A HISTORIC OUTLINE ON CURRENT CHINESE RESEARCH OF CI POEM 中國當代詞學史論綱
Shi Yidui translated by Mr.Tao Yuanke
Liu Zhiji (劉知幾), a historist of the Tang Dynasty, claimed: "One must have three good qualities to do research of history. If without such talented persons, there would be lack of people who are capable of doing history research in the world." The three good qualities said are talent, knowing and knowledge (識) 1. Later generations have payed much attentions to them, but find it difficult to obtain all of these qualities, and especially difficult to acquire knowing. Fifty years ago, after reading A General Survey of Ci Poem (《詞學通論》), Wu Shichang (吳世昌) expressed his appreciation of its words commenting on Zhou Bangyan's(周邦彥)Ci poem Rui Long Yin (<瑞龍吟>): "This analysis is quite precise and clear, and can seldom be seen in those paragraphs which the former generations would have. But he indicated at once: "In this work, it is this passage that can be considered as an influ-ence on the comers, while other parts of the book are written in the practice of 'a booklet of counting ghosts' (點鬼簿), and discuss Ci poems in a way of 'abstracting reasons' (摘由) from the documents of Yamen." 2 Naturally, it's difficult to represent the quality of 'knowledge'(識) with such a way of counting ghosts or abstracting reasons. As far as I can see, most patterns of dis-cussing writers and their creations in several research works of Chinese liter-ary history, including poetry history and Ci poem history, generally are in fact arranged chronologically. This should be faced by the writers of history.
On the same view, 'knowledge' (識) should not be ignored yet in current Chinese research of Ci poem. Although History of Current Chinese Research of Ci Poem (《中國當代詞學史》) has not been found published, there are some other articles and works concerned, in which problems about current Chinese research of Ci poem or the research of Ci poem in Chinese new period are involved, discussed or remarked. The current Chinese researchof Ci poem has developed to be an important problem to the academic circles. If being lack of 'knowledge' (識), the description or demonstration about the current Chinese research of Ci poem will fall into an enumeration or load-ing with fancy phrases of some theorists and events of Ci poem chronologi-cally, which is not far from "counting ghosts" (點鬼) and 'abstracting rea-sons' (摘由).
Because of this, I'll do investigation here with a view of critical pattern and hope to be able to gain a substantial recognition on the current Chinese research of Ci poem.
Part I. Correcting Some Names
What actually is the current Chinese research of Ci poem? To regu-late the conceptual meaning of the term 'current Chinese research of Ci poem', it is necessary to make the problems concerning the word 'current' clear. In the light of general concept held by the academic circles in Chinese main-land, the 'current' period covers more than four decades since the establish-ment of the People's Republic of China. Scholars of the mainland divide the history after the Opium War (1840) into three periods: the modern period (from 1840 to 1918), the contemporary period (from 1919 to 1948), and the current period (1949-present). The division is based on a judgement on a political struggle pattern. For many years, literary historists have done their judgement on the objects of study according to such a political pattern, there-fore, there is such a division established as 'modern literature', 'contemporary literature' and 'current literature'. The study of the research history of Ci poem also cannot break away from the political judgement pattern yet. For example, all works and papers concerning the current Chinese research of Ci poem use 'contemporary' to cover the current Chinese research of Ci poem with a beginning of the new cultural movement of 1919. Although it is de-signed with an end of 1978, and a division of the consequent decade as 'a new period', which seems to be something different from the common literary history, its basic pattern of judgement is in fact nothing different from that of common literary historists. And as far as I know, such a judgement methodhas not been changed in the learned circles in Chinese mainland up till now. While the learned circles in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao also adopt the judgement pattern as a model for available convenience from the mainland, and the researches there on Chinese literature, including the research on Ci poem, are still working to make historical judgements in the pattern of Chi-nese mainland, though they have received a new atmosphere and introduced new academic ideas which have formed influence on the learned circles in the mainland. This is an objective fact.
However, what I mean here by 'current' is different from that used by the learned circles of Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. The differences exist in duration and the foundation of judgement. The latter is more important. What I mean by 'current', i.e. 'present', is opposite to 'an-cient'. The beginning of 'current time' in my view is 1908, which is 11 years earlier than the 'contemporary time' used by the academic circles, while the current time extends to present. In 1908, Mr. Wang Guowei's (王國維) work Ren Jian Ci Hua (《人間詞話》) was first published. So I take 1908 as a bound to divide the current time and the ancient time in the research history of Ci poem. This judgement is made not only basing on political elements and po-litical struggle patterns, but also on literary elements and literary critical pat-terns, since it's the latter that is reliable for the historical judgement in re-search of Ci poem. I proposed this opinion and explained clearly in the intro-duction of my work Translation and Notation of Ren Jian Ci Hua (《人間詞話 譯注》) in Hong Kong edition. The introduction was published on the Supplement3. I claimed in the introduction: "Wang Guowei can be taken as a boundary in the research on the Ci poem development in this thousand years: before Wang Guowei, the criterion of Ci poem was an inherent colour theory of Ci poem, while after him, there appeared a new research which practiced 'a theory of poetry atmosphere' (境界說) to appreciate Ci poems and to judge their value depending on if they had poetry atmospheres or not." And I said: "Besides the conceptual meaning, what the division between the old period and the new one in Chinese Ci poem study depends on is mainly its judgement pattern, i.e. the criterion and critical method. Specifically, for example, the method of appreciating Ci poem in the light of its inherent colour focuses on its appearance being similar to poem or not, and does not always focus on asubstantial point. The descriptions as 'something not like poems, nor belonging to song words' etc. actually do not have a clear edge. This kind of statement is identical with the traditional criticism methods which notices the meaning but not the speech. While the theory of poetic atmosphere, as a new theory, absorbs modern scientific methods into appreciation, including not only western philosophic conceptions but also a space scope of poetic atmosphere described as being wide, big, deep, long, high, low, thick, and thin, etc..." This is my general impression on the history of current Chinese Ci poem study and my basic comprehension of the term 'current' used in the history of Chinese Ci poem study. I think, therefore, the current study of Chinese Ci poem so-called, i.e. present study of Chinese Ci poem, is just the new study of Chinese Ci poem opened by Wang Guowei (王國維).
Part II. Investigating the Change
As what's mentioned above, the beginning of 'current' time in the History of Ci poem study is 11 years earlier than that of 'contemporary' used in the history of political struggles. The gap seams to be not great, but, their descriptions or demonstrations of the history of Ci poem study are quite dif-ferent, because of different foundations and standpoints. If investigating the history of Ci poem study with the viewpoint of 'contemporary' history of politi-cal struggles, one would praise Hu Shi (胡適) highly, taking him as the person who introduced new conceptions and methods for the study of Chi-nese Ci poem and started a new stage. While looking into the history of Ci poem study with the viewpoint of 'current' history of Ci poem study, the so-called 'No. 1' would not be Hu Shi (胡適), but Wang Guowei (王國維). Hu Shi (胡適), as a pioneer of the new Chinese cultural movement, have a broad mind and tolerance in his opinions of Ci poem study and his judgement on the development and change of Ci poem, which would offer a new im-pression to people. However, the criterion and method be adopted in criti-cism did not in fact surpass Wang Guowei's (王國維) theory of poetic atmo-sphere. This was revealed in my article 'Hu Shi as a Head of the Liberal School in Current Chinese Ci Poem Research' (part II.) (<中國當代詞壇解放派首領胡適〔二〕>) 4, I claimed in the article: "Hu Shi (胡適) divided the Ci poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties into three types: singers' one, poets' one, and those that artisans of Ci poem wrote. His criterion of division was the talent and feeling of a Ci poem writer, while the factual means of division depended on how a writer of Ci poem dealt with the relation between the poetic atmosphere and the rhythm patterns. Hu Shi (胡適) praised Su Shi (蘇軾) and Xin Qiji (辛棄疾), and considered that they created new poems in the patterns of Ci poem, no matter if the Ci poems could be sung and got with music or not. They created new poems only in the patterns of Ci poem. At the same time, he demoted Shi Dazu (史達祖), Wu Wenying (吳文英), Zhang Yan (張炎), and so on, saying that they missed the contents of Ci poem for harmonious rhythm. Apparently, Hu Shi's (胡適) critical pattern is basically conformity with Wang Guowei's (王國維) pattern which takes poetic atmosphere as the best in Ci poem." Thus it can be seen, with regard to so-called 'new', as new viewpoints, new methods etc.., Hu Shi (胡適), as a head of the literal school in the circles of Ci poem research, really did not surpass Wang Guowei (王國維). The characteristics of Hu shi (胡適) was that he had a radical idea, protruding the nature of Ci poem which is neglected, in the theory of poetic atmosphere and making it inclined to the left. This is a problem to be discussed later in this paper.
Generally speaking, it's Wang Guowei (王國維) who can be called as the founder of Ci poem research in a new stage (the first). Therefore, I indicated clearly in the introduction of my work A Translation and Annotation of Ren Jian Ci Hua (《人間詞話譯注》), Hong Kong edition), that Wang Guowei (王國維) can be the father of current Chinese research on Ci poem. This is a problem which one can deal with first in the change and development of the new and old research of Ci poems.
As soon as the above problem is settled, the following concrete de-scription and demonstration of the development and change of Ci poem study will become easier to be done. Generally speaking, if literature were attached to politics, it must have varied following politics, and developed coinciding time with politics, in a pattern of political struggle. That's to say, one would, according to the time order, substitute the persons and matters appeared in political struggles with those in literary development, such as writers and works,or critists of Ci poem and the works of research. These kinds of description or demonstration are just the same as 'counting ghosts' and 'abstracting reasons' mentioned at the beginning of this article. In the following part of the article, I will investigate the development of the current Chinese research on Ci poem, focusing on the patterns of literary criticism and the exchange among them. Readers of the article may do appreciation on the description and dem-onstration by themselves.
In "A General Survey on the Ci Poem of the Last Century" (<百年詞 通論>)5, the preface of Synthesis of Current Ci Poem《當代詞綜》com-piled in 1980s, I divided this history of Ci poem development into three peri-ods: 1. from the late years of the Qing Dynasty to the early years of the Republic of China; 2.from the May 4th Movement of new culture to the period of the War of Resistance against Japan; 3.from the establishment of the People's Republic of China to the period of its open and reform. I suppose, the current research activities of Ci poem can also be divided in the same way. However, the development and division of the three periods depend not only on a consideration over the substitution of dynasties during political struggles, but also mainly on the use and changes of literary critical patterns. The division of three periods reveals the whole process of initiation, creation, and change, in which the current Chinese research of Ci poem have been developing.
1. Initiation period (1908 - 1918): Wang Guowei (王國維) wrote Ren Jian Ci Hua (《人間詞話》), and proposed a theory of Ci poetic atmosphere, which marked the beginning of current Chinese research of Ci poem.
In the viewpoint of a common pattern of political struggle, this period covers only a decade and belonged to an old age (a duration of old demo-cratic revolution). And at that time, the restoration force were still in a domi-nant position within the circles of Ci poet and the old pattern of criticism pre-vailed, which emphasizes the inherent colour of Ci poem. However, the time had led into a new epoch of Ci poem research, for there appeared new crite-ria and methods, including a new partern of criticism, the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere. While discussing new theories of Ci poem, in current research, we should not ignore this history. It must be pointed out that, however, in this period, lacking a theoretical explanation for the new pattern of criticism, the theory of poetic atmosphere, the new force was weak without ability against the old force in the circles of Ci poet, and could not substitute the old pattern of criticism, the theory of Ci poem's inherent colour with new one, though a new generation Ci poets had emerged. In other word, Wang Guowei's (王國維) success as a pioneer in establishing a new theory of Ci poem did not present a substantial effect at that time.
2. Creation period (1919-1948): the left, right, and intermediate sections in the circles of Ci poem research had fulfillments to different extents.
It's an important period construction in the current Chinese research of Ci poem. Inheriting something from both the critical patterns and the theory of Ci poem's inherent colour and the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere, the left, right, and intermediate researchers of Ci poem all had respective creations, and established a sound foundation for current Chinese research of Ci poem. As far as the application and change of the low critical patterns, they were still developing in different directions in this period. It'll be explained in the followings.
(1) The theory of Ci poetic atmosphere was reformed and en-riched.
Because of literary and political reasons, Wang Guowei's (王國維) theory was spread not far away, or was not carried out factually until Hu Shi (胡適) and Hu Yunyi (胡雲翼) put it forward and reformed it into a theory of style in 1920s- 1930s. Inheriting Wang's theory, Hu Shi (胡適) took Wang Guowei's (王國維) viewpoint, which considers 'Ci poetic atmosphere to be the highest state of Ci poem' (詞以境界為最上), as a basis to praise and look down the Ci poets of the Song Dynasty. Hu Shi (胡適) also exagger-ated an opposite relation between content and temperament to such an abso-lute extent as to neglect the specific property of a Ci poem body, i.e. musical-ity. The negligence is obvious. For example, in the preface of A Selection of Ci Poem (《詞選》) 6, after praised "the Ci poem written by poet", Hu Shi denounced 'the Ci poem written by Ci poem crartsman'. He considered that "if one's effort were focused on temperament", "one's creation of Ci poem would turn to special skill of temperament". And then, as soon as "a general mood of Ci poem craftsman are formed, temperament and classic forms will crash one's talent and feeling, and the dead day of Ci poem will come without surviving". This is the proof mentioned above that Wang's theory of Ci poem leaned to the left. Up to this point, it had been ready theoretically for the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere to change into the theory of style. In 1930s, Hu Yunyi (胡雲翼) wrote A Brief Chinese History of Ci Poem (《中國詞史略》) 7 and An Outline of the Chinese History of Ci Poem (《中國詞史大綱》)8,which developed Hu Shi's (胡適) theory. For example, in discussing 'the change of the style of Ci poem', Hu Yunyi (胡雲翼) divided before and after Su Shi (蘇軾) into two kinds of Ci poem: female and male ones; and also divided the styles of Ci poem into two classes: the sad and graceful, as well as the unconstrained, solemn and stirring9. Since then, the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere in the Chinese history of Ci poem study had developed into a theory of style.
In this hand, after being evolved and reformed, the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere transformed so greatly, that it could hardly be recognized. On the other hand, however, Wang Guowei's (王國維) theory hasn't disap-peared from then on. Since the reissued edition of Ren Jian Ci Hua (《人間 詞話》) with a preface by Yu Pingbo (俞平伯) was published by the Pu Pub-lishing House, Beijing in 1926, several editions of Ren Jian Ci Hua anno-tated by Jin Dejun (靳德峻), Xu Wenyu (許文雨), or Xu Tiaofu (徐調 孚) were published. And some theorists of Ci poem, as Gu Sui (顧隨) and Miu Yue (繆鉞), investigated Wang Guowei's (王國維) theory deeply and made certain discoveries.
Gu Sui (顧隨) exposited both Su Shi's (蘇軾) Ci poem and Xin Qiji's (辛棄疾) Ci poem: Juan Tuoan's Dong Po Ci Shuo (《倦駝庵東坡詞 說》) 10 and Juan Tuoan's Jiaxuan Ci Shuo (《倦駝庵稼軒詞說》) 11. He dis-cussed not only 'the atmosphere of Ci poem' (境界) but also 'ingenuousfeeling and broad aspiration' (高致), attempting to enrich and perfect the theory of Ci poem atmosphere with the concept of 'ingenuous feeling and broad aspiration'. In other words, Wang Guowei's (王國維) theory of Ci poetic atmosphere concerning only the atmosphere of Ci poem seems to have some-thing irrigorous, since a Ci poem with a Ci poetic atmosphere is not necessar-ily an excellent one. With additional concept 'ingenuous feeling and broad aspiration', which means to pursue 'ingenuous feeling and broad aspiration' in a Ci poetic atmosphere12, the Ci poetic atmosphere will become the first as well as the last requirement to a Ci poet and his creation13 . It's a valuable supplement to the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere. Miu Yue (繆鉞) wrote an article "Wang Jing-an and Arthur Schopenhauer" (1769-1860)(<五靜安與叔 本華>) 14, which explained theoretically Wang Guowei's (王國維) concep-tion. He pointed out that in Ren Jian Ci Hua (《人間詞話》), Wang Wei's opinion on Ci poem was bright and transparent, and was welcome by people. His view seemed to be enlightened by Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophical thought. It is a conclusion drawn from the discussion of the relation between 'I' (我) and 'the outside world' (我在世界). The so-called relation between 'I' and 'the outside world' is just a relation between 'meaning' and 'Ci poetic atmosphere'. It's a kernel problem concerning the matter that the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere can be created. Having a lot of experiences on this, Miu Yue (繆鉞) pointed out "According to Arthur Schopenhauer, when one ob-serve things, if one can forget one's life desires inside as a pure subject of observer, and forget all relations of outside things to perceive their perma-nence so that the outside things and oneself are being as one as a mirror reflects a form, this state is quite near to an art atmosphere. This kind of observation can not be done anyone but by a man of genius." And he indi-cated "Wang said in Ren Jian Ci Hua (《人間詞話》): 'Things in nature are related to each other and restrained to each other, both of which are, how-ever, neglected in literature and art.' He said also, 'In a state without oneself, one observes things just through themselves, so one doesn't know which is oneself andwhich are the outside things.' All these points have something similar to Arthur Schopenhauer's theory" Then, these opinions offered a theo-retical basis in philosophy, which made Wang Guowei's (王國維) theory more well-conceived and rigorous, or in other words be full of scientificity. It isanother beneficial complement to the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere. Therefore, the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere proposed by Wang Guowei (王國維) hasn't been substituted by the theory of style after twists and turns.
(2) The theory of Ci poem's inherent colour is enriched and re-formed.
The appearance of the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere was an in-tense challenge to the theory of Ci poetic inherent colour, but had not been formed completely during both the periods of initiation and creation. Since the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere was proposed, it was deduced and re-formed having few influence, while the theory of Ci poetic inherent colour had such a deep root that it could not be moved easily, that's why the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere, as a sign of new theory of Ci poem, did not occupy a leading position constantly in the later 3-4 decades. During the time, there were the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere, the theory of style, and the theory of Ci poetic inherent colour existing in the circles of Ci poem research. How-ever, as far as the general trend, it's the traditional theory of Ci poetic inher-ent colour that was widespread and used by the circles of Ci poem research.
Three masters of Ci poem research appeared in the period, i.e.. Xia Chengtao (夏承燾), Long Yusheng (龍榆生), and Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋), were all praisers of the theory of Ci poetic inherent color. With regard to the teacher-student relationship, Long Yusheng (龍榆生) was Zhu Zumou's (朱祖謀) handed-down student, and Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋) was Wu Mei's (吳梅) most successful student, while Sha Chengtao (夏承 燾) was taught to be a scholar by himself also asking Zhu Zumou (朱祖謀) some problems about learning and was discovered by Wu Mei (吳梅). The three masters had a close relation with the old-way restorationers of the first period in the circles of Ci poem researcher, taking themselves' styles as honorable ones, but generally being unfamiliar with or opposite to Wang Guowei's (王國維) new theory. For example, Wang Guowei (王國維) usu-ally indicated the Ci poetic atmosphere first in remarking a Ci poem, while Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋) didn't accepted it as a good way. In the article "A Review upon Ren Jian Ci Hua" (<評《人間詞話》>)15, Mr. Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋) claimed directly: "I consider that, the Ci poetic atmosphere is reallya critical thing in a Ci poem, however, we should not give up emotion and charm for emphasizing the Ci poetic atmosphere. The Ci poetic atmosphere is also realized in one's mind and cannot exist separately. The reason that the Ci poems of the Five Dynasties (907 - 960) and the North Dynasty (960 -1127) were of unique significance is not only their Ci poetic atmosphere. Fur-thermore, one or two famous sentences cannot cover a Ci poetic atmosphere nor complete wholly the beauty of a Ci poem." And so and so. Therefore, the three masters insisted in keeping their efforts on enriching and constructing the traditional theory of Ci poetic inherent colour.
Simply speaking, Long Yusheng's (龍榆生) accomplishment is mainly his theory of Ci poem, while Xia Chengtao (夏承燾) and Tang Guizhang's (唐圭璋) achievements are particularly in textual research of Ci poem theo-ries. Long Yusheng (龍榆生) clearly realized the constitutions of Ci poem, so that he had unique findings on such as 'the evolution of Ci poem's constitutions' including the history of Ci poem, and even on the fitness be-tween rhythm and feeling in each rhythm pattern of Ci poem. Tressing its inherent colour in discussing Ci poem, he disagreed with the style theory developed from the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere, and said: "The causes led a change of Ci poem style in the two Song Dynasties (960 - 1279) were relevant to both its era and environment. On the other hand, the styles of Ci poem in the North Song Dynasty and the South Dynasty were variant in di-verse areas and different times. Therefore, if one persists in a period division of Ci poem between the two Song Dynasties, or a division of Ci poems into two branches, unconstrained (豪放) style and graceful (婉約) style, one will not be qualified to discuss the development procedure of Ci poem research for one's unclear expression."16 His opinion on Ci poetic inherent colour, however, has something different from those of the older generations. That's to say, the former generations emphasized 'awakening' (悟) and how to catch the meaning of a Ci poem, while Long Yusheng (龍榆生) also emphasized expressions and usages additionally, for good examples as "Ways Fitting the Study of Ci Poem Today" (<今日詞學應取之途徑>)17 "On Even, Oblique and Four Tones of Chinese" (<論平仄四聲>) 18 and "The Tone and Melody Constitutions of Ling and Ci Poems" (<令詞之聲韻組織>)19, etc.. As to Xia Chengtao (夏承燾) and Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋). they had another workdivision in textual research of Ci poem: Xia Chengtao (夏承燾) kept endeavours on a textual research on the music scores, phonetics and word forms of Ci poem20. Notes and Commentary on an Annals of Jiang Baishi's (1155?-1221?) Ci Poems (《姜白石詞編年箋校》) and an unpublished manu-script Examples of Ci Poems (《詞例》) are all productions handed down from age to age; while Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋) kept endeavours on a textual research on the books of Ci poem and his compilations are great constitutions in the circles of Ci poets, as The Collected Ci Poems of the Song Dynasty. (《全宋詞》), The Col-lected Ci Poems of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties (《全金元詞》), and A Collection of Talks on Ci Poem (《詞話叢編》). Though the three great masters varied in success, they had a same aim leading to achievements for the theory of Ci poem's inherent colour in the history of Ci poem research, which enriched and enhanced the traditional theory of Ci poetic inherent colour.
Moreover, Wu Shichang (吳世昌) another master of great learning and integrity, wrote four articles under a title of "On the Reading Method of Ci Poem" (<論詞的讀法>)21. In these articles, he attempted to do structural analysis of Ci poem on the basis of awareness from feeling (意會) and comprehension from meaning (感悟). This attempt was directed to the perplexity caused by 'unwilling or incorrect teaching' from "the older genera-tions being proficient at the research of Ci poem", most of them were theo-rists of Ci poetic inherent colour. Especially in the third section of the articles, "On the Composition Art of Ci Poem" (<論詞的章法>), Wu Shichang (吳世昌) did structural analysis on the Ci poems of the Song Dynasty, dividing them into two patterns: 'peach blossom as a human face' (人面桃花型) and 'pruning candle at west window' (西窗剪燭型). Furthermore, he deduced an important formula from the two patterns: 'imagining from a present view-point how will one talk about present things' or 'guessing such a situation in which one recalls present things'. This method of structural analysis broke a new ground and established a foundation for a theory of Ci poem structure. The method represents through shaped structural means what are obtained in the feeling awareness and meaning comprehension, and makes them more substantial and responsible. This is hard to realize for "the older generations being proficient at the research of Ci poem". For example, according to a theorist of Ci poetic inherent colour, Wu Mei's (吳梅) realization, the good-ness of Zhou Bangyan's (周邦彥, 1056-1121) Ci poem "Rui Long Yin" (<瑞 龍吟>) could be abstracted as eight Chinese characters: 'gloomy' (沉鬱), 'modulation in tone' (頓挫), 'touching' (纒綿), and 'light and free' (空靈). However, the eight characters "are words of abstract and obscure concepts expressing the subjective impression of the users" (said by Wu Shichang (吳世昌), and it's difficult indeed to demonstrate what they mean exactly. This is a consequence caused by emphasizing only meaning comprehension but not feeling awareness. However, if one uses the structural pattern of 'peach blossom as a human face' to comb and analyze the complex and repeat of the past and present circumstances narrated in a Ci poem, one will come to another conclusion: "the strong point of the Ci poem is nothing but that every thing is described so concretely and each word is so realistic, that one cannot find any trace 'light and free' (空靈). So one will accept it kindly." 22 Wu Shichang's (吳世昌) method of structural analysis was developed from the ways of meaning comprehension and feeling awareness claimed by the theo-rists of Ci poetic inherent colour, but also reformed and overpassed the tradi-tional theory of Ci poetic inherent colour. It's a matter which should be praised in the contemporary Chinese history of Ci poem research.
The two critical patterns mentioned above, the theory of Ci poem's inherent colour and the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere, changed and developed through the whole period, being enhanced or decreased, i.e.. 'being reformed and enriched' (改造與充實) or 'enriched and reformed' (充實與改造). Because of the refined creations by the theorists from different schools in three decades, a basic construction completed has reached an initial scale in every domain of current Chinese research of Ci poem, such as expositions of the research on Ci poem (including those concerning the research on the history of Ci poem and the criticism of Ci poem), textual research on Ci poem (including the textual research of phonetics, word constitution and Ci poem), etc.. It is an important period in the development of Current Chinese research on Ci poem.
3. Transmutation Period (1949 -1965): going back to the original place from being accessory to politics.
What will be mentioned in the following part are mainly concerning the circles of Ci poem research in Chinese mainland. According to the change of literary critical patterns, I'd like to divide the development of Ci poem re-search in this period into three stages.
(1) The stage of criticism and inheritance (1949 -1965).
It covered about 17 years. Most writers and researchers of Ci poem from the last period became core members in the circles of Ci poetry creation and research in this stage. As a general tendency, the circles of Ci poem research, and even the re-search circles of Chinese classical literature were dominated under the principles of 'inheritance with criticism' and 'making the past serve the present', so that almost all discussions on ancient writers and their works were done according to a same pattern, i.e. an introduction of social background + an analysis of ideas and artistry + an evaluation of its historical position. It can be named as tripartite pattern of inherit-ance with criticism. As to its actual means, some scholars concemed induced them into such a formula: 'which, basing on status, is edged with old kinds of poetry talks and Ci poetry talks' and 'has its limitations evealed according to the social demand and ideological level at present' 23. The two critical models fashioned in the last period, the theory of Ci poetic inherent colour and the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere (which was a style theory developed mainly from the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere), were reexamined and chosen again. The various parts of Ci poem researcher's circles as backbone at that time, carried out a competence for themselves' different views of Ci poem and critical patterns, in order to practice and spread their views of Ci poem research and critical patterns.
At that time, the style theory developed by Hu Shi (胡適) and Hu Yunyi (胡雲翼) from the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere during 1920s-1930s was led to the left further. At the end of 1950s, the Institute of Chinese Literature of Cass compiled A History of Chinese Literature (《中國文學史》)24 commented as followings the two styles of Ci poem which were mentioned by Hu Yunyi (胡雲翼): "After the beginning of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the world of Ci poem mainly carried on the graceful style of Ci poemestablished during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Five Reigns (907-960), and the representative writers were Yan Shu (晏殊), Ouyang Xiu (歐陽修), Yan Jidao (晏幾道) and so on." (P.571) "(It's Su Shi 〔 蘇軾 〕) who set up the Ci poetic school of unconstrained style which was opposite to the traditional school of graceful Ci poem." (P.591) And it said " the uncon-strained style of Ci poem established by Su Shi (蘇軾) led the creation of Ci poem onto a healthy and broad way. A great patriotic Ci poet, Xin Qiji (辛棄疾)□ was enlighted directly from him and made a great development to a higher level in conceptual content and formed a style school of Su-and-Xin's Ci poems. And the Ci poems of Zhang Yuangan (張元幹), Zhang Xiaoxiang (張孝祥), Chen Liang (陳亮), Liu Guo (劉過) and so on acceded also to that of Su Shi's (蘇軾). "(P.598) The typical 'dichotomy' analysis of unconstrained style and graceful style like this, actually is a manner of dis-cussing Ci poems only according to their styles. At the beginning of 1960s, Hu Yunyi (胡雲翼) compiled A Selection of the Ci Poems in the Song Dy-nasty (960-1279) (《宋詞選》) 25, which did not only discuss from the styles of Ci poem to the style schools of Ci poem, absolutely dividing the Ci poets of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) into groups, the unconstrained one of which headed by Su Shi (蘇軾) and Xin Qiji (辛棄疾), and the graceful one of which by Yan Shu (晏殊), Ouyang Xiu (歐陽修), Zhou Bangyan (周邦彥), and Jiang Kui (姜夔), but also claimed: "The Selection takes the Ci poets of unconstrained style headed by Su Shi (蘇軾) and Xin Qiji (辛棄疾) as backbones of the book, mainly involves the masterpieces of the patri-otic Ci poets of the South Song Dynasty (1127-1297), and meanwhile, give a consideration to the representative pieces of other Ci poetic style schools, so that a whole scene of the Ci poems of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) can be found in the Selection 26. Based on the above conclusion, the style theory of Ci poem, which appeared in the current Chinese history of Ci poem research, had completely changed into a 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style and grace-ful style.
This is one hand of the competence among the circles of Ci poem research. And on the other hand, some theoreticians of Ci poetic natural colour style still persisted in a research of the Ci poem in itself or its artistic charac-teristics, and insisted on stating various methods of Ci poetry creation, but notlining up the Ci poets just according to the difference of their styles of Ci poem, nor agreed with the wrong tendency of stressing unconstrainedness while lightening gracefulness, which was caused by 'dichotomy'(二分法). For example, Long Yusheng (龍榆生) wrote articles to discuss the root causes producing stylistic differences, through the musical and artistic quali-ties of Ci poem27, and gave special lessons by himself to the MA students of creation at Shanghai Institute of Opera, teaching "Acoustics of Ci Poetry Cre-ation" (倚聲學)28. Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿) had an article "How the Talks of Ci Poem Discussed the Artistry of Ci Poem" (<詞話論詞的藝術性>)29 , in which he put forward an opinion opposite to the 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style and graceful style. He said: "The schools of unconstrained style and graceful style which the predecessors noticed are two most important style schools of Ci poem, while the overwhelming majority of Ci poets and their works in the history can be attributed to the graceful style." And he indicated:"Both Su Shi (蘇軾) in the North Song Dynasty and Xin Qiji (辛棄疾) in the South Song Dynasty belong to the unconstrained style, but they did not ac-cept no influence from the graceful style." Therefore, he claimed: "We should not underestimate the positions and influences of the graceful Ci poets in the literary history or the poetry history." And he considered that we should com-prehensively survey the artistic natural colours of Ci poems from various angles as combination of feeling and situation, structural levels, finding substances in metaphors, and so on.
However, because of the developmental tendency of Ci poem research, the compete in the circles of Ci poem research resulted in that the theory of style gained the upper hand. That's to say, in the 17 years before the cultural revolution, the style theory reformed by Hu Shi (蘇軾) and Hu Yunyi (胡雲翼)had become a strong weapon in the circles of Ci poem research 'inheriting things with criticism' and 'mak-ing the past serve the present.' In the last period, three schools in the circles of Ci poem research (including the three parts of Ci poem theoreticians), 'liberation school' and 'the school as some new wine in an old bottle', all presented their arguments according to the 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style and graceful style. Even the re-searchers and theoreticians who stressed the body of Ci poem before drew close to the liberation school at this time, while the 'dichotomy' turned further to the left stressing the unconstrained style and graceful style, and developed to substitute theartistry research with political criticism in this period. Therefore, as to the achievement in the 17 years, there were few good theoretical works or articles of Ci poem research but some famous works of textual research on Ci poem study published, most of which were written in the last period.
(2) Period of Reevaluation (1976-1984).
So far as the use of critical models, they were a reaction to or nega-tion and criticism of those appeared in the last period. In the last period, the research basing on the styles of Ci poem developed into a research basing on the 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style and graceful style, so a wrong ten-dency appeared in the circles of Ci poem research, which stressed the un-constrained style but lightened the graceful style, and substitute the artistry research of Ci poem with a political criticism. In the period of reevaluation, the work of Ci poem research were reevaluated in the circles, just as what were done to redress mistaken cases and exonerate somebodies from wrong ac-cusation in the society at that time. In other words, what were praised and what were denounced in the last period were overturned, as a wrong verdict was reversed for the style school of gracefulness lightened before, and the poets and re-searchers of graceful style Ci poem who were criticized before were reevaluated. And the wrong tendency caused by 'dichotomy' was refuted and criticized. A banner read in these remarks was 'setting wrong things right' (撥亂反正) or 'giving back a true feature to the history' (還歷史以真面目). Unfortunately, all these actions were nothing but using 'the same medicine differently prepared' (換湯不換藥) for different purpose, and the critical model they used was still 'dichotomy' which they negated and criticized.
For example, an article claimed in a tone of reevaluation: "There were some problems in the research of Ci poem in the last period, the noticeable things of which were that of stressing the idea contents of Ci poem but lightening its artistry. Or in other words, the strategy taking 'political criterion as the first criterion and artistic one as the second' was changed to use a political criterion as a unique one, so a new trend of stressing idea contents but lightening their artistry was formed. As soon as this trend was formed, another wrong tendency of stressing the style school of unconstrainedness but lightening the style school of gracefulness was formed, as a negation to and criticism of the 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style and graceful style.Therefore, the article pointed out: "If an evaluation of a writer and his work payed an attention only to his idea but neglected its artistry, it would not be a scientific evaluation and would not be possible to draw out a correct conclusion." And it indicated: People have talked too much about Xin Qiji (辛棄疾) in the Ci poets of unconstrained style school but little about other Ci poets, and too much about Xin Qiji's (辛棄疾) activities of Anti-the-Jin-Dynasty (1115-1234) and his patriotic spirit but seldom about other aspects. Discussing Xin Qiji (辛棄疾), most lengths of articles have been used to talk about his masterpieces such as "Shui Long Yin · Stepping onto Jiankang Pleasing Pavilion" (<水龍吟·登建康賞心亭>), "Po Zhen Zi 。 Writing and Sending a Grant Ci Poem for Mr. Chen Tongfu" (<破陣子·為陳同甫賦壯詞以寄之>), "Yong Yu Le · A Meditation of the Past in the Beigu Pavilion at Jingkou" (<永 遇樂·京口北固亭懐古>), "Mo Yu Er · How Many Times of Rain One Can Stand for Yet" (<摸魚兒>“更能消幾番風雨”), but rarely payed attention to those graceful masterpieces as "Tang He Zhuan · An Imitation of the Style of Huajian Collected Poems" (<唐河傳·效花間體>),"Fen Die Er · Writing for the Falling Flowers" (<粉蝶兒·賦落花>), "Xi Jiang Yue · Singing and Danc-ing Are Just Suitable for Human Principle" (<西江月>“人道偏宜歌舞”),"Zhao Jun Yuan · Human's Face Is Not as Beautiful as a Flower" (<昭君怨>“人面 不如花面”), and so on. This is not a manner of seeking truth from facts. That's to say, we should draw both idea content and artistry, and both the un-constrained and graceful styles into account. Obviously, this kind of estimation is more comprehensive, acceptable, and reasonable than those of the last pe-riod. It's should be affirmed. However, the critical models used in this period could not jumped out the trap of the 'dichotomy', but changed the critical direc-tion and did exactly the opposite things. This is an interesting phenomenon appeared in the circles of Ci poem research during the period of reevaluation.
Since different parts of the circles of Ci poem research had different impressions of this phenomenon, they took different manners and reactions toward the phenomenon. For example, some scholars considered that there were many styles of Ci poem in addition to the constrained and graceful styles of Ci poem, and 'the dichotomy' should be substituted by a 'pluralism', therefore, so called 'a subjective style of Ci poem', 'an overall style of Ci poem', and other styles of Ci poem appeared, furthermore, some personsdid comparisons between different types of Ci poetic style through some aes-thetic standpoint, trying to establish a science of Ci poetic style research bas-ing on the theory of Ci poetic style. All these played a role correcting and decorating the style theory of Ci poem. For another example, some scholars repraised Wang Guowei's (王國維) theory of Ci poetic atmosphere and brought a new life to the style theory of Ci poem basing on association caused by sensory feelings, or, introduced western literary theory as interpretation theory and seminology etc. to enhance the prestige of style theory. It reformed and improved the style theory of Ci poem. The above examples showed us that some people's comprehension and application of the style theory were acknowledged at that time, and other expositions concerned emerged con-stantly. When the next period came, the development of style theory reached its summit because of 'a hot of appreciation'.
On the other hand, some other theorists of Ci poem and Ci poets held another working manner and method.
For example, both Shi Zhicun (施蟄存)and Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿) accepted the fact that the two style schools of Ci poem existed at the same time in the history of Ci poem research, and then, negated and criticized the 'dichotomous' pattern of unconstrained style school and graceful style school, without any new finding. For example, it said: "If Ci poets are divided sharply into two schools, with unconstrained style of Ci poems taken as an orthodox school, this could be considered as a left theory of Ci poem. If a theory accepted the graceful style school as an orthodox school, it would become a Ci poem research theory refusing heroic wills. Both of these are just a glance from a corner." 30 Or it said: "A dichotomous analysis should be used on both the unconstrained style school and the graceful style school, without bias."31 However, Mr. Shi Zhicun (施蟄存) and Mr. Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿) presented their arguments not only for correcting the wrong tendency in 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style school and graceful style school of Ci poem, but, more importantly, also carrying out the theory of Ci poetic inherent colour through criticizing the style theory of Ci poem. That is, they expressed in words their impression and understanding of the Ci poetic inherent colour by negating and criticizing the style theory of Ci poem. Mr. Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿) eluci-dated 'descriptive prose interpreted with verses, metaphors and moods forinitial creation' (賦兼比興), and said: "metaphors and moods for creating in a Ci poem are not restricted in praising things, but also used in the works of describing scenery and expressing oneself's feelings, with boudoirs, flowers and grasses used as metaphor and for initiating moods of creation."32 This is the common techniques of describing scenery and expressing poet's feel-ings, i.e. the descriptive techniques used for descriptive proses interpreted with verses, having metaphors and moods for original interest of starting. It's an important discovery made by Mr. Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿) concerning Chi-nese traditional techniques of presentation used in Classical poems. Basing on this, Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿) criticized Hu Shi's (蘇軾) and Hu Yunyi's (胡雲翼) wrong explanation of Jiang Kui's (姜夔) two pieces of Ci poem, "Secret Fragrant" (<暗香>) and "Scattered Shades" (<疏影>). Both of them considered that Jiang Kui's (姜夔) Ci poems were in an ornate style using ambiguous allusions, so the meanings of Ci poem were hard to under-stand. Or alternatively, Jiang Kui's (姜夔) Ci poems missed meanings at the expense of rhythm. And all these are not acceptable nor appreciative33. However, Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿) didn't agreed with them, and indicated that the two Ci poem had reached a quite high level in praise of plum, idea and poetic atmosphere. That they become a bit difficult to understand, is caused just by using metaphors and moods for originating a Ci poem34. Both the evaluations by Hu Yunjun (胡雲翼) and Hu Shi (胡適) on Jiang Kui's (姜夔)Ci poems are opposite to each other, with one positive and another nega-tive, which exhibited different criteria hold by the theorists accentuating the style of Ci poem and by the theoreticians stressing the inherent colour of Ci poem. One considered that, generally speaking, the poet of unconstrained style were good while the poets of graceful style were bad35. On the other hand, another one emphasized the traditional techniques of presentation in classical poems, such as the techniques of description in descriptive prose with interpreted verses, metaphor and moods for the original interest of starting. It's an important difference between the theory stressing the style of Ci poem and the theory stressing the inherent colour of Ci poem. It's also an example confirming that the critics carried out the theory of Ci poetic inherent colour through negation and criticism.
Moreover, Wu Shichang (吳世昌), a great master of Ci poem researchwho initiated structural analysis of Ci poem in 1940s, most thorough denied and criticized the 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style and graceful style. He didn't accept that there were two style schools of Ci poem in the Song Dy-nasty. He said: "There was not an unconstrained style school of Ci poem existing in the Song Dynasty," "even though we took such works of Su Shi's (蘇軾) 'great river rolling to the east' (大江東去), 'when there will be a bright moon seen' (明月幾時有), 'an old man crazy like a young person' (老夫聊發少年狂) etc. as 'the Ci poems of unconstrained style', we could say only that there appeared several Ci poems of unconstrained style, but not a style school of Ci poem. If there were really a style school of Ci poem ap-peared in the Song Dynasty, I would ask how many persons it was composed of, who was its head, how many pieces of Ci poem in unconstrained style were written, and what collection they were involved in?" These points were put forward by Wu Shichang (吴世昌) in a public lecture in Sep. - Oct. 1982 before going to Japan for giving lectures there36. His lecture in Japan made a stir in Japanese academic circles. "Japanese News Daily" (《朝日新聞》) pre-sented that Mr. Wu Shichang (吳世昌) established a new theory and chal-lenged the traditional theories of Ci poem. After that, in another article, "On the 'Unconstrained Style School' and the 'Graceful Style School' in the Ci Poems of the Song Dynasty" (<宋詞中的“豪放旅”和“婉約派”>)37, he fur-ther explained the meanings of 'unconstrainedness' and 'gracefulness', fo-cusing on the creations of the Song Dynasty, and indicated that: "the Ci poets of the North Song Dynasty didn't form any style school at all and didn't divided their works into two style schools of 'gracefulness' and 'unconstrainedness'." And he pointed out that "what the theorists of these mechanical divisions could not meet the fact of the Ci poetry world in the North Song Dynasty, therefore, they could not make their statements consistent." His opinion is to negate the 'dichotomy', basing on the Ci poets' creation facts of the Song Dynasty. Additionally, to seek the roots and causes of 'dichotomy' theory, he pointed out that, after entering a modern time, the theorists of Ci poem, from Hu Shi (胡適) to Hu Yunyi (雲翼) and so on, made a division basing on the unconstrained style and graceful style and 'always mentioned Su Shi (蘇軾),Xin Qiji (辛棄疾), Niu Yong (柳永) and Zhou Bangyan (周邦彥), or said nothing at all', which roots are originated from their ancestry Hu Yin(胡寅). Wu Shichang (吳世昌) criticized their ancestry and said that 'Hu Yin (胡寅) knows nothing about Ci poem'. 38
Wu Shichang's (吳世昌) negation and criticism of the 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style and graceful style caused some reactions in the circles of Ci poem research, mainly with those style theorists' negation of negation and anti-criticism. Up to now, his negation and criticism have not been com-monly identified by the circles of Ci poem research, with most people against it and few people for it, however, his argument did break such a situation that the style theory of Ci poem spread throughout the whole country, and played an important role in paving the way for the construction of other critical pat-terns involving a structural theory of Ci poem, in addition to the style theory. This is what Wu Shichang's (吳世昌) contribution to the circles of Ci poem research in this period.
Generally speaking, in more than eight years of so-called reevalua-tion, the construction of the circles of Ci poem research in theoretical discus-sion did reach an outstanding achievement, which were represented in the works published in the next period.
(3) Period of Reconsideration and Exploration (1985-1995).
In 1985, a 'hot of methodology' was fanned and the year was named as 'methodological year'. It's just like what a line of a Su Shi's (蘇軾) Ci poem said: "when a river becomes warm in spring, a duck in it will know the coming first."39 Some scholars imported certain methodological principles of natural sciences into the field of literary research, i.e. 'three theories' includ-ing system theory, information theory and cybernetics. Momentarily, a crowd of followers appeared and a hot of methodology spread throughout the country. It undoubtfully slashed with a strong force the circles of Chinese classical literature research and the circles of Ci poem research. However, in their inner life, most scholars of Ci poem research did not agree with it nor followed it. A scholar well-known to domestic and foreign learned people became discontented when he knew his works were praised as a model of the three theories, so he wrote a letter to his friend, which said: "an unskillful cook likes to put pepper in dishes, while an inferior officer likes to put out official notices, and a theorist paying no attention to the fact likes to give an empty talk.According to my opinion, there were also six theories, seven theories, eight theories, and so on, instead of three theories, four theories or five theories." Nevertheless, some people unwilling to remain out of the limelight and constantly put forward new things. So far as the fields of Ci poem research, the new varieties of research were so-called as macro-research and system theory. Even up till now, there have been some people who intend to take the two varieties as new conceptions and new methods, and suppose that they have 'explored a new way for old disciplines'. We must not negate all these arguments simply. The application of these two theories may have produced some good articles, however, problems caused by them have to be payed attention to. In my paper "A Summary of the Structures of Ci Poem Body" (<詞體結構論簡說>)40, handed in "The International Symposium on Ci Poem Research, USA"), I pointed out: "Some people hold that the greater is a topic of research, the more macro will the research become. So they prefer to get a bird's-eye view on a whole object of research and its developmental history, just like the method of taking a picture from high sky. Consequently, it ap-pears to be a general review given for students at the end of a term, only listing phenomena, describing procedures, but having no new ideas. Some other people stressed referential system too much, and believed that the more things ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, in the sky and on the earth one referred to, the more macro one's argument would become and the more modern consciousness it would have. In result, one states one's idea with several ten thousand words but can not settle any practical problems. These are two ill tendencies appearing in macro-research of Ci poem. The first ten-dency has only a macro-view but no survey, while the second makes minor take precedence over a major issue and substitutes inner research of Ci poem with outer research, therefore, the two tendencies are not beneficial to deep-ening and developing our research work." And he indicated: "So-called macro-research of Ci poem was not something appeared after the 'methodological year'. It's in a comparative position with micro-research. Moreover, so-called macro and micro studies are concerning the different ways of surveying and settling problems, and both of them have distinctions in time and level of being." All this is my impression about the macro-research done in the circles of Ci poem research. In the autumn 1986, I declared my impression in a forumorganized by the editorial department of Literary Heritage (《文學遺產》). As to system theory, I pointed out in the article mentioned above: "Some articles systemize writers' works by interlinking mother system with son system, which unexpectedly makes the understandable works difficult to understand. If one takes off all the caps and coats on them, one will find that what the theorists speak are nothing but some 'common ideas' every one has learned. This is one cause that why some articles marked with new methods are not welcome." And I claimed: "Some articles, using a system of linguistic sym-bols, exhibited a series of status to reveal the inner worlds and thinking mod-els of writers. It may be a practical method. However, researchers concerned seemed to depend on computer too much, so their surveys of this kind (or named as 'decoding') only remained on an explanation of word meaning. It's difficult for them to look into the inside of problems. Alternatively, some other researchers tried to relate these media with many referent systems in order to grasp all secrets and cultural meanings at a deep level, but in vain and still discussed problems outside the ring. This is another cause that why some articles of these are lack of persuadable force." These problems appeared in the use of system theory and produced puzzles in importing so-called 'new conceptions and methods of modern new disciplines'. From these we can learn that, opening new ways in the period of rethinking and exploring is really something difficult.
However, within the research circles of Chinese classical literature, involving the circles of Ci poem research, there were only few people who were fans of latest academic fashions. Instead, most of them are willingly treated the fashions coldly and don't want to change their works into a 'needed commodity' nor to take their research projects as a 'new influential discipline'. People who preferred to do their research work silently were still the most.
In Aug. 1990, I wrote an article "The Present Situation and Prospect of Ci Poem Research: a Pondering upon the Conceptions and Critical Method of Ci Poem Research" (<詞學現狀及前景：關於詞學觀念及批評方法的思考>), an unissued paper) and I considered: "In the field of Ci poem research, there are considerable number of both personnels and findings, In the light of present situation, Nanjing, Shanghai and Tianjin seem to have a tendency to develop into important cities of Ci poem research in China. In Nanjing, an oldscholar Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋)assumes personal command, with Jin Qihua (金啟華), Cao Jiping (曹濟平)and Pan Jinzhao (潘金昭) appearing to be his senior generals. Being the first group of M.A. students taught by Mr. Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋) after the cultural revolution, Yang Haiming (楊海明) and Zhong Zhenzhen (鐘振振) have obtained outstanding achievements respectively in theoretical research and textual research of Ci poem. Other doctoral students, Wang Zhaopeng (王兆鵬), Xiao Peng (蕭鵬), and so on, who are still studying under the guidance of Mr. Tang Guizhang (唐圭璋), have also exhibited excellent talent in theoretical research and textual research of Ci poem, having a bright and inestimable future. In Shanghai, Ci Poem Research Journal (《詞學》) under the leadership of its chief-editor Shi Zhicun (施蟄存) became the unique periodical monograph of Ci poem re-search in China after another special Journal Ci Poem Research Quarterly issued in 1930s. Moreover, Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿), Ma Xingrong (馬興榮), Deng Qiaobin (鄧喬彬), Gao Jianzhong (高建中), Zhao Shanlin (趙山林), Zhou Shengwei (周聖偉), Fang Zhifan (方智範), and so on did a lot of work to reclaim the field of Ci poem research. Especially in the learning of tone and critical methodology, their achievements have been noticed. In Tainjin, on the initiative of a late Ci poet and theoretician of Ci poem, Kou Taifeng (寇泰逢) with an assumed name of Mengbi (夢碧), enrolled many students and opened a class for a basic training of creation and research of Ci poem, in order to foster writers and theoreticians of Ci poem. Now there are a lot of young and middle-aged Ci poets and theoreticians of Ci poem who have accepted Mr. Kou Taifeng's (寇泰逢) four criteria of Ci poem, 'real feeling, new meanings, beautiful words and restricted rules of form', as a criterion in exchange and discussion. A generation of Ci poetists and theoreticians of Ci poem is growing. Additionally, there are also a large number of professors and associate professors in universities or colleges, and research fellows and assistant research fellows in institutes in China have achieved in different fields of Ci poem research in the last four decades. On the Dragon Boat Festival of 1987, Chinese Association of Ci Poem Research was established in Beijing, which promoted the work of Ci poem research to extend to different social levels. A new Journal Chinese Poetries and Ci Poems (《中華詩詞》) emphasizes both creation and research of Ci poem. 7,000 copies of Its Vol.1were printed and sold out quite soon. The course of creation and research of Chinese poetries and Ci poems in China has appeared in a new situation of vigorous development." It's five year ago when I wrote the above article and I have left Chinese mainland for some years now. In these years, the circles of Ci poem research, of course, have somethings changed, including that the old and ripe research becomes weak and that there are lack of new findings, and so on. It seems that one can hardly find a 'vigorous' situation any where substantially. This is my rough evaluation of and worry about the Ci poem research in the period.
As to the use of critical models, there were obvious differences, com-paring those of this period and those of the last two periods. In the last two periods, the style theory of Ci poem developed from the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere, especially the 'dichotomy' of unconstrained style and graceful style, basically occupied the dominant position in the circles of Ci poem re-search. However, in this period, not only the style theory of Ci poem but also the natural colour theory of Ci poem, the theory of Ci poetic atmosphere and the structural theory of Ci poem, all had themselves' places to generate and develop. Those theorists applied different methods themselves, and thought as well as achieved in certain fields independently. These may be the marks of so-called reconsideration and exploration. Here I'd like to introduce two works: Qian Hongying's (錢鴻瑛) The Artistic World of Ci Poem (《詞的藝術世界》),41 and Zeng Daxing's (曾大興) Liu Yong and His Ci Poems (《柳 永和他的詞》)42.
Qian Hongying's The Artistic World of Ci Poem (《詞的藝術世界》) is a work of artistic criticism upon Ci poetists and Ci poems, according to the basic principles of modern literary creation and criticism. Its views depend on a theory of literary subject. That's to say, it takes a Ci poet as a creation subject, a Ci poem as an objective subject and an appreciator as an acceptance subject, and then discussed them one by one. At the beginning of his work, the writer claims in its introduction: "Originated in the Sui and Tang dynasties and Developed through the Five Dynasties and the North Song Dynasty, Ci poem was a unique beautiful flower in Chinese classical poems, which did not accord most with Chinese feudalistic tradition of poetic education but most abounded with lyric subjectivity." Regarding Ci poem asa 'pure lyric and artistic world', the writer analizes Ci poems and considers that a Ci poet write poems mainly to express himself and to exhibit 'human value'. "The beautiful images chosen in a Ci poem depend on a certain tendency of poet's psychology." Therefore, the artistic figure produced from this, playing a role of a Ci poetic body itself, is a 'blend of aesthetic subject (Ci poet mind) and object (most as natural scenery things)'. And an appreciator's appreciation (or imagination in appreciating) is an important section to form an artistic conception, i.e. "the artistic conception of a Ci poem must be com-posed of three parts involving the conceptions of creation subject, the noumenon form of a Ci poem, and the appreciator's recreational imagination in a Ci poem, or can not be produced." The work has four chapters in total, which discuss the three parts in aesthetic process one by one, creator sub-ject, objective subject, and acceptance subject. A reader will find everything new and bright from the work.. That's to say, "the writer's sensitivity and pain should be extricated by a historist's heart and a philosopher's head." (as an inscription of a foreword). Generally speaking, the effect expected can be explained. This is successful of the work. The writer of the book was fully confident of it and supposed that his exposition in the work broke through Wang Guowei's (王國維) theory of Ci poetic atmosphere. However, as to Qian Hongying's (錢鴻瑛) critical model, no matter what he elucidated about the blend of the theory of aesthetic subject (certain social group, mainly con-cerning Ci poetists) and the theory of aesthetic object (certain social phenomenon existing), or about the unification between the so-called 'emptiness' in the process of appreciation (which is an image created by a Ci poet with a carrier of linguistic symbols) and the 'emptiness' of poetic atmosphere (which is produced by its reader in appreciating the images cre-ated by the Ci poet), including his argument that 'Ci poetic atmosphere is produced out of an image', according to my opinion, the criterion and critical method he used had nothing different from those as which Wang Guowei (王國維) regarded that 'the best Ci poem is composed of Ci poetic atmosphere'. That's because, both of them took 'Ci poetic atmosphere' (境界) or 'Ci poetic meaning atmosphere' (境界) which they remarked respectively themselves as their aesthetic criteria, and used a method to evaluate the level of a work, just depending on if there is a 'Ci poem atmosphere' or if theCi poetic meaning and the poetic atmosphere could blend or not. However, one should acknowledge that, what Qian Hongying (錢鴻瑛) wrote was a special theoretical work with his own consideration and achievement, which is difficult to find in current Chinese history of Ci poem research after Wang Guowei (王國維). This is an important finding achieved in the period of reconsideration and exploration.
Another learned work is Liu Yong and his Ci poems《柳永和他的詞》 by Zeng Daxing (曾大興). Although some chapters and sections of the book haven't broken the limitation of common analysis on writers and their works, especially the limitation of the critical model used by the style theory of Ci poem. For example, when discussing Liu Yong's (柳永) subjective style and evaluating his aesthetic value, though he does not simply divide Ci poems into the two style types of unconstrainedness and gracefulness, he divides them into common and elegant styles instead and his pattern of judge-ments is still a 'dichotomy', which was habitually used by the circles of Ci poem research in the first two periods. However, there is one chapter in the book, with a title of 'Liu Yong's Creation of Ci Poem by Methods of Descrip-tive Prose Interpreted with Verses' (“柳永以賦為詞論”), which sums up the methods of descriptive prose, i.e. elaboration, used in Liu Yong's (柳永) Ci poems as four kinds of crosswise elaboration, longitudinal elaboration, contrary elaboration, and crisscross elaboration. And referring to actual works and predecessors' opinions, he discusses the four descriptive methods in details one by one. It's worth praise, because its method of exposition is a common analysis of structure in the structural theory. It breaks and surpasses the style theory of Ci poem. Therefore, in a short article43, I said: reading this chapter, I was quite exciting. And I indicated: "This is an advanced mono-graph." In this period of exploring, it's also a noticeable finding.
After reconsideration and exploration had been done for ten years, a great change happened in the circles of Ci poem research. The change was substantiated mainly in the use of critical models, from the 'dichotomy' of uncon-strained style and graceful style used throughout the country to various critical models developed freely. The change greatly promoted the development back to the original place of the Ci poem research. It was the end of the changing period of current Chinese research of Ci poem, as well as another beginningpoint of development in current Chinese research of Ci poem.
Part III. Additional Points
I have investigated, described and affirmed the three periods of change in the history of current Chinese research on Ci poem, i.e. initiation period, creation period, and transmutation period, according to their critical models. Here I'd like to look back and continue my survey on the 'knowledge' as one of the three qualities required in researching history.
In the light of my learning, so-called knowledge is just knowledge and view in a common meaning, without complex and scientific definition de-manded. For example, 70 years ago, Hu Shi (胡適) compiled "A Selection of Ci Poem" (《詞選》) and divided the history of Ci poem into following three long periods. The first period was from the late Tang dynasty to the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty (850-1250), in which Ci poem developed naturally. The second period was from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1250-1650), in which songs developed. The third period was from the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to present (1620-1900), in which people imitated their predecessors and made verses on given rhymes.
Hu Shi (胡適) said: "The first period is a history of Ci poem itself. The second period is a history of substitute for Ci poem, or a history of Ci poem's rebirth. And the third period is a history of counting Ci poem's ghost. 44 . The division presented Hu Shi's (胡適) view on the history of Ci poem and his historical view of Ci poem. This is a kind of knowledge. Although his criteria and methods used to divide the three long periods and the criteria and methods mentioned above to divide the first period into three shorter stages are in fact Wang Guowei's (王國維) criteria and methods expressed as 'the best Ci poems are those with Ci poetic atmosphere' (詞以境界以最上). That's to say, depending on if a Ci poem presents naturally a writer's talent and feelings or not, an evaluation can tell if a Ci poem is 'itself' or 'its ghost'. Moreover, his division has not been accepted commonly by the circles of Ci poem research, but the division presents a kind of 'knowledge' any way, which is a great view of such a person who is fond of history. After Hu Shi (胡適), there have been lack of both theorists of Ci poem and works of Ci poem research with such a great mind and boldness of view. This is the reason that why in this article lparticularly emphasize the importance of 'knowledge' in discussing Ci poem.
In outside of the Circles of Ci poem research, there have been some people who put forward A Series of Masters in the Chinese Literature of the 20th Century (《20世紀中國文學大師文庫》), which includes 47 masters of Chinese literature and assigns an order of them. The arrangement of the book exhibits his view and knowledge substantially, but unfortunately, his 'aesthetic criterion' on which his points based is uncertain and has caused some opposite opinions. However, what he did is something different obvi-ously from the ways on which other literary historists and researchers of Ci poem deal with the objects of their research, since the latter praise (or re-mark) the Ci poetists one by one in an order of Dynasties (or time). The former lays particular emphasis on some Ci poet and give up some others, which presented his judgement and knowledge. While the latter do just as one counts ghosts and abstracts reasons commonly. This is the difference between 'having knowledge' and 'having no knowledge'. When one discusses Ci poem today, he must not neglect the difference.
Of course, the above mentioned judgement on and division of the developmental stages of current Chinese research of Ci poem, depending on the models of political struggle, should be considered as a kind of 'knowl-edge' (識). However, the judgement on and division of literature, after all, have themselves' criteria, not completely attaching to politics. In this article I, therefore, basing on the use and change of critical models, have applied literary criteria to judgement and division, so that I can expound and prove the current Chinese research of Ci poem.
Shi Yi Dui
Nov2, 1995
Any correction and discussion on this article will be welcome by the writer.
ANY CORRECTION AND DISCUSSION ON THIS ARTICLE WILL BE WELCOME BY THE WRITER
(THE PAPER IS FINISHED IN UNIVERSITY OF MACAU ON NOV. 2, 1995)
Annotation
1. A Biography of Liu Zixuan from An Old History of the Tang Dynasty (《舊唐書·劉子玄傳》)
2. "On the composition Art of Ci Poem" (《論詞的章法》)·Lo Yin Shi Academic works P55 Vol 2.(《羅音室學術論著》第2卷第55頁)
3. "Yilin Suplement"(《藝林副刊》) of"Dagong News" (《大公报》)Aug. 19,and Aug.26, 1994.
4. Issued on Mirror Monthly (《鏡報月刊》). Hong Kong in July,1995.
5. Issued on Literary Review (《文學評論》) No.5, 1989
6. First published by Commercial Publishing House in 1927
7. First published by Mainland Publishing House in June, 1933
8. Published by the North New Publishing House, Shanghai in Sep. 1933
9. An Outline of the Chinese History of Ci Poem, P.139-140 (《中國詞史大綱》第一三九一四零頁)
10. Issued on Tianjin National Daily (《國民日報》) from Dec. 8, 1947 to Apr. 1, 1948
11. Compiled in Gu Sui's Collected Works (《顧隨文集》) which was first published by Anceint Book Publishing House
12. Read the analysis of "Qing Ping Yue" (<清平樂>)in the last vol. of Juan Tuoan's Jiaxuan Ci Shuo (《倦駝庵東坡詞說》)
13. Words incited from Zhou Ruchang's (周汝昌) talk about 'ingenuous feeling and broad aspi-ration' according to the short introduction of "Talk about Su Shi and Xin Qiji's Ci Poems" (<蘇辛詞說>) on page 243 of Appreciation of Poems and Ci Poems (《詩詞賞會》) first published by Guangdong Publishing House in Guangzhou in June 1987)
14. According to Undisciplined Talks about Poems and Ci Poems (《詩詞散論》) published by Kaiming Book Store, Shanghai in 1948)
15. Which was published on a Journal Gentle (《斯文》) in March, 1938
16. "On the Style Change of the Ci poem in the two Song Dynasties" (<兩宋詞風轉變論>), on Quarterly of Ci Poem Research (《詞學季刊》), No.1 of Vol.2, Oct. 1934
17. Published on Quarterly of Ci Poem Research (《詞學季刊》), No.2 of Vol.2, Jan.1935
18. Published on Quarterly of Ci Poem Research (《詞學季刊》), No.3 of Vol.3, June 1936
19. Published on Making Words (《制言》), combined edition of No.37 and No.38, Apr. 1937
20. (please refer to my article "Xia Chengtao and Current Research of Ci Poem in China" (<夏 承燾與中國當代詞學>) published on Literary Heritage Journal (《文學遺產》), No.4, 1992 and his works Annals of the Ci Poets of the Tang and Song Dynasties (《唐宋詞人年譜》)
21. Published on "Weekly of Literature and History" of "Central Daily" (《中央日報》文史週刊) on Sep.24, 1946, Oct.1, 1946, Dec.31, 1946, and Jan.14, 1947
22. Please refer to "On the Composition Art of Ci Poem" (<論詞的章法>)
23. Xia Chengtao (夏承燾) Preface: A Collection of Yue Lun Shan Poems (《月輪山詞論集》) □ 前言, first published by Zhonghua Publishing House in Sep. 1979
24. Published by People's Literary Publishing House in 1959
25. Published in Shanghai by Chinese Publishing House in Feb. 1962
26. Induced from "the Preface of A Selection of the Ci Poems in the Song Dynasty (960-1279)" (《宋詞選·前言》)
27. As in "A Talk about the Artistic Characteristics of Ci Poem" (<談談詞的藝術特徵>) on Linguistic and Literary Teaching (《語文教學》), No.6, 1957
28. Which later was sorted out and compiled as Ten Lessons of Ci Poem Research (《詞學十講》), published by Fujian People's Publishing House in July 1988
29. Issued on No.2,1962 of Monthly of Academic Research (《學術月刊》)
30. Shi Zhicun (施蟄存)"Letter from Shi Zhicun to Zhou Lengjia" <施蟄存致周楞枷>, on Learned Journal of Northwest University (《西北大學學報》), No.3, 1980
31. Wan Yunjun (萬雲駿) : "Trail Talk about the Evaluation on the Unconstrained Style School and Graceful Style School of Ci Poems in the Song Dynasty: with a Remark on Hu Yunyi's A Selection of the Ci Poems in the Song Dynasty" (<試論宋詞的豪放派與婉約派的评價問題—兼評胡雲翼的宋詞選>), issued on Academic Monthly, No.4, 1979
32. "Another Remark on Hu Yunyi's A Selection of the Ci Poems in the Song Dynasty" (<再評 胡雲翼《宋詞選》>), quoted from P.331 of On the Appreciation of Poem, Ci Poem and Song (《詩詞曲欣賞論稿》), published by Chinese Academic Publishing House of Social Sciences, first edition in Beijing in Sep.1996
33. Please refer to Jiang Kui's (姜夔) Short Biography from A Selection of Ci Poems (詞選) compiled by Hu Shi (胡適) and Hu Yunyi's (胡雲翼) remarks on the two pieces of Ci poem in A Selection of Ci Poems in the Song Dynasty (《宋詞選》) compiled by himself
34. P.331 in On Appreciation of Poem, Ci Poem and Song (《詩詞曲欣賞論稿》)
35. Wan Yunjun's (<萬雲駿>) remarks on Hu Yunyi (胡雲翼), please refer to "On the Evaluation upon the Unconstrained Style and Graceful Style of Ci Poems in the Song Dynasty:with an Accesory Comment on Hu Yunyi's Selection of the Ci Poems in the Song Dynasty"(<試論宋詞的豪放派與婉約派的評價問題—兼評胡雲翼的《宋詞選》>)
36. Refering to "Some Problems about Su Shi's Ci Poems" (<有關蘇軾詞的若干問題>), is-sued on No.3,1983 of Literary Legacy (《文學遺產》)
37. Issued on No.9,1983 of Literary and Historic Knowledges (《文史知識》)
38. Please refer to P.111. of my work "A Breif History of Wu Shichang" (<吳世昌傳略>), Vol.8 of Current Chinese Social Scientists (《中國當代社會科學家》). first published by Catologues and Documents Publishing House, Beijing, Nov.1986.
39. A line of Su Shi's (蘇軾) "Morning Scenery of River in Spring by Huei Cuong" (<惠崇春江曉景>)
40. Issued on No.2 of Vol.3, June 1993, Research Messages of Chinese Literature and Philosophy (《中國文哲研究通訊》)
41. First published by Shanghai Publishing House of Art and Literature in Oct. 1992
42. First published by Publishing House of Zhongshan University, Guangzhou in June 1990
43. "A Ponderation about Critical Methods" (<關於批評模式的思考>), issued on Vol.1, 1991 of Chinese Poetry Theory (《中國詩學》)
44. Quoted from the Preface of A Selection of Ci Poem (《詞選·序》), first published in Shanghai in July 1927
