Qian Qianyi Poetry, And Three Transformers

Qian Qianyi's poem is a typical individual case in the early Qing dynasty. The poems of his early years, in the Ming Dynasty, were deeply affected by the contemporary custom of reviving old doctrine. He began to form his own style in his middle age. He regarded Du Fu as the top model, starting with poets in medium Tang influenced by Du Fu, he studied one by one in descending order. Then, he embarked on imitating poets of the Song and Yuan dynasty, especially Su shi, with great effort. The expression techniques of that age reappeared in his poems. Because of the deficiency of his circumstances and his own culture, he could just reproduce the appearance of Song poems but not the character and spirit. After the "Dingchouyuan" in the 11th year of Chongzhen, he returned to his hometown. In his dissolute life, he changed for the second time to study the style of Later Tang Dynasty, such as Li Shangyin and Han Wo. Shocked by the "Jiashen reform" and "Xinyou surrender", he began to write poems in a much more mature way quickly. In the 11th year of Shunzhi, during the climax of his anti Qing activities, his poems style began to change for the third time. He began to increase his poem taste in all kinds of ways and turned into a master level. The Toubiji of his old age, his top works, can compete with Du Fu's. Not only the structure but also the techniques exhibited the expressive force of Qilv poems. During the series of changes above, he found the appropriate style suitable to his own personality. Personality and poem, appearance and character are unified perfectly in his poems. He developed a broad way for the traditional poems of the Qing dynasty.