The Liu Family of Jiangshan in Zhejiang Province and the Ci Poetics in Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China.

The Liu Family of Jiangshan in Zhejiang Province was a prominent family for its Ci Poetics study in late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China. From Liu Lüfen, Liu Guanzao to Liu Yupan, all the three members of this well-known literary family were keen on collection, collation and engraving of books, and also fond of literature and poem composition. Liu Lüfen and Liu Guanzao, the ancestors of this family, spent most of their lives around Suzhou area. They maintained frequent contacts with members of the "Wuzhong School" and had gradually accepted such poetic thoughts as emphasis on tonal patterns and rhymes, which was advocated by Ge Zai, one key member of the "Wuzhong School." However, at that time (in the reign of Emperor Xian Feng and Emperor Dao Guang) the " Changzhou School" of Ci Poetics was rather popular throughout China, members of the Liu Family were also inevitably influenced by the "Changzhou School." As a result, they accepted the notions and theories such as 'internal Meaning Conveyed by External Language," "Usage of Implied Images" and "Usage of Metaphors and Analogies" of the "Changzhou School. " During the period of late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China, Liu Yupan, regarded the natural fusion of tone, rhyme and ideas advocated by the "Wuzhong School" as the symbol of the transition of Qing Ci poetics from its revival to the peak golden age. Furthermore (during Liu Yupan's period (Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China) , with the rising and prospering of the higher education in modern China and the active introduce of discipline classification in western countries, the professional scholarship of Ci Poetics was formally included into the college's curriculum and gradually became the major course among courses on Chinese literature. There were some emerging signs of the changes in the study modus of Ci Poetics. The succession pattern of Ci Poetics had also been altered from the exchange of views between family members, tutors and peers to the teaching in school education. The traditional training practice featured with writing capacity had been dramatically deconstructed. Instead, the cultivation of aesthetic sense and speculative abilities became new targets of modern literature education. Therefore, it was imperative for Liu Yupan, as he taught the literature course in Peking University, to sort out systematically the traditional Chinese Ci Poetics. The first-ever book on the history of Ci Poetics in China thus appeared, which has been regarded as, together with Wang Kuowei's the History of Song and Yuan Opera and Lu Hsun's A Brief History of Chinese Fiction ,the pioneering classics of the "Literary Genre History" in Chinese literature. This book, for the first time, sorted out in a systematical manner the history of Chinese Ci Poetics, and it summarized the evolutionary phases of Chinese Ci Poetics as Up-growth, Over-spread, Full Blossom, Dazzling Brilliance, Weakening ,Break-up, Decline, Cultivation and Harvest. In addition, this book boasts many merits such as in the chapter lay-out, the content structure, the research methods and its aesthetic evaluation. All these largely symbolize that the Chinese Ci Poetics had developed from the traditional pattern to its modern mode. The Liu Family of Jiangshan was actually the epitome of this significant transformation in Chinese Ci Poetics during the period of Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]