Study On Jiaxing Meili Ci Poetry School In The Turn Of Ming And Qing Dynasties

The time between Ming and Qing (1621—1722) mentioned here emphasizes the end of old dynasty and the beginning of new dynasty. Meili which is located in Jiaxing County of Zhejiang Province is one of the four biggest towns in Jiaxing at the beginning of Qing Dynasty, and 30 Li faraway from it. In Preface to Meili Ci Poetry Collection Xue Shiyu claimed that Meili has been a cradle of Ci poetry from the beginning of Qing Dynasty. Besides, Meili Ci poems counted for half of Ci Poetry of Six Schools in Zhexi, printed by Gong in Qiantang.The most important principle of Meili School in Ci Poetry thoughts is advocating elegance instead by spurning vulgarity. Wanghong and Caorong, representatives of this school, gave discontent voice to following Caotang style of all the other schools. After that, Zhu Yizun also criticized that trend. His core of critical comments on Cao Tang Shi Yu was aiming at the style of Ming Ci poetry. In his eyes, the biggest disadvantage of Ming Ci poetry was vulgarity. Thereby he proposed to quit the old style of Ming Ci poetry through calling for purity and elegance. And he held that Jiang was the greatest and elegant writer in Ci poetry writing and then another core of Meili Ci Poetry School was following Nan song Style. We have to first mention Caorong when it comes to following Nansong Ci Poetry of Meili School. He had already respected and followed Nansong style with Li Liangnian before he became suzerain of Zhexi Ci Poetry School. It needs to point out that following Nansong Style has been always the major principle of Meili School.Earlier Wang Hong and Cao Rong were the pioneers of Meili school, and later, Zhu Yizun, with the help of Li Liangnian and Li Fu, played a core role in this school. Based on the rich sources provided by "Meili Ci Poety Collection", it can be concluded that Meili school did exist with Wang Hong and Cao Rong as pioneers, and Zhu Yizun and Li Liang as the core, who later created Zhexi school and became its leaders. Beginning from Zhu Yizun, Meili formed a school.The forming of Meili School is no later than Yun Jian, Xi Ling and Liu Zhou, and it played a significant role in the forming and development of Zhexi school. We couldn't have had a deep understanding of the evolution of Zhexi ci poetry forum in early Qing Dynasty and if we did not study Meili school. Consequently, our study on Zhexi School would be constricted on the level of Zhu Zunyi poems.