Wang Xi-Qi’s Literary Activities And The Research Of The Further Poetry Collection In Shanyang Area

Wang Xi-qi (1855-1913) is a famous writer and publisher in the late Qing dynasty, whose literary activities mainly includes literary creation and publication. In literary creation, he made great achievements in Tang and Song poetry and essays. Influenced by the "poetic revolution" ideological trend in the late Qing dynasty, Wang Xi-qi paid close attention to the political dynamics home and abroad. His poetry content covers the change of the current political situation, the beginning and the end of wars, and the concern and criticismof the new social ideological trend. The introduction of new things and new vocabulary is also an important feature of his poems. His travel notes are vivid in the scene characterization, smart in concept, and fluent in expression.More importantly, he made comments on current affairs and expressed his emotions through his travel notes. In literary editing, his main achievement is the Further Poetry Collection in Shanyang Area(《山阳诗征续编》).Wang Xi-qi has a unique editorial standard. On one hand, his overall understanding of poetry is reflected in the number of the poems that he selected; on the other hand, he paid special attention to the poems that can reflect the current affairs and people’s livelihood in a magnificent way. Wang Xi-qi’s literary achievements come from various factors. The external factors mainly include the impact of the Western thoughts, the abundant culture in Huai’an area, the literary communication and heritage, the family economic conditions and so on. The internal factors are mainly Wang Xi-qi’s own literary mastery and his concern about the current affairs.The Further Poetry Collection in Shanyang Area is an important regional poetry anthology. Its style inherits a lot of strong points in the Poetry Collection in Shanyang Area(《山阳诗征》).On the basis of the first edition, it broadens its selecting range, greatly makes up the deficiencies and adds more poems, especially those from the poets during the ruling periods of Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang. In addition, the Further Poetry Collection is more abundant than the first edition in terms of literature historical data; has a wider range in terms of poetry content, including the poetic characterization of the natural landscape and the historical and cultural relics of art in Huai’an area, and the recording of the folk customs, economy, history and other human landscape in Jianghuai area, the travel notes of brothers, peers, tutors and students. Special attention should be given to the proses within that reflect people’s livelihood and record the factual wars. Their value as the poetic history should be highly regarded.The literary reviews in the Further Poetry Collection propels the regional literature research in Huai’an area. First of all, in the aspect of literary history, it records the family literature in Huai’an area, such as the Pans, the Wangs, the Dings, the Xus, etc., which functions as the important reference of the literary prosperity in Huai’an. Second, it records a lot of mentoring relations between literati in Huai’an, which provides important clues for the investigation of the literary origins and development in Huai’an. Third, the Further Poetry Collection not only has the reference value in saving poems and poets, but also records the history of the local poetry in Huai’an. The Dun An proses written by Xu Jia starts from individual comments and ends in the whole network of Huai’an poetry history, which is the comprehensive reflection of the literature ecology in Huai’an. The Shanyang Anthology edited by Duan Chaoduan quotes copiously from many sources, enriches the content of the Further Poetry Collection, not only makes comments on the poets and their poems, but also emphasizes the importance of personality. Yang Qing-zhi’s comments on Jueju explores the poets’personalities, reviews their various achievements, and fully reflects the whole landscape of the Huai’an poetry world, where the arts have free expression. The Further Poetry Collection has a far-reaching influence on people’s views on the literary position, literary activities and orientation in Huai’an area at that time.