略論柳、蘇、周三家詞用韻之寬嚴

Liu Yung (柳永), Su Shih (蘇軾) and Zhou Bang Yan (周邦彥) all master poets of the Northern Song Dynasty. Liu innovated xiao ling (小令) as man ci (慢詞), and thus enlarged the definition of ci (詞). Su innovated 'whisper' in dai yan (代言). Zhou was careful in the choice of rhyming. These three poets are considered as the masters in the ci of the Song Dynasty. However, in the past centuries, critics varied greatly in their opinion on these three poets. For example, the ci of Liu were considered as graceful in rhyming. The ci of Su Shih were considered as non-matching in rhyming. Zhou's ci were considered the best and most precise in terms of rhyming. All the critics based their criteria on the matching of words and rhyme. These critics felt that ci should be song-like, thus rhyming was the most important aspect. Yang Shou-zhai (楊守齋) once commented that poems with non-matching words and rhyme were inferior poems. This paper is written with a view to review these three poets, based on their rhyme usage, in order to see which one was better.