"Zhang explores the sociohistorical environment that produced those poets, an era of political intrigues, geopolitical threats, the rise of commodity economy, flourishing popular culture, and glamorous urban life. Poetry was their means of livelihood as they drifted between low positions or as commoners, living by procuring favors from the powerful elite. The sadness and joys of a life in precarity shaped their thematic and stylistic choices, response to contemporary literary trends, and choice of poeticmodels. They formed a broad social network that straddled the scholar-officials and ordinary townsmen. While their poetry reflects the characteristics and concerns of both classes, there emerged a shared voice distinctly their own that turned the tide ofpoetry in the 13th century"--
How did poets from the “Rivers and Lakes,” a realm defined by its remoteness from the central government, navigate and transform the field of classical poetry, a “high” genre of the scholar-officials class? What did it mean for them to “make a living” out of poetry? Zhang Hongsheng answers those questions in this comprehensive study of the Rivers and Lakes Poetry Movement (Jianghu shipai).
Introduction
1 The Formation of the Rivers and Lakes Movement
1 Societal Factors
2 Literary Factors
3 The Role of Individuals
2 The Rivers and Lakes Poetry Calamity
1 The Timing
2 The Causes
3 The People Involved
4 The Consequences and Impact of the Poetry Case
3 Thematic Orientation
1 Concern for the State and the People
2 The Sadness in Seeking Favors while Wandering amidst the Rivers and Lakes
3 The Hardship of Travel
4 Yearning for Friendship
4 Aesthetic Sensibility
1 The Beauty of Delicate Finesse
2 Genuine and Candid Emotions
3 Style and Manners of the Mundane
4 The Flavor and Appeal of Limpidity
5 Time, Space, and Imagery
1 The Representation of Time and Space
2 The Structure of Imagery
6 Sources and Antecedents: Modeling on the Late Tang
1 Demarcating the Timeframe of the Late Tang
2 The Scope of the Late Tang Form
3 The Significance of Xu Hun
4 The Rivers and Lakes Poets Understanding of the Values of the Late Tang
Form
5 The Rivers and Lakes Poets Objectives in Learning from the Late Tang
7 Appreciating Rivers and Lakes Poetry
1 Liu Guo
2 Jiang Kui
3 Dai Fugu
4 Liu Kezhuang
5 Fang Yue
8 The Favor-Seeking Visitors from the Rivers and Lakes
1 The Concept of the Favor-Seeking Visitors from the Rivers and Lakes
2 The Form and Content of Favor-Seeking Visits
3 The Formation of the Favor-Seekers Class
4 The Relationship between the Appearance of the Favor-Seekers and the
Regional Secretariats and the Recommendatory System
5 The Attitudes of the Contemporary Elite and the Favor-Seekers toward Their
Practice
6 The Emergence of a Social Class That Was Neither the Officials Nor the
Recluses
7 The Change in the Status of Poetry
8 The Value Gap in Favor-Seeking Visitations
9 The Significance in Understanding the Favor-Seekers of the Rivers and
Lakes
Bibliography
Zhang Hongsheng, Ph.D. (1989), Nanjing University, is Chair Professor of Chinese Literature at Hong Kong Baptist University. He has published extensively on classical Chinese poetry, song lyric, poetry criticism, and literary history, including his latest monograph, Jingdian chuancheng yu tishi liubian (Canon Transmission and Genre Transformation) (Nanjing University Press, 2019).
