On The Circulation And Reception Of Su Dongpo' Ci In The Song, Jin, And Yuan Dynasties

Su Dongpo' Ci has enjoyed a special position in the history of poetry. The way his ci was circulated and received since his time, however, has not yet been paid sufficient attention to by scholars in relevant fields. Guided by theoretical insights from contemporary communication studies, hermeneutics, and aesthetics of reception in the West, this paper examines and analyzes statistically the circulation and reception of Su Dongpo's Ci' during the three dynasties of Song, Jin, and Yuan. It shows that although the Northern Song Dynasty was a time when Ci was flourishing, Su Dongpo was derided by fellow poets for failing to conform to the established norms of Ci writing. In the following period of the Southern Song, a national crisis kindled for the first time a strong passion for Su's imaginative and unconstrained style. His ci became the object of eager imitation by patriotic scholars, the best-known among whom was Xin Qiji. Being one of the greatest poets during the Southern Song. Xin's unreserved admiration for Su Dongpo further fanned up the popularity of the latter's style. A Su Dongpo craze quickly spread from the reading public and the poetry writers to the critics and even the publishers. This enthusiasm survived a dynastic change. Cai Song Nian was the first noted man of letters during the Jin Dynasty to praise Su's ci highly. He was followed in the middle Jin by Zhao Bingwen, whose own ci displays the same special charm one finds in Su's, and in the late Jin by Yuan Haowen, who sustained and pushed further forward this Su-worshipping tradition. As a result of a passionate reception by these leading literary figures, Su's Ci was esteemed throughout the Jin Dynasty as "the best of all times." The same was true of the Yuan Dynasty. Su's style continued to prevail, becoming the main inspiration for even poets of the ethnic minorities. On the basis of this close examination, the paper concludes that the reception of Su's Ci did not parallel exactly the evolution of ci as a special poetic genre. His popularity ebbed and flowed in different phases of even the same dynasty. Yet in general, the popularity of his Ci grew with time, and his style has since exerted a far-reaching influence on the development of this very genre.