As for literary theory, the paper explores the achievements of ci poems in Ming Dynasty, the variation in the concept of ci poems and the significance.This dissertation consists of the preface, the body (7 chapters) and the appendix (4 varieties). In the body, the ci poems of Ming Dynasty are divided into three periods: the early period, the middle period and the late period. In the early period, the paper approaches ci poems from two perspectives: the study of literature and the study of theory. Chapter Seven is concerned with the status of ci poetry in Ming dynasty and its impacts.In the preface, the paper introduces the classification of documents with regard to ci poems, current research on ci poems, the stages of development of ci poems, the object and method of study.Chapter One is literature review with four sections in it. Section One introduces and discusses Comments on Jupo, the Comments on Shiya, Comments on Guitian, Comments on Caomuzi, Comments on Yijing, Biography of Wuna, etc. Section Two analyses the prefaces and postscripts of more than ten collected ci poems. Section Three deals with Ci Poems of Famous Ci Poets in Tang and Song Dynasties. Section Four studies the ci poems in Wuna's Collection of Ci Poems and illustrates their relation to ci poems in the earlier period.Chapter Two is the theoretical study of ci poems in the early Ming Dynasty with three sections. The dissertation explores the origin of the forms of ci poems, stresses functions of ci poems, their instructive meaning and the general style orientation of early ci poems in Ming Dynasty.Chapter Three is the literature review of ci poem research in middle Ming Dynasty. It is further divided into four sections. Section One is a detailed study of three important works on ci poems in this period: Zusantang Notes, Comments on Ci Poems, and Notes in Art Garden. In addition, this section also touches upon the collected ci poems such as Yilaotang Notes, Glacier Notes, Yanshan Notes, Comments on Langying, West Lake Notes, Notes of Luan hut and Biography of Xuwei. Section Two affirms their literary value by studying the purpose of the publication of prefaces and postscripts of more than sixty ci poems, biographies of ci poets and introduction of ci poems. Section Three studies the influential collection of ci poems in the history of ci poems, such as Collection of Caotang Ci Poems, Anthology of Ci Poems, Highlight of Ci Poems, acknowledging their significance in the history of ci poems. Section Four studies the layout, stylistic rules and features of the three collections of various tunes of ci poems compiled in the Middle Ming Dynasty.Chapter Four, the theoretical study of ci poetry in the middle period, is also divided into four sections. It analyses the reason for the decline of ci poetry, the origin, genres and styles of ci poetry, and then compares the concept of ci poems of this period with that of the earlier period, which shows that the concept of ci poetry varies with the social conditions.Chapter Five is the literature study of the ci poetry of late Ming dynasty with five sections. Section One analyses the two major works on ci poetry. Apart from this, this part also comments on many other important works on ci poems. Section Two is a comprehensive study of prefaces and postscripts with regard to over 180 ci poems. It comments on ci poems of Tang and Song Dynasties, describes the status quo of contemporary ci poetry of late Ming Dynasty, and the comments on ci poets and their ci poems of that period and demonstrates their distinctions from ci poems of the early and middle periods. Section Three introduces the five representative works of ci poems which best display the concept of ci poetry. In this section, the dissertation introduces their stylistic rules, their layout and framework, and comments on their relationship with poetic theory and their significance in the history of ci poetry. Section Four is an introduction to various tunes of ci poems such as Xiaoyu Tune, Supplement to Tunes of Ci Poetry, Collection of Tunes of Ci Poems, etc. The dissertation comments on them and analyses the relationship among them. Section Five also introduces and analyses Collection of Ci Poems of Sixty Famous Ci Poets in Song Dynasty and at the same time affirms their significance in the history of ci poetry.Chapter Six is the theoretical study of ci poetry research in Late Ming Dynasty. The four sections deal with the new features of the concept of ci poems under the influence of new ideas from the perspective of the history of ci poems, literary genre of ci poems, the styles of ci poems and the creative theory in ci poetry.Chapter Seven is the status and significance of ci poetry of Ming dynasty. First, this part elaborates on the inheritance of Ming's ci poems from Song Dynasty in collecting ci poems and in compiling collection of various tunes of ci poems and their subsequent impact on ci poems in Qing Dynasty. Second, this part discusses the two criteria in the style of ci poetry, namely, orthodox style vs variety, subtle and concise vs powerful and free, which were first put forward in Song Dynasty, aroused keen interest among scholars of ci poems in Qing Dynasty and had great impact on Qing Dynasty and even today. Section Three analyses the impact of the differentiation of tunes between poems and ci poems on ci poetry research in Qing dynastyThe appendix includes table of contents of notes and comments on ci poems in Ming Dynasty, table of contents of prefaces and postscripts to ci poems, table of contents of selected ci poems, table of contents of tunes and rhymes in ci poems.