The study on impromptu and reply poems of Yuan Mei

• Main Authors: Shu-LingYang, 楊淑玲
• Other Authors: Chang-Ming Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/96443249500776269243

博士 === 國立成功大學 === 中國文學系碩博士班 === 100 === The study aimed to explore Yuan Mei’s significant others who had important influence on him in his whole life, mainly based on the analysis of Yuan’s impromptu and reply poems combining his life experience. In addition, the study gathered a number of feedbacks to such poems in order to investigate the process of Yuan’s shaping himself and the innovative techniques by which he invited others to construct self-image jointly. By virtue of the characteristics of those impromptu and reply poems, we could observe the affective structures of Yuan Mei’s interaction with his friends. Yuan Mei took initiative on looking for cooperation which made the subjects of the impromptu and reply poems become complicated types from simple ones, and public focus from private anonym. Also, through a series of complex networks linking with Yuan Mei’s friends, the frequent dialogues between Yuan Mei and his friends were analyzed in order for multi-layered observation of Yuan’s image. The present study was undertaken by a multi-perspective investigation on the variables of the situation and interpersonal friendship among scholars, as well as social networks during the Qianlong and Jiaqing Period by means of a gradation from point through line to surface in relevancy with a variety of literary developments. The study is divided into seven chapters, and Chapter One is the Introduction. It includes the research motivation and research questions, followed by Literature Review. Finally, the theoretical bases of self-image and social construction were proposed to provide a new perspective for the study on Yuan Mei. Chapter Two is Yuan Mei’s Impromptu and Replies to His Reflections on Official Occasions”, which analyzed the impromptu and reply poems pertaining to those dignitaries and eunuch who had been in contact with Yuan Mei to reflect his original ideas. What is more, the study herein focused on the discussion about Yin, Ji-shang and Lu, Jien-tseng; the former once had helped and guided Yuan Mei while the latter had been acquainted with Yuan because he built a garden named “Shuiyuan (隨園)” near Yangzhou. Moreover, after Yuan’s retirement, he remained having the impromptu and reply with Qiu, Yue-xiu and Zhuang, You-gong who were his classmates, revealing the state of Yuan’s mind in different periods. In Chapter Three, “The Impromptu and Reply Poems of Yuan Mei’s Sense of Mutual Friendship”, the analysis focused on the situation of impromptu and replies among Yuan Mei, his peers and intimate friends. The impromptu and reply poems of the representative figures of Yuan Mei’s friends were selected to analyze Yuan’s primary personality revealed in those poems; besides, the pros and cons of the appraisals for his proud comments on the poems arisen out of his peers appeared herewith. Chapter Four, “Yuan Mei’s Impromptu and Replies Related to the Pleasant Time within His Family”, discussed such poems between Yuan Mei and his family members, reflecting the relationship among Yuan Mei, the elders, peers and juniors as relatives; there were more emotional expressions and exchanges of impromptu and reply poems among relatives with respect to the different official contacts. . In Chapter Five, Yuan Mei’s Impromptu and Reply Poems of Life and Death— the Poem of Self-Elegy (Ziuan Poem) and the Reply Poem of Self-Elegy (Heuan Poem)”, the researcher explored how Yuan Mei initiated an autobiographical writing with an elegy, and formed a kind of a cultural action of joint innovation of biography by an invitation to his friends to create elegies together. Especially the different attitudes his friends took towards Yuan Mei were indicated from the differences of others’ elegies before and after his death. Chapter Six “Yuan Mei’s Impromptu and Reply Poems of His Introspection on Life-- Birthday Poem (壽詩), Self-Birthday Poem (自壽詩) and Birthday Poem Given by Others(他人祝壽詩) probed into those birthday poems that reflected the knowledge and imagination people had on Yuan Mei’s image to a considerable extent due to the practical valuable nature and densely social interaction. Unlike former ones, Yuan Mei had inputs of new ideas on the birthday poems, meditating on the existence of life; meanwhile he also made such poems to be profounder and more insightful in the impromptu and replies. Chapter Seven is the conclusion of the study. Yuan Mei collected a wide range of those contemporary poets’ Impromptu and Reply Poems as their feedbacks to Yuan in terms of “Image of Yuan Mei, Life and Death and Introspection on Life, which could be regarded as a breakthrough toward the constrictions on “a certain subject” in the conventional writing of impromptu and reply poems, so as to introduce a probability of “a number of subjects. When there are more than one certain subjects to whom the impromptu and reply poems are given, mono-correspondence will become multiple correspondence, which resulted in going beyond the restrictions on the single subjects of impromptu and reply poems. Especially in the late years of Yuan Mei, he even made his impromptu and reply poems most beautifully described, based on the topic of self-elegy and birthday celebration; furthermore, he granted a brand new literary meaning for the impromptu and reply poems in the creation of practicality-based elegy and birthday poems. Yuan Mei encouraged people to make impromptu and reply poems for each other, via competitions among poets, which leaded to a common practice of competition among word expressions in addition to self-comments. In this way, he promulgated the purposes of making poems with the topic of spirits. Yuan Mei made his impromptu and reply poems as a carrier for cultural creation, and achieved an ultra-modern and self-promoted effect.