The Congruity of Poem, Ci, and Qu and the Reconstruction of Their Historical Theories

(Abstract)

 

Li Feiyue

 

The standards for differentiating the gelv (格律), singing and qudiao (曲调) of poem, ci, and qu, reflect the factors, features and concepts of songs and poems in different historical periods. The belief in the transition from art to literature and from vulgarity to elegance of “qu-ci-poem,” and in the evolution from literature to art, and from simplicity to complexity of “poem, ci-qu,” veils a richer artistic landscape. The historical fact is that poem, ci, and qu are of the same origin. We should, starting from the point, break the genre differentiation, reflect the history of text origin, value the comprehensive characteristics of poem, ci, and qu, regard them as different artistic and historical forms, understand the symbiotic relationship among them, thus rethink the happenings and characteristics of the styles of xiqu and novels. Through research of text and art, we will advance the relative subjects of historical theory and reconstruction of genealogy of literary forms from the perspectives of wholeness and long-term.