The Rise and Development of Gongti Yongwu Ci in the Ming and Qing Dynasties

This project aims to study the ci poetry focusing on objects (wu 物) in the palace style (gong ti yong wu ci宮體詠物詞 ) in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. I have identified four areas of focus for this project: 1.The relationship between the tradition of ci poetry in the Tang and Song Dynasties and the emergence of gong ti yong wu ci; 2. In the Ming Dynasty, especially in the late Ming, the gong ti yong wu ci quickly developed in a cultural background where people were very fond of sensory experience; 3. Due to the revival of ci poetry in the Qing dynasty, gong ti yong wu ci began to gain more attention. In turn it became one type of popular writing style. 4. Because of the increase in the number of women ci writers using this writing style, this project will explore how the women writers wrote about the feminine body. This project will discuss the writing of gong ti yong wu ci in the context of Chinese cultural history and Chinese literary history. I will focus on the Ci poetry, and compare it to the writing of yan style poetry (豔詩) as well as the writing about beauties in fu (賦). Meanwhile, I will explore the cultural and literary meaning of this kind of writing by looking at the specific social and cultural environment.