A Study Of Li Yuanding, A Poet In The Late Ming And Early Qing Dynasties

Li Yuanding,a poet,created a unique style of poetry due to his unique life experience and personal emotional experience during transition from the end of Ming dynasty to the beginning of Qing dynasty.This paper focuses on the typicality and uniqueness of his poetry creation and mentality,puts it in the background of that period,and tries to reveal its status and significance.This paper consists of four chapters.Chapter one introduces Li Yuanding's family history,life and writings.Li Yuanding was born to a famous family in Jishui,Jiangxi province.Many of the men in the family passed the imperial examinations to enter the imperial court.The women in the family were virtuous and talented.Li was a jinshi in the second year of the Tianqi(1622)in the Ming dynasty.At the end of the Ming dynasty,Li Yuanding surrendered to the Dashun regime.Later,he surrendered to the Qing regime and become the deputy minister of national defense of the Qing dynasty.Li‘s career was rough.He was dismissed because of the Ren Zhen case.Then he lived in seclusion until his death.This paper reviews his three major works and editions.The second chapter explores the literary exchanges between Li Yuanding and other turncoat officials.He was closely associated with turncoat-official poets,including Qian Qianyi,Gong Dingzi,Xiong Wenju,Zhu Hui and Wang Duo,etc.In general,Li Yuanding mainly communicated with the turncoat officials from the south.They met frequently,held poetry exchange activities and formed a turncoat-official club with psychological identity.The third chapter is the focus of this paper.This chapter explores Li Yuanding's mentality of turncoat official and his poetic creation.Li Yuanding became a turncoat official for two reasons: personal thoughts and political situation.His literary creation reflects the formation and evolution of the mentality of turncoat official.First,as the dynasties changed,he was caught in a dilemma between being an official and a recluse.Second,when he was an official in the Qing dynasty,he had the mentality of remorse and alienation.Third,in the early days of his seclusion,he felt lonely and empty,and had to watch plays to relieve his melancholy.Finally,his devotion to Buddhism in his later years made him let go of his obsession.Under the influence of life experience and mentality change,his poetry has periodic characteristics.The early poems are fresh,lively and full of affection.The poetry of the middle period is gloomy and sad.The later poems are elegant and gentle.These changes clearly show the transitions of poetic style in the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty.Li's theory and practice of poetry creation absorbed the characteristics of other schools and led a new trend.It plays an important role in linking the preceding and the following in the history of poetry.The fourth chapter,from the perspective of poetry communication between Li Yuanding and his wife Zhu Zhongmei,studies the influence of their relationship on Li.Their poetry exchanges are profound in content,diverse in form and highly interactive,establishing an equal way of dialogue.It not only influenced his political choice,but also deeply influenced his poetry creation.The poems about the relationship between spouses and family life are very sincere.It develops Li's writing style and makes Wenjiang Ci of high artistic value.His Ci inherited and developed the Huajian style in the late Ming dynasty.It played an important role in the evolution of Ci style in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.