On the Loss of Ci in Ming and Qing Dynasties

The old poems in the early Ming Dynasty are similar to Yuan Zhen Zhai's poems, but they are both delicate and frivolous. People who talk about the word "Zhu Yi" are infatuated, and they will wither and be mediocre if they lose it.

In the early Ming and Yuan Dynasties, it always refers to,, Zhu Yizun, Wilson and Song Dynasty. Wang Guowei said that their comments on ci were just like Yuan Mei's comments on poetry, but they were too small and frivolous.

Yuan Mei (17 16- 1797), a poet and poetics critic in the Qing Dynasty, was also known as Jian Zhai, a master and an old man in the same garden. Yuan Mei advocated the theory of "the spirit of nature" in his Poetics, arguing that writing should follow the natural nature of human beings, and writing is the true expression of people's inner feelings. If it is not from the heart, it can't be written, and he thinks: "From 300 poems to today, all the people who preach poetry are spiritual, regardless of piling up." However, Yuan Mei's works not only highlight people's inner charm and interest, but also ignore social reality, over-publicized personality and narrow themes.

Wang Guowei's evaluation of Yuan Mei: "Slim and light." In other words, Yuan Mei put too much emphasis on expressing people's inner feelings, but neglected the aesthetic feeling of poetic forms.

"Take bamboo as a warning" refers to Zhang Huiyan, Zhou Ji, Tan Xian and Feng Xu. Zhu Ai is Zhu Yizun, and Zhu Yizun is the representative figure of Zhejiang West School in the early Qing Dynasty. They regard Jiang Kui and Zhang Yan as authentic ci circles and advocate "empty" ci style.

Both Zhejiang School and Shen Deqian advocated that poetry should serve feudal politics, and their words were empty words and cliches, lacking true feelings. So Wang Guowei said their writing was "withered and rough".