Evolution And Causes Of The Song Wan Poetics Claims

Song Wan, an eminent poet in the early Qing Dynasty, had an outstanding reputation in his early years as one of the seven literators of Yan Tai, and latter was well-known as "Southern Shi with Northern Song" , which means he, who is from Shan Dong Province of northern China, shared the similar blaze of fame with Shi Run-zhang, who is from An Hui Province of southern China. Song Wan' s vicissitudes of life includes twice imprisonment and eight-year abandonment after release, which, especially his life in jail, had a tremendous influence on his literatures. For over three hundred years many scholars have devoted into the study of this poet while some doubtful points concerning his life, mentality and so on still remain unsolved, and the evolution process and contributing factors of his poetic viewpoints remains obscure. In response to this situation, the present article first verifies several doubtful points about Song Wan' s life and lays more stress on the reasons of his having official career in the Qing Dynasty and the causes of the imprisonment. On this foundation, referring mainly to his literary works and taking into consideration of all the valuable factors such as the family traditions, life experience and community of literators he associated with or learnt from, Song Wan' s poetic viewpoints during different periods are straightened out and evolution process as well as contributive factors of which are also clarified. As Song Wan occupied an outstanding position in the early Qing literary history, listed as one of the six prominent literators of the Qing Dynasty, the evolution process of his poetic viewpoints is of great representativeness in that age.