A Study On Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci

Once upon a time, Zhuzhi Ci was a fairly popular and spectacular literary genre in Shanghai, with rich contents and huge numbers of authors and works. This dissertation is the first one ever to conduct a systematic and comprehensive study on Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci. By comprehensive, first it covers a huge time span from Yuan Dynasty to the founding of People's Republic of China; Second, it covers text, function and author. This dissertation is constituted by 5 Chapters, besides Introduction, Conclusion and Appendix.Chapter One mainly concerns basic questions in Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci. It starts with a classification of the concept of Zhuzhi Ci, reaching a conclusion that it is a collective unconsciousness of poetic wisdom, a traditional Chinese cultural spirit, an emotional carrier as well as a thinking mode and strategy of historic poetics. This "quadrinity" constitutes the unique deep structure and outer shaping of Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci. Its contents, writing techniques and authors all indicate that the poetic identify of Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci does not hamper its value and credibility to complement historical narration.Chapter Two is mainly about a classification of Zhuzhi Ci. Taking into consideration the contents of Zhuzhi Ci and its functions, i.e. to stimulate interest, to appreciate beauty, to show solidarity and to satire, the dissertation reveals that Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci is a real poetic narration of local conditions, projecting various aspects of Shanghai life and social events.Chapter Three deals with the cultural constructive function of Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci. It constructs Shanghai Cultural Models with a boldness of vision and rich contents, which constitutes one major function of Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci. From the perspective of material, landscaping, behavioral and conceptual cultures, the author points out that Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci describes and constructs a poetic cultural model of modernity. The contemporary market awareness, social equality philosophy, a positive attitude toward human desires, the pursuit of freedom and a cultural tolerance are both of modern characterizes and poetic spirits, which function together to create a free and open community. In light of cultural evolution, the "poetic spirit" and "modernity" have been constantly changed and adjusted, resulting in a weaker poetic construction when compared with modernity construction. The poetic modernity construction of Zhuzhi Ci has a unique value in interpreting Shanghai local spirit.Chapter Four explores its authors. The unique cultural background and academic settings function uniquely on those authors, resulting in a community prone to modern spirit. Since the Treaty to open Shanghai to foreigners, the intellectuals here had developed a special mentality, struggling between tradition and modern. The ethical, cultural and geographical views in Shanghai Zhuzhi Ci vividly display the fightings between tradition and modern in their minds and depict their hesitations when facing the cultural conflicts. Modernity triggers turmoil in those intellectuals, which results in this poetic narration. Zhuzhi Ci benefited from its grass-root attribute, and evolved to be a modern aesthetic tool for intellectuals to construct modernity. Arising from the bottom of heart, Zhuzhi Ci is just a history of those intellectuals transforming to modernity.Chapter Five addresses the current crisis of Zhuzhi Ci. Globalization, as a double-edged sword, has degraded traditional Chinese poetic spirit. Zhuzhi Ci now faces the challenges of mass pop culture, accompanied by novel cultural elements and styles. As a result, Shanghai Zhuzi Ci, a form between oral and writing narrations, is gradually losing its authors and dissemination channel. Shanghai Zhuzi Ci, a thousand-year-old narration, now is on the verge of extinction. Its fate is also a metaphor to show the loss of City Spirit, a fundamental problem in city construction. We cannot afford to do nothing. Rather, we must enhance the protection and maintenance of Zhuzhi Ci from the re-construction of poetic subjectivity and the enrichment of poetic soil, so as to keep the poetic narration going in this modern metropolis.