Title

The Chunqiu, the Gongyang School and the Construction of Ci Poetry in the Late Qing

Author

Ng Chi Lim

Genre

Article

Pages

551-593

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

Chunqiu rhetorical strategies, shuci bishi屬辭比事, the Gongyang School, late Qing ci poetry, Gong Zizhen龔自珍, Tan Xian譚獻

Abstract

There is a famous saying about ci poetry in the Qing: “Ci 詞originated from the Gongyang公羊.” The person who said this is unknown, but it was likely spoken by someone who perceived various similarities between the rhetorical strategies employed in the Chunqiu春秋, the Gongyang school of exegesis and Changzhou 常州 ci poetry. In this regard, statecraft and the rhetoric of “subtlety” probably weighed heavily on Tan Xian’s 譚獻 (1832-1901) mind when he considered the connection between Confucian discourse and literature. This not only reveals the influence of New Text Confucianism in the late Qing, but also indicates that Gongyang scholars took participation in social and political affairs as their ultimate concern.