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Criticism, Rebellion and Adaptation: Multi-dimensional Construction of Discourse of Remarks and Interpretation on Amorous Poems

Xiong Xiao   

  1. the College of Humanities, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics
  • Online:2017-11-25 Published:2017-10-18
  • About author:Xiong Xiao, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the College of Humanities, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics. His academic interests include the poetry of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and poems of Chinese style in Japan.

Abstract: The formation of the concept "amorous poem" related to the semantic meaning of the character "yan" (glamorous) , and both of them were constructed as typical negative images due to their implicit "dangerous factors" in the cultural context of the past. These critical discourses thus set the tone of remarks on amorous poems, and the connotation of amorous poems thence showed a clearly ideological implication. But two new types of discourse in the remarks on amorous poems emerged in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. One emphasized the independent significance and value by the theory of "emotion-rootedness", and constituted a discourse of rebellion. The other formulated the scope of amorous poems by the concept "elegant legitimism", or claimed that amorous poems can also contain the element of sustenance, thus formed a discourse of adaptation. These views all displayed an obvious consistency with the environment of poetics at that time, and showed the intention that people wanted to reconstruct the image of amorous poems on the theoretical level. However, the ideological dominance of Confucianism determined that the critical discourse always took the unshakable advantage, and it still exerts a powerful inertial effect nowadays, which caused the marginalization of research on amorous poems.

Key words: amorous poem, discourse, ideology, construction, marginalization