Research On "Guo Dynasty Boudoir Poems"

Guo-Chao Boudoir Poems was completed in 24~thh year of Daoguang Emperor's reign(1844)and it was a famine poem collection of anthology in Qing Dynasty.The complier was a scholar called Chai Dianqi in Daoguang Period.In Qing Dynasty,women literature had developed at its prime,making great progress compared with the past in terms of both quantity and quality.The unrest from Qing to Ming dynasty alternation left people homeless,although it also made some well-educated ladies coming out of the house accessing to a wider world.In that process,their self-awareness awaked gradually and started to affirm and improve self-value with efforts and spread reputation.On the other hand,the cultural environment was relatively liberal during dynasty alternation,so peoples'mind was more active.There was an argument about talent and morality in the beginning of Qing Dynasty,regarding whether women should be involved in writing poems.After this great discussion,talent and morality became united but morality was still above talent.The publication of women's literary works has made progress at this time.A lot of excellent collections of women literature existed before Guo-Chao Boudoir Poems,providing many references for Chai Dianqi's to compile.hai Dianqi,as a complier,was adequate for compiling in first place.After he won the scholar contest,he was appointed as editor in Hanlin Academy and this relaxing job also provided time for him to compile other books in private.Guo-Chao Boudoir Poems was one of his early books,though it could be seen from the overall collection that Chai Dianqi had spent a lot thinking on it.Althoug there was some deficiency on selection,compiling sequence and collection quantity of female poets,it indicated everywhere Chai Dianqi's own consideration.However such consideration was his principles.His first principle for compiling was the moral code of women's virtue.The end of Ming and beginning of Qing Dynasty witnessed the trend of awakening of women awareness,but it was limited to special groups and environment at that time,and did not formed a mental revolution in the entire society.With such moral requirement,Guo-Chao Boudoir Poems collected a large number of poetries that reflected raising children and honoring parents.In relevance to women's virtue,Chai Dianqi was more inclined to gentle and simple style of poetry.In addition,seeing from the collection,Chai has emphasis on regions when selecting female poets,especially Jiujing region.In fact,such regional emphasis was also related to the compiling course of Guo-Chao Boudoir Poems and the development of women literature activities in Jiujiang,Jiangxi in Qing Dynasty.Chai also made the principle of collection from an aesthetic perspective.He preferred fresh and natural poems,which can be noted from the objects being chanted and images being selected.Chai limited the collection of contents with the above principle.The topics being collected were diverse and the typical genres were reminiscence about families and hometowns,description and chanting about scenery and objects,daily lives,historical poems and reflection of social reality.It is not the narrowing and monotonous of the established impression.