Roulette Villa Miscellaneous Writings (Vol. 1 & 2)

Author: (Qing) Xie Zhangting
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-11-01
Features: Xie Zhangting, a scholar who passed the imperial examination in 1864 (the third year of the Tongzhi reign); in 1877 (the third year of the Guangxu reign), he became an official as the Secretary of the Imperial Academy at the age of 58. He served as the principal of Fuzhou Zhiyong College for 16 years. Xie Zhangting lived to be 84 years old and experienced many major historical events in modern Chinese history, including the Opium War and the Boxer Indemnity. Xie Zhangting was skilled in poetry, ci (a classical Chinese poetic form), and classical prose, with his greatest achievements in the creation of ci and ci theory. He was a prominent literary figure in modern Chinese literary history. Many of Xie Zhangting's writings have been preserved in manuscript form. The author has encountered 16 manuscripts of Xie Zhangting's works, of which 7 are housed in the Library of Fujian Normal University and 9 are in the Fujian Provincial Library. Among these manuscripts, the Guaqi Shanzhuang Poetry Collection (a 15-volume edition) is the most valuable. Guaqi Shanzhuang was Xie's residence in his later years, with its ruins located today in the Cao Peak area of Fuzhou. The term "Guaqi" is derived from the Record of the Splendid Tales of the World (Shishuo Xinyu), where Xie An played chess with his friends during the Battle of Fei River and bet on a villa. Xie Zhangting used this allusion to subtly express his contempt for modern foreign powers.