Study On Jiang Jie

Jiang Jie is known as one of the Four Great Verse Masters during the end of the Southern Song dynasty, which also includes Zhou Mi, Wang Yisun and Zhang Yan. Born and raised during the turbulent interim era when the Song dynasty was toppled and succeeded by the Yuan dynasty, he then spent the rest of his life as a hermit at the Mt. Bamboo near Taihu Lake, Wuxi. That's why he gave himself the pseudonym (or "hao" in Chinese) "Mr. Mountain Bamboo". Zhu Shan Ci or "Lyrics of Mt. Bamboo " is his life-time work, for which Si Ku Quan Shu Ti Yao, or literally, the Essence of the Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature, praised that he "exercised accurate and insightful wording, harmonious tuning and velvety progression to such an extent that this masterpiece competently serves as a yardstick for lyricists." Despite Jiang's loft conduct and distinctive lyric style, researchers are yet to acknowledge it due to their negligence and ignorance and insufficient information on Jiang's life. Since 1990s, Jiang Jie, as a research subject, gradually moved towards the sublime of literary study as an increasing number of scholars tried to interpret him from perspectives like family history, personal life and experiences in order to dig deeper on causes for his unique poem flavor.Recently, more scholars attempt to deconstruct the Lyrics of Mountain Bamboo in aspects like edition or reception history, which brought the study a step forward. The author of this essay bases his study on preceding findings and newly-acquired information like genealogy and local history records and adopts the method of field investigation to further double-check the authenticity of the records on Jiang's family history, life, human network, lost poems and so on. Note-worthily, the cultural background of then-dominant Neo-Confucianism is also taken into account and evaluated as an influential factor on his work.The whole article consists of 7 segments:Chapter I briefs on the motivation of choosing this theme and the approaches and the methodology to be adopted.Chapter II scrutinizes Jiang's ancestry and background presented in relative records, like local history and Jiang's family book and specifies on the far-reaching impact of his family on his decision to not serve in Yuan's government but live a seclusive life.Chapter III re-explores Jiang's birth and death date myth with new evidence and comes up with a different conclusion. His human network is also reviewed here, with a hope to shed some insight on this seldom-touched facet of the study.Chapter IV expounds on the author's support for the "been a private school teacher" remark on Jiang's late life, among three popular yet mutually-conflicting remarks on Jiang's sequestering second-half life:"been a fortune-teller", "been a monk" or "been a private school teacher".Chapter V specifies on the connotation of his pseudonym "Mr. Mountain Bamboo" by documenting and explaining the relationship between his life and the mountain.Chapter VI reviews the authenticity of nine of allegedly his poems and annotates them, among which Ti Han Ting Hou Gu Si, or literally, "Scribbled on the Ancient Temple Named after Marquis Hanting", not included in the Lyrics of Mt. Bamboo but found by the essay author, is proven to be a genuine piece by Jiang while Chao Yin Ting Chao or "Tiding Listening to Rising" is falsified.Chapter VII tries to interpret the multi-dimensional infiltration and impact of the prevalent Neo-Confucianism on the Lyrics of Mountain Bamboo in the light of mainstream thought, hoping to unearth deeper reasons why the lyricist "took pride in his secluding escapade"...