Songwriting History

Author: Wang Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: The beauty within the text, about four aspects:
- The realm of reason;
- The meter and tone, this is the beauty that relies on form.
What relies on the spirit is needed by all literary styles; what relies on form is particularly emphasized by poetry, ci, and qu. – Wang Yi
The introduction of Western culture has changed our concept of "history" and also our concept of "literature." We have a literary history, and we have placed novels and qu into the literary history, which is also placed into "wen" or "literature." The main part of qu, the drama, has also been discussed as drama and has almost achieved equal status with poetry and prose. We have Wang Kuiwei's History of Song and Yuan Drama, which is our first specialized literary history or a literary history of a specific category. The New Culture Movement has strengthened the development of new literary concepts. The status of novels has risen, and we have Lu Xun's Outline of the History of Chinese Fiction. Ci and qu have almost risen to the level of poetry; we have Liu Yupan's History of Ci, although it is just a lecture and not yet completed, as well as Wang Yi's History of Ci and Qu. The above is a passage by Mr. Zhu Ziqing, showing the significance of History of Ci and Qu.
History of Ci and Qu, which elaborates on the evolution of ci and qu, is a modern classic written in the 1920s as a teaching material by Mr. Wang Yi while teaching at Xinyuan University. Its greatest feature is that it takes the development and evolution of the ci and qu literary forms as its foundation, and on this basis, it conducts a very detailed and precise analysis in the logical order of clarifying meaning, tracing origins, being specific, branching out, analyzing schools, constructing rules, initiating changes, identifying problems, revitalizing decline, and forecasting trends. The author also introduces many famous ci and qu writers in the book and lists a large number of ci and qu works, allowing readers to both appreciate the beauty of ci and qu and learn the principles of ci and qu.