Between Acceptance and Refusal: The Internal Discriminations of Yan Ji-Dao and His Ci Poems
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Chan, Chi-Ming
Abstract
The yi-wei (acceptance and refusal) in this article means a complicated mental decision on different values that shows confusion and hesitance in life. In spite that there are a variety of studies on Yan Ji-Dao’s Xiao-Shan’s Ci Poems, Yan is much less important in the traditional context of ci poetry studies and the field of ci specialist studies. This causes our current understanding of Yan to have conflicting opinions. This article focuses on Yan’s yi-wei and investigates in detail the reasons behind his internal discriminations. Scrutinized are the context of ci poetry history, Yan’s concepts of ci poetry, the meaning of the juxtaposition of Yan and his father Yan Shu, and the characteristics of Xiao-Shan’s Ci Poems. It has long been difficult to set a method to study Chinese literature; this article reflects on studies on ci poetry studies when regarding Yan as a text equally important as Xiao-Shan’s Ci Poems. This is to understand Yan as a manifold person rather than merely a writer, to comprehend his 260 ci poems, and to endow them with literary meanings in the process of interpreting it and combing it out. Now that ci poets carry different meanings from poets, the article positions Yan in the thinking of ci history that attaches most importance to the writer. This supplies the interpretation in the field of ci poet history and reverses the previous judgments about how Yan faces the evolution of traditional ci studies and connects with writers of ci poems and poem-like ci poems. This is the first part of the discussion on yi-wei, which in short is the way Yan interacts with his outer environment and the ci study tradition. The interpreters of Yan’s ci poems like to study Yan’s identity as a grand councilor’s late son. It seems natural to juxtapose Yan and his father, but the two are completely different in their personalities, literary styles, and values, when Yan has actually been in a dilemma whether to refuse or accept his father’s image. To explore the deep meanings of the two Yans’ ci poems, the article probes into the contradictions between them. Lastly, memory and deep love are the main features of Xiao-Shan’s Ci Poems and the origin of all the yi-wei contradictions. An investigation of the two features helps readers to understand Yan’s special life. Reading descriptions of Yan is like reading his poems that contain his spirits. The descriptions of him and his ci poems reveal the topic of this article—Yan’s internal discriminations. The result of this study shows that Yan is an awkward being in his time because of his special personality. When interacting with scholar groups and ci study traditions, he has been keeping a yi-wei attitude, neither friendly nor aloof. He suffers from the identity as ci poet but also enjoys it. He has a personality and a literature style similar to his father’s and the same high taste of beauty with him but he doesn’t crave for the same official career. He even deviates from the core values of Chinese scholars and officials, e.g. self-respect, and cares more about the ci form, which has widely been regarded as trivial in his time. His style is dense, deep, and heavy while his father’s simple and light. His ci poems contain his complicated attitudes toward his father, carry his basic features of memory and deep love, and make his realization of beauty a paradise memory that he depends on like a curse with him in his late life.
Subjects
Yan Ji-Dao
Xiao-Shan’s Ci Poems
ci poetry history
Yan Shu
the two Yans’ ci poems
yi-wei
memory writing
SDGs
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-105-R02121011-1.pdf
Size
23.54 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):bca5ee10fa6459107c40bb51d4904aa3