| Bei Qiong is an accomplished writer in the mid-14th century, between Yuan and Ming dynasty. His works, include poetry, prose, lyric and ode, are distinguished in both quality and quantity. As a member of "Tieya" group, Bei Qiong makes great achievements. This paper mainly concerns about his literary creation, and involves his experience and thought. At the beginning of the paper, Bei Qiong’s family, his life and friends are introduced to readers. It is confirmed that he was born in1312, and died in1378or1379. The year in which he passed the provincial civil service examination is also ascertained. The first chapter also elaborates his relationship with Yang Weizhen, Zhang Chang and the Shaos, etc.In the second chapter, Bei Qiong’s prose-writing is divided into following three periods: seeking shelter in Wu-Yue, leaving for Nanjing and teaching in Fengyang, and the differences between the three periods are highlighted. The difference before and after Ming’s establishing mainly reflected in the degradation of the expressive force and the constriction in emotion, which are partly caused by the intervention of the official ideology of the early Ming Dynasty. The experience of working in Academia Historica and the Imperial College makes him changing his thought on some level. He starts to write some proses in singing the praises of the imperial power and authority. These menial words increase significantly, and he also insists that what he had done and thought in Later-Yuan dynasty are all improper. But even so, some proses writing in Fengyang are still full of nostalgia on the past life, in those works, his elegant and delicate style of writing rises again.Once upon a time, Bei Qiong followed Yang Weizhen writing imaginative Yuefu pomes, but he really prefers elegant pomes written by famous civilian officials in early-14th century, such as Yu Ji and Ouyang Xuan. He is different from Weizhen on both character and cultivation. He also is enlightened by Gong Shitai who is more traditional and placid than Weizhen, but as influential as the latter among the writers, so Bei Qiong appreciates both imaginative but exaggerated pomes and elegant pomes. As a result, he insists that writers must keep moderate and only moderate emotion can be written down. Based on this thought, the vision and intense emotion in his poems are much less than that in Yang Weizhen’s works.However, poetic ideas of a poet often don’t match with what he writes exactly. We can find some immoderate emotion in his works. He usually writes about how he feels about the turmoil, how he wants to live in seclusion, and the sorrows and joys of partings and meetings. The most striking part of his poetry shows great concern of individual emotion and respected personality. The emotional content of his poetry reflects a trend of private writing. Bei Qiong has already been integrated into the ideological trend of mid-14th century, which is represented by Yang Weizhen’s "Tieya" style and mainly about emotion-expression and self-respected. As a writer in late feudal China, Bei Qiong imitates the example of his predecessors of former dynasties inevitably, but still there is no lack of sense of the times and new ideas in the thoughts and emotions of his poetry. The style of his poems has two ends: Plain-smooth and imaginative-exaggerated, obviously he tries to build wide art space, showing a varied grace.In addition, Bei Qiong’s lyrics and ode also make some achievements. His ode, which is based on emotion expression, is carried out under the guidance of the thought of ode-writing in late-Yuan dynasty. The "Qingjiang Lyrics", which are as same as his poems, mainly express seclusion feelings and individual emotions, reflecting that he sees his poems and lyrics as a whole and writes lyrics in poem way. By following the classics of Song and Yuan dynasty, the structure and style of his lyrics remains unchanged. |
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