A Study on the Pingdian (evaluation and highlighting) Criticism on Ci Poetry in the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911)清詞評點硏究

The revival in ci poetry reached its height in the Qing dynasty. It helped to produce a rich range of literary phenomena, which consisted, in essence, of the pingdian (evaluation and highlighting) criticism on Qing ci poetry. The pingdian criticism on Qing ci poetry means the evaluation and highlighting on a given Qing ci poetry text by Qing critics. Although the pingdian criticism to ci poetry had been used before the Qing period, it was only frequently and widely adopted by Qing critics. There are approximately more than 300 works of the pingdian criticism on Qing ci poetry by Qing critics, however, little research to date has fully discussed this important phenomenon. This project aims to examine the following aspects: (1) investigating the style and format of the pingdian criticism on Qing ci poetry as well as its growth and development, (2) investigating the transmission and circulation of Qing ci poetry, (3) investigating the interrelated aspects of the pingdian criticism and other forms of ci poetry criticism [including “talks on lyrics” (cihua) and prefaces and postfaces, and so on], (3) investigating how the pingdian criticism represented the critics’ subjective experience and intuition of the present in the process of the aesthetics of interpretation, (4) investigating the characteristics of the pingdian criticism activities in literati communities of ci poetry and, (5) investigating the other related issues on the theories of ci poetry of the Qing dynasty through the comments and information recorded in the pingdian editions of Qing ci poetry. Concurrently, for a new understanding of Qing ci poetry, this project will provide a re-evaluation of the literary values of an individual author and the literary achievement and activities of women ci writers. In order to achieve the above goals, this project will employ an interdisciplinary methodology adopted from the fields of philology, literary history and cultural history.