The Research On Responsory Poetry And Ci Of Hunan Associations

Hunan Association is a comprehensive literary association established by Yi Shunding,Yi Shunyu,Cheng Songwan and others in February,1891,the seventeenth year of the reign of emperor Guangxu,in Tuiyuan,Changsha.There were twelve members in the association,and it often held literature and poetry meeting after its establishment.The works of members were compiled by Cheng Songwan and Yi Shunyu into Collection of Hunan Association's Works."Association",that is,social organization,is a broad and historical concept.In general,the associations defined by sociology include all social organizations,such as family,villages,fellowships,and other natural groups formed by blood relations and geographical relations,enterprises,schools,hospitals,government and other social groups formed by different business relationships,and various kinds of industrial,cultural and political associations that have common goals and organization rules.The literary association sprouted in the Tang Dynasty and reached a prosperous state in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China after the development of the Song,Yuan and Ming dynasties.In the late Qing Dynasty,there were numerous associations of various kinds.However,due to political,economic and cultural reasons,the geographical distribution of associations was extremely uneven.There were many associations in Beijing,Shanghai and other places,but few in Sichuan,Hunan and other places.As an important and comprehensive literati association in Hunan in the late Qing Dynasty,Hunan Association is a new attempt on the way of gathering literati.The Hunan Association was established by chance and it was a comprehensive literary association of loose aggregation of Hunan literati in the late Qing Dynasty.But before its establishment,the core members of the Hunan Association,such as Yi Shunding and Cheng Songwan,had already had the awareness of association.Since the establishment of the Hunan Association,the association members often engaged in literature activities such as poetry responsory.Collection of Hunan Association's works consists of four parts: poetry,Ci,Shizhong(the game of poetry-composition within a limited time)and preface,among which responsory poetry and Ci account for three quarters of the total.The works in the collection can be roughly divided into several categories,such as depicting scenery,farewell,expressing feelings,reminiscing about the past and chanting things.In the poems that depicted scenery,the literati of the Hunan association mainly described the Hunan culture by depicting the Hunan scenery and showed their great identification with the Hunan scenery and culture.The farewell poems not only expressed the sincere friendship of the members,but also expressed the sadness of the parting of friends through the scenery.The works that expressed feelings expressed the sorrow of the rough official career,the hope of inheriting the Hunan culture and the ambition of spreading through ages.The members wanted to carry forward the culture,make it immortal and then realize their value of life.In addition,literati of the Hunan Association also improved their creative skills by reminiscing about the past and chanting thingsThere is no direct discussion on the theory of poetry creation in the Hunan Association,but the theoretical pursuit of the association can be roughly known through the poetry works and the preface of Collection of Hunan Association's works.In the process of creation,the members of Hunan Association drew lessons from many schools and made many attempts at poetry writing,like styles of Wei and Jin Dynasties,Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty.Ci writing was not limited to the North School and the South School,the style was not limited to bold and restrained.In addition to learning from the ancients how to write poems,they also learned from the elders of their families and the celebrities of their hometown at the present time.After many attempts,they tried to change the traditional mode of writing poems and Cis,and strived to bring vitality to the poetry creation of Hunan in the late Qing dynasty.The artistic style of their works still could not escape from the traditional literary pattern,but the poetry language and style were constantly innovative.In terms of style,freedom and innovation are pursued in terms of length,sentence pattern,rhythm and antithesis.Members of the Hunan Association are either relatives or friends.This kind of gathering model of relatives and friends makes the cohesion of the association strong.Moreover,due to the influence of family cultural tradition and geographical cultural atmosphere,the members of the association have similar thoughts and creative styles.The identification of family and regional culture by members of the Hunan Association facilitates the formation of characteristics of local literature of Hunan and makes it possible for Hunan culture to go out of the Hunan area.The attempts made by the members of the Hunan Association in responsory objectively echoed the general trend of the revolution in Poetry and Ci,and promoted the development of literature in the late Qing dynasty.In a word,the Hunan Association played a connecting role in the development of Hunan literary arena and the literature of the late Qing Dynasty.It inherited the culture of its predecessors in continuous learning,explored new ideas and methods in continuous practice,and provided a new paradigm for the creation of later generations of literati.