Cultivation through classical poetry : the poetry and poetic studies of Huang Jie (1873-1935) = "Yi shi wei jiao" : Huang Jie (1873-1935) shi ge ji shi xue yan jiu

Abstract

This dissertation examines the cultural dilemma that Chinese intellectuals are forced to confront with between tradition and Western Scholarship in Late Imperial and Modern China. As a traditional poet and scholar, Huang Jie (1873-1935) believed that the Manchurian reign was the reason for China’s collapse during Late Qing Era, and Chinese traditional culture would be the only remedy for the rapidly decaying society. Therefore, Huang initiated the campaign named “Nationality Conservation” in the aim of overthrowing the Manchu Empire. While sticking to “conservative” values, Huang adopted foreign/ Western cultural concepts and attempted to rephrase them with Chinese scholarship. All these endeavors had made Huang’s cultural identity confusing. Hence, this dissertation attempts to deal with Huang Jie’s understanding of culture through analyzing his poetry writings and poetic studies.

Immersed by Confucian doctrines about the relationship between poetry and politics, Huang paid special attention to the cultural cultivating function of classical poetry. This ideology of “Cultivation through Poetry” was specifically generated from the Mao Shixu in Eastern Han Dynasty, and then repeatedly expressed in Huang’s poetic works in order to change the corrupt Modern society. In spite of this, Huang still respected and paid serious attention to the literariness of poetry, either in poetry writings or poetic studies. He spent great efforts on the prosody and therefore was well commended among Late Qing and Early Republican poets. Hence, this dissertation thoroughly examines how Huang Jie negotiated the tension between political and literary aspects of classical poetry. After introducing his life history and the ideology of “Cultivation through Classical Poetry”, chapter two and three focus on themes and characteristics of Huang’s poetry. These two chapters explore how Huang established his own poetic style under the trend of Song Poetry Movement commencing from Late Qing. The last chapter investigates Huang’s view on the evolution of literature and focuses on his abundant studies of classical poetry. In the conclusion, this dissertation would like to demonstrate that as a poet and scholar, Huang Jie established the traditional cultural identity, same as his friends in Nanshe, while his faith of “Cultivation through classical poetry” was well challenged at that tumultuous Modern time.