Search

In 1187, Zhu Xi (1130-1200) wrote ten poems called "Wuyi Boating Song," which imitated the local boating songs, and described the scenery of the Wuyi Mountains as seen from a boating trip on the Jiuqu River. Li Huang (Tuixi, 1501-1570), a Korean Conflician scholar in the Joseon dynasty, in 1547 compiled tread rhyme poetry of Zhu Xi's "Wuyi Boating Song" and made a final edition twelve years after. This paper aims to interpret the meaning of Zhu Xi's "Wuyi Boating Song" and the reasons underlying changes made in Li Huang9 s version. From the further discussion of Joseon dynasty scholars regarding the poem, Li Huang's points of view shown in his version of "Wuyi Boating Song" are not well accepted. This paper indicates that Zhu Xi was trying to express the idea of shanshui youguan (wandering in a landscape), which, according to Korean Confucians, inculcated the metaphor of shanshui qiudao (pursuing truth). The main reason Li Huang' s interpretation was different from those of other Korean scholars is based on the argument of "The Ninth Bend of Wuyi" poem, about whether it is the ultimate of the pursuit of "truth." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poem "Says the Wife, 'Cocks are Crowing'" in the Classic of Poetry (Shijing) has previously been interpreted as praising a couple who encouraged and supported each other in their marriage. Nowadays, it is often regarded as a model for conveying the poetic imagery of a happy marriage. In contrast to this view, this article argues that the structural arrangement of the poem becomes more intelligible by removing the third-person perspective utilized in contemporary interpretations. In the final stanza of the poem, the gentleman's gift of a piece of his girdle jade to the lady depicts a courtship ritual done before marriage. It would thus contravene established practice for the gentleman to perform the ritual if they were already married. It would moreover cause interpretive difficulties, particularly regarding the happy marriage described in the first two stanzas, if the poet had intended to simply depict a simple courtship. To solve this dilemma, it is claimed here that the first two stanzas of the poem should be read as describing the lady's imagination of a happy marriage, and that the final stanza should be understood as her statement on how the gentleman should express his feelings to her. Other associated questions such as the identity of the gentleman and the shift between different perspectives are elaborated upon in the final part of the paper in an effort to construct a more reasonable structure for interpreting the poem and lay a solid foundation for a deeper exploration of the poet's true intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the birth of Yongming 永明 Style poetry in the Southern Qi 南齊 Dynasty, drawing on cultural background to re-examine its significance in the history of Chinese poetry. The Yongming Style heralded a revolution in poetry circles and is a model example of the birth of a new poetics. Yongming poetics is grounded in a profound awareness of the sound of the language that cuts across the boundaries of language and literature. Its prosody developed in step with traditional Chinese phonology, its leading figures guiding the construction of systems of phonological knowledge. By comparing Chinese and Sanskrit, Yongming poets established the principles for determining pronunciation by phonological segmentation, and by chanting and reading aloud, they made observations about the musicality of the language itself. The decomposability of phonology allowed them to grasp how to manipulate phonology in poetry, establishing verifiable rules. Poets repositioned the human voice as the starting point for the laws of phonology, emphasizing the fundamental place of language; through 'inner listening,' they made connections between spoken sounds and one's inner voice. They believed that the ideal tonal prosody would be the outward manifestation of the inner voice and so advocated an aesthetics of prosody that took the sound of the inner voice as its starting point. In practice, Yongming poetics shaped an aesthetic in the sound-environment of the thenpopular five-character line form that stressed the use of alliteration and rhyme, particularly between the last characters of each line and the first two and final three characters of a line. It sparked a significant, irresistible movement for innovation in form in later poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]