Cities, crises, Ci lyrics : Huaihai poets of the Taiping Rebellion era = 世變·詞史· 城市 : 太平天國時期淮海詞人群研究

Abstract

This thesis explores how the ci poets of the Huaihai region (present-day Yangzhou, Taizhou, and Nantong) consciously composed ci lyrics to record their experiences during the Taiping Rebellion as a group. Their compositions were inspired by the Changzhou School’s concept of cishi (writing history in ci) in response to historical crises. They created a new paradigm of cishi, with the following characteristics: lamenting fallen cities from an event-centric perspective, portraying cities and their habitants, representing cities in both yongwu ci (song lyrics on objects) or yonggu ci (song lyrics on the past), and commemorating the cities’ cultural landscape. To analyze these works, textual analysis and mutual evidence of ci and history are employed. This thesis points out that intertextuality and metaphorical expressions (bixing jituo) about history are two critical approaches to the works of these poets, especially on Jinling City, the capital of the Taiping Kingdom. While some works exhibit the writer’s authorial voice, others reveal a nascent sense of readership. In yongwu ci, the local poets constructed new images of Jinling City by associating it with lotus blossoms and describing it as a city of immortals on the river. They also contrasted Jinling and Yanjing, demonstrating political solicitude for national affairs when Emperor Xianfeng left Yanjing and took refuge in Rehe in 1860. Regarding Yangzhou, the cishi works by Huaihai ci poets primarily focus on real events, employing fubi (rhapsody writing techniques) with shibi (historical writing techniques). Xinshi (history of a loyal heart), too, emerged when Huaihai ci poets lamented the fall of Yangzhou. The thesis argues that these poets expanded their geographical coverage in their writings after migrating to the eastern region around Yangzhou from 1856. It also explores the cultural significance of the Red Bridge of Yangzhou as a site of memory for the Qing Empire’s rise and fall. Ultimately, this study finds that the Huaihai ci poets’ composite style, which blends elements of the Zhexi and Changzhou Schools, offers a valuable resource for late Qing ci poets.