Piling Poets Of The Qing Dynasty Study

Piling school of poetry is a regional poetic school prosperous in Changzhou in the early and middle Qing Dynasty. Piling poetry mainly consists of a group of poets such as "Four poetry masters of Piling", "Six reclusive Piling poets" in the early Qing Dynasty, and "Seven Piling poets" during the period of Emperor Qianlong. Nurtured by Changzhou region culture as well as its academic atmosphere in Qing Dynasty, Piling poetic school exerts an important influence together with Changzhou school of up-to-date writing study, Changzhou ci school and Yanghu school.Piling poetic school lays equal stress on the moral character of the poets as well as its poetic features of poetry. Piling poets attach great importance to Confucian values of faith, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, and still closely connected with Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty. Arrogance and frankness are also the common characteristics of Piling poets.The features of Piling poetry theories have much in common with the cultural personalities of poets. To much extent, it can rectify the shortcomings of other schools of poetry. Piling poetry theorists advocate innovation on the basis of reason, emphasize on disposition of one's own coming with knowledge and moral character. Compared with Yuanmei, the leader of the disposition school, Piling poets in Qing Dynasty have distinctive features in that Yuanmei excels in descriptions of the sexual relations while Piling school lays greater stress on moral principles.Piling school of poetry produces numerous poetic works of art. Piling poets in the early Qing Dynasty display a strong national spirit with a realistic account of the society and directly expose the atrocities committed by Qing army and pay high tribute to those brave rebels who never succumb to the degenerated rulers. They also express their deep sympathy for the poor people and melancholy for their native land. Those early poets carry forward the traditions of Tang Shunzhi in Ming Dynasty and greatly influence the poetic style of the following Middle Qing Dynasty. In many aspects, they occupy an irreplaceable position in Piling school of poetry.Works of Piling poets in the middle period of Qing Dynasty are also of great value since they mainly reflect the sentiments and personal experience of literary people. On another hand, they describe the sufferings of working people and show the true color of the time of prosperity. Some Piling poets produce many remarkable frontier poems in northwest region, represented by Hong Liangji, and frontier poems in the northern and southwest area, represented by Zhaoyi, Xu Shushou, Yanglun and so on. These frontier poetry of Piling school greatly enrich the entire frontier poetry in Qing Dynasty with its more vast territory. It reflects more exotic customs and true feelings of the ordinary people.In Qing Dynasty, Changzhou produces many talented women poets. So the school of boudoir poetry gradually comes into existence, with distinctive family features. It is due to the long tradition of learning in family and domestic harmony between husband and wife, together with the democratic awareness of Changzhou literary people as well as their applaud for women poets that enhances the thrive of boudoir poetry. Qian Mengdian and Wang Caiwei are a good case in point of the school.Piling school of poetry obtain great poetic achievements both in theory and practice and it exerts a profound impact on poetry of Qing Dynasty as well as the later literary works.