The Development of Qing ci Poetry During the Taiping Civil War of 19th Century China 太平天國戰爭與清詞發展的境界

The Taiping Civil War broke out in the mid-19th century, and lasted over 14 years involving 17 provinces. It is an important historic event in feudal monarchal China and had an important influence on current literature. During the war period, more than two hundred ci writers wrote more than two thousand ci poems to record and describe the war and rested events . It is such a unique literary phenomenon that it adds brand new cultural significance to the history of ci poetry and Chinese literature. However, there is little research in the relevant field.

This project will fill the blank in the area. This project will focus on the following aspects:1. The mutual confirming and complementation between historical records and ci writings.2. The full and wide practice of the theory of ci history and bi xing ji tuo.3. The revelation of group consciousness in mass responsive writings of ci. 4. The unique style occurred in the war descriptions.5. Re-position the important ci writers through thorough summarization.

The significance of the project lies in what it will reveal of the progress of ci poetry in terms of literary style, of how the genre of ci was influenced and strengthened by the changes of social and historic climate. It points out that ci writings on social events, especially on the Taiping War, have evolved both in width and depth, which is unprecedented in ci history. Although this project focuses on the ci writings of Taiping War, it will bring benefits for both researchers in history of Taiping War and litrary jistory of classical Chinese literature. Therefore, in order to fulfill the task, the methodology of history, literature history and literary theory will be employed.