Selected Poems of Qing Dynasty (A Series of Readings on Chinese Classical Literature)

Author: Selected and Annotated by the Classical Literature Teaching and Research Office of the Chinese Department, Fujian Normal University
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1997-10-01
Features: During the Daoguang and Xianfeng periods of the Qing Dynasty, politics followed a path of decline and corruption, class contradictions intensified, and external imperialist aggression led to the outbreak of the large-scale Taiping Rebellion. The long-stagnant feudal society in China evolved into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, marking the beginning of a new historical stage—the modern era. In this period, Qing poetry saw the emergence of works by pioneers like Gong Zizhen and Wei Yuan, which carried the hues of modern democratic thought, as well as poetry by figures such as Qi Qianzao and Zeng Guofan, who advocated the Jiangxi School and the idea of "unifying the poetry of scholars and poets." Prominent writers included Zheng Zhen, He Shaoji, Jin He, and Huang Zunxian, to the extent that Liang Qichao's General Outline of Qing Dynasty Scholarship described this period of Qing poetry as having "vibrant vitality and standing out as the works of great masters." Selected Qing Poetry includes works from the Shun to the Qian periods. While objectively selecting representative writers and their artistic achievements, we have also included works with significant ideological meaning. Poetry from the modern era has been covered in previous anthologies such as Chen Yan's Selected Modern Poetry and the Selected Modern Poetry compiled by the Chinese Department of Peking University after the liberation. This book does not include these works. During the Jiaqing and Daoguang years, we have selected the poetry of Chen Hang and Pan Deguo, who represent the transitional period between the two historical stages and were not included in the aforementioned anthologies.