Abstract: Amongst modern Chinese scholars' writings in the traditional style, Qian Zhongshu's Collected Poems has the deepest affinity with the prevailing poetry schools in the late Qing period. In his early years, Qian learned extensively from the Qing poets, and later narrowed down on the Tong-Guang style while taking in the influence from the School of Poetry Revolution as well as the late Tang style. Qian excels in seven-character metrical poetry, and his ingenious prosody can be traced back to the poetry by the Jiangxi School, or even Du Fu's. Qian delved deep into the transformations of poetics from the Tang and Song dynasties onwards, and had original insights in his analysis of poetic arts of all the schools of Qing poetry. Taking the transformation from Tang poetry to Song poetry as the basic principle for his poetics, Qian developed his poetics that centered on the expressions of personal emotions and social concerns. Qian's primary concerns in poetry lie in artistic expression, andontological formulation that "poetry is about poise in" has unique significance in modern poetics.

Key words: Qian Zhongshu, old-style poetry during modern and contemporary periods, Collected Poetry of Huaiju, contemporary poetics