Study On Lingnan Ci-poet Ye Yanlan

Ye Yanlan was a well-known ci-poet in the late Qing Dynasty, who was famous forhis poetry in his early years. Indifferent to fame and wealth, he devoted himself to thecreation and collection of painting and calligraphy during his official years in the capital.After his retirement, he became a lecturer in Yuehua Academy. Concentrating on Ci-poetry,he had frequent exchanges with poets like Tan Xian, Zhang Jingqi and became teachers ofyounger ci-poets like Pan Feisheng, Mao Guangsheng and Ye Bihua. Ye Yanlan’sattainments in poetry, calligraphy, painting and his great influence in modern Lingnanci-circle make him an important literary figure of the late Qing Dynasty. At present, theacademic study of Ye Yanlan usually regards him just as a member of the group of ‘ThreeMaters of Eastern Guangdong’, focusing on the common literary characteristics of YeYanlan, Shen Shiliang and Wang Quan, which often neglected Ye Yanlan’s particularfamily background and life experience. Thus, there has not been enough analysis of theunique artistic style of his ci-poetry. Based on the searching and reading of a wide range ofrelevant documents, this article conducts a in-depth study on his family background, lifeexperience, social activites, literary thoughts and ci-poetry composition in order to potrayhis whole life and make a objective and fair evaluation of his role in history.The first chapter introduces his family background and life, with the first sectionfocused on the far-reaching impact of his parent Ye Yinghua. The second section tells hismajor experiences and accomplishments in three different periods. The second chapterintroduces his friendship with both peer and junior ci-poets. His friendship with them hashad a significant impact on his ci-writing and thoughts on ci-poetry. The third chaptersummarizes his thoughts on literature. The first section tells how his emotion-orientedpoetic concept was unique at that time when Song Poetry School prevailed. The secondsection introduces his thoughts on ci-poetry, with the integration of Zhexi and ChangzhouSchool, his thoughts reflects the evolution of ci of Lingnan. The last chapter introduces hisci-poetry of different subjects and its unique artistic style and characteristics. Theconclusion of the article summarizes Ye Yanlan’s literary achievements and makes anevaluation on his contributions and status in the the history of ci-poetry.