Research On Historical Status Of Houcun’s Ci

Liu Kezhuang is a master in the circle of Ci in the late phase of the Southern Song Dynasty, he is well-known for his vigorous and firm as well as impassioned and sorrowful patriotic Ci. The academic circle has conducted quite a few researches on Houcun’s Ci, whose achievements mainly focus on the researches on Ci, such as arranging, chronicling, taking notes and commentaries as well as the analysis of contents, artistic features and thoughts of Ci. The judgments of the historical status of Houcu’s Ci usually follow predecessors’ opinions and Houcun is always regarded as “Xin School’s Later Elite Representative” and “Xin School’s Patriotic Ci Writer”, which, admittedly, summarizes Liu Kezhuang’s Ci’s highest achievement, but somewhat neglects Houcun’s Ci’s diversity. Based on previous research achievements, The basic methods used are textual civism of lecture and literary theory,this thesis discusses the historical status of Houcun’s Ci in different times and spaces from a diversified perspective. The first part differentiates and analyzes between the two problems of Houcun’s Ci needed to be paid attention to. One is the specialty of Houcun’s creation. Houcun’s Ci was mainly written in Houcun’s old age when he was frustrated in the officialdom and lived in seclusion in countryside. Hence, there is a negative aspect existing in most of Houcun’s Ci, which cannot be neglected. The other one is the differences among Houcun’s Ci system. There are 120 pieces of Ci in Houcun Jushi Collection and 258 pieces of Ci in Complete Works of Houcun. However, Complete Works of Houcun in the Ming and Qing Dynasties only has a transcript in Tianyi Pavilion. Evaluation of Houcun’s Ci before the Republic of China mainly depended on the early 120 pieces of Ci. Hence, attention should be carefully paid to any biases. Thirdly, scholars turned to see Houcun as a member of Ci of Lakes and Rivers. Actually, Houcun and his Ci are different from the Ci of Lakes and Rivers.The second part discusses the status of Houcun’s Ci in Xin School’s Ci, which is composed of three sections of the inheritance, development and deviation of Xin School’s Ci. Because Liu Kezhaung’s family background, experiences, knowledge and historical background are all different from those of previous generation of Xin School’s Ci writers, he developed the Xin School’s Ci on the basis of inheriting the main patriotic and unconstrained tones, such as the concern for the people, the sympathy for peasant uprising troops and the respect for women. However, in the works of most of Xin School’s Ci writers, there did not contain such tones. In the meantime, it cannot be ignored that a large number of graceful and restrained style of Ci, negative and decadent birthday Ci, Buyun Ci in Houcun’s old age all reflected his deviation from Xin School’s main style.The third part probes into the status of Houcun’s Ci in Fujian’s circle of Ci, summarizes the Ci writers and Ci works in Fujian in the Song Dynasty, determines the concept of Fujian’s circle of Ci and analyzes the influences of Houcun’s Ci on Fujian’s culture as well as the role that Houcun’s Ci played in the development of Ci in Fujian and its status from the perspective of the evolution of Fujian’s circle of Ci.The fourth part introduces the status of Houcun’s Ci in selections of Ci in past dynasties. Based on Houcun’s Ci chosen and compiled in the selections of Ci in the late Song Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty, the Ming and Qing Dynasties and from the Republic of China, this part carries out an analysis. The selections of Ci in the late Song Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty focused on Houcun’s elegant Ci, those in the Ming and Qing Dynasties paid attention to the diversity of Houcun’s Ci while since the Republic of China, Houcun’s patriotic Ci has been attached importance to, from which people’s basic acknowledge of the historical status of Houcun’s Ci in different historic development stages can be learnt. The fifth part analyzes two small problems of Houcun’s Ci. The first one is the preference to Houcun’s Ci of the collection—A Selection of Hua-an Ci in the late Song Dynasty and the analysis of reasons for being different from others. Secondly, careful study of QianZonglian’ taking notes and commentaries of Houcun’s Ci.