The Study Of Scholar’ Ci Of The Republic Of China

As a result of the Xinhai Revolution in1911, the Qing Dynasty disintegrated andthe Minguo Period was founded. This marked the end of2000years of imperial ruleand theoretically ushered in a new era of democracy. However, the reality was thatChina was still dominated by warlords. Leaders of the May Fourth Movement believedthat traditional values were responsible for the political weakness. They called for arejection of traditional values and a selective adoption of western ideals. Theserevolutionary views have shaped China’s politics and culture down to the presentperiod.The form of Ci was further developed from the late Qing dynasty to the Minguoperiod. The changes will go down in the history of Ci as a milestone. More and morescholars write Ci in a distinct and mature form. Even the scholars fundamentallyinfluenced by the traditional Ci genre, such as the Changzhou Cipai, use vernacular fortheir expressing. By looking to certain lyric poetries from1840to1949, we canappreciate the origin, the development and the tendency of Ci more clearly.The scholars discussed in the article are the persons who have established theirsown independent and advanced theories. The social and economic changes in theperiod have greater impact on them and they are more exquisite and rational than theothers who don’t work in the university. Compared with poetry, the scholars tend touse Ci to express their inner thoughts and feelings. Therefore, by reading their works,we may understand the social history and culture in that period well.This paper is divided into two parts.The first part reviews the general tendency ofMinguo Ci which includes three chapters. Chapter one explicates the definition ofMinguo Literature and the research results are reviewed. Chapter two discusses the relationship between Minguo Ci and other lyric poetries in the history. In this part,Qing Ci is specially mentioned. This part also gives a definition to the Scholar’s Ci inthe Minguo period and the standards of the definition are suggested. Chapter threefocuses on the discussion about the form, the themes and the artistic features ofScholar’s Ci from1840to1949. The author in this paper divided Minguo Ci creationinto two periods with two Ci theories respectively. In the early stage, influenced by WuWenying and Zhu Zumou, the scholars wrote Ci mainly featured by elegance andsincerity. In the second stage, the Scholar’s Ci is heroic and mournful as their countrywas suffered from political turmoil and their family in strained circumstance. So in thistime, their Ci are full of helpless indignation and Jianxuan Ci Genre is the mainfeatures of these works.Using the findings in the previous paragraph as a foundation, the second partselects some representative scholars’ Ci as a sample for evaluation and comparativeanalysis, such as Long Yusheng, Xia Chengtao, Zhan Antai, Shen Zufen, Wu Mei, LuQian, etc. We chose these scholars on the basis that they can represent the highest levelof Ci creation and the contents, the rhythmic and tonal patterns in their works are themirrors of that time. Specifically, although Long Yusheng who was considered as ZhuZumou’s great pupil, devoted himself to archive Zhu Zumou ’s work after his death, hemake a different choice on Ci creation. In fact, Long Yusheng’s Ci is in a indignantgenre similar to that of Su Shi and Xin Qiji. So is Xia Chengtao’s Ci. The other fourscholars, Zhan Antai, Shen Zufen, Wu Mei, Lu Qian, are the standard-bearers forChangzhou Cipai. By an example study of their Ci, the development of ChangzhouCipai is further demonstrated.