Chen Weisong


Chen Weisong, also called Chen Qinian or Chen Jialing, lived 1626 January 7－1682 June 13, was the first of the great Ci and Pianwen poets during the Qing dynasty. He was the leader and founder of the Yangxian poetry school.

Life

Chen Weisong was born to Ming dynasty prince Chen Zhenhui in Yixing, Jiangsu. Chen's ancestor Chen Yuting was a Ming dynasty royal court official. Growing up, Chen had a long beard or ran, so he was sometimes called Chen Ran.
He grew up healthy with a talent in literature and writing. He ranked first in the Yangxian poetry test / competition and was friends with Wu Weiye, Maoxiang, Gong Dingzi, Jiang Chenying, Shao Changheng, Peng Sundi and others. Together with Wu Zhaoqian and Peng Shidu, he was praised by Wu Weiye as "Three Phoenix in Jiang Zuo". Together with Wu Qi and Zhang Zaogong, they are called "three pianwen geniuses". When the Ming was replaced by the Qing, Chen took the Imperial examination to become a government bureaucrat, but then later changed his mind to pursue a life as a poet.
In November 1658, he visited Maoxiang, studied in Shencui Room in Shuihua Temple, and met Yunlang.
In the spring 1662, he went to Yangzhou and alongside writers Wang Shizhen and Zhang Yangzhong helped repair the Xihong Bridge. In 1709, he participated in the "Erudite Great Poetry Competition" and was awarded by the official Hanlin Academy for his works.
In 1682, Chen had a headache for more than 40 days and then died, aged 58. His friend Jiang Jingqi mourned and wrote:
'This grief is hard to overcome. It is impossible to forget the tomb of this great hero. The spirit is now like frozen drum strings.'

Poems

Chen was a prolific poet, writing around 460 poems and 1,629 songs on a variety of topics. He was the first great Ci poets during Qing dynasty and considered one of the greatest poets in Chinese history. His works include:
  • 《湖海楼全集》五十卷、
  • 《湖海楼诗集》八卷、
  • 《陈迦陵文集》十六卷、
  • 《陈迦陵词集》三十卷、
  • 《陈检讨四六文集》二十卷、
  • 《乌丝词》四卷、
  • 《两晋南北史集珍》六卷等。
  • 《今词选》cowritten with Pan Mei
It was said of Chen that:
“填词之富，古今无两”.
According to Qian Zhonglian, among 1944 Ci poems compiled over China's history, Chen Weisong's poems stand out as the richest. Today he is recognized as one of the first great Ci poets during the Ming-Qing Transition and one of the greatest poets in Chinese history.

Friends and family

Even though Chen Weisong married and had children with wives and concubines, his deepest relationship was with boy-actor Yun Lang, also known as Xu Ziyun. The relationship was famous among their contemporaries, and is also of interest among modern scholars studying sexuality in late imperial China.
Chen wrote many poems with, and about, Yun Lang. For example, on Yun Lang's wedding day, which was arranged by Chen, he wrote:
"Six years we have shared life in this lonely world

I’ll never forget how,

Beside a pillow of red shrub flowers,

Your tears fell tenderly.

Your wedding completed,

May you live in conjugal bliss.

And please perform your best

At being a good husband.

Sorrowfully, my inner quilt as cold as iron,

I reach for the mahogany panpipe

With no hope of catching the light of daybreak through the windows.
Please don’t worry that I suffer this deep grief."
Despite the dejected spirit of the poem, there is no evidence that Chen's relationship with Yun underwent any change after the wedding; later poems and biographical accounts indicate that they kept their status as each other's primary partner until the younger man's death in 1675.
An artist by the name of Chen Hu also painted a portrait of Yun after a bath; the picture was so famous during the Qing dynasty, that a publication was released containing about 160 poems taking inspiration from the work and celebrating the young man and his relationship with Chen; the poems were composed by almost eighty literary celebrities and officials of the time, including Gong Dingzi, Song Wan, and You Tong.

Reading

  • 叶嘉莹：〈〉。
  • 叶嘉莹：〈〉。
  • 錢仲聯：〈論陳維崧的湖海樓詞〉
  • 歐明俊 :《豪放詞三百首》成都：巴蜀書社
  • 学术论文内容来自 周绚隆. 论陈维崧以诗为词的创作特征及其意义． 《 CNKI;WanFang 》 ， 2004
  • 周绚隆. 实用性原则的遵循与背叛—陈维崧题画词的文本解读． 《 首都师范大学学报 》 ， 2000
  • 周绚隆. 论迦陵词以文为词的倾向—兼评陈维崧革新词体的得失 On the Inclination of using Prose Skills to Write Ci in Jialing's． 《 VIP 》 ， 2002
  • 刘明玉. 近25年来陈维崧词研究的回顾与展望——兼谈文体功能研究的重要意义． 《 CNKI;WanFang 》 ， 2007
  • 梁鉴江. 诗史与词史——浅谈杜诗对陈维崧词的影响． 《 CNKI 》 ， 2001

Portrait

  • Portrait is from 《清代學者象傳》