Liu Yong's Ci poems

Author: Liu Yong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Since the Tang and Five Dynasties, literary ci poetry has pursued nobility and elegance in language. Liu Yong went against this trend. He pioneered writing for the urban masses, using as much colloquial and accessible language as possible to express the secular life sentiments that the masses cared about and enjoyed. As a result, his ci poems won the love and admiration of the broad public. Those with lower cultural literacy, in particular, loved Liu Yong's poems because they were easy to understand. Therefore, the Song people often called Liu's poems vulgar, "especially favored by those who knew little of books." Liu Yong's poems changed the prevailing aesthetic tastes of the time and also changed a creative direction, opening the way for the popularization of literature in later years. In terms of the creative methods of ci poetry, Liu Yong also made pioneering innovations. The original xiaoling (short ci poems) were accustomed to using metaphors, symbols, and other techniques, that is, the traditional bi-xing (comparison and inspiration) method, to express emotions and states of mind through scenery, highlighting transient feelings. However, Liu Yong transplanted the method of narrative description, also known as the fu method, into ci poetry, focusing on multi-dimensional portrayals of characters' moods and psychological states; or layer by layer, he depicted the scenes and processes of events unfolding, showing different emotions and states of mind in people across various temporal and spatial contexts. Thus, his lyrical expressions often carried a certain narrative and plot-like quality. From xiaoling to manci (longer ci poems), the form expanded, and the structure changed. Liu Yong's narrative method of expressing emotions perfectly adapted to and satisfied the needs of the changing manci form, resolved the conflict between the traditional lyrical methods and the emerging new form, and propelled the development of manci art. From the perspective of the historical development of ci poetry, it is more than justified to say that Liu Yong was a meritorious innovator on the Northern Song ci poetry scene. The ci poems selected in this book are mainly based on the annotated edition of Yue Zhang Ji (Collected Poems of Yue Zhang) by Mr. Xue Rui, published by Zhonghua Book Company. Since the Tang and Five Dynasties, literary ci poetry has pursued nobility and elegance in language. Liu Yong went against this trend. He pioneered writing for the urban masses, using as much colloquial and accessible language as possible to express the secular life sentiments that the masses cared about and enjoyed. As a result, his ci poems won the love and admiration of the broad public. Those with lower cultural literacy, in particular, loved Liu Yong's poems because they were easy to understand. Therefore, the Song people often called Liu's poems vulgar, "especially favored by those who knew little of books." Liu Yong's poems changed the prevailing aesthetic tastes of the time and also changed a creative direction, opening the way for the popularization of literature in later years. In terms of the creative methods of ci poetry, Liu Yong also made pioneering innovations. The original xiaoling (short ci poems) were accustomed to using metaphors, symbols, and other techniques, that is, the traditional bi-xing (comparison and inspiration) method, to express emotions and states of mind through scenery, highlighting transient feelings. However, Liu Yong transplanted the method of narrative description, also known as the fu method, into ci poetry, focusing on multi-dimensional portrayals of characters' moods and psychological states; or layer by layer, he depicted the scenes and processes of events unfolding, showing different emotions and states of mind in people across various temporal and spatial contexts. Thus, his lyrical expressions often carried a certain narrative and plot-like quality. From xiaoling to manci (longer ci poems), the form expanded, and the structure changed. Liu Yong's narrative method of expressing emotions perfectly adapted to and satisfied the needs of the changing manci form, resolved the conflict between the traditional lyrical methods and the emerging new form, and propelled the development of manci art. From the perspective of the historical development of ci poetry, it is more than justified to say that Liu Yong was a meritorious innovator on the Northern Song ci poetry scene. The ci poems selected in this book are mainly based on the annotated edition of Yue Zhang Ji (Collected Poems of Yue Zhang) by Mr. Xue Rui, published by Zhonghua Book Company.