Title: A Survey of Song Family's Lineage in the Songjiang Prefecture and Their Achievements in Literary Creation
Abstract: The Song's family in the Songjiang Prefecture in today's east China's Shanghai was a prominent and influential family in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Their first ancestor can date back to Song Zimao with the official title of Dianzhi(for imperial clansmen) during the reign of Emperor Song Huizong.Zimao,who named himself after the dynasty despite its fall,followed the Song Dynasty imperial family down to the southern city Hangzhou,which served as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.He and his offspring made the family more and more prosperous after moving to and becoming the first settlers of Huating in Shanghai.By the Ming Dynasty the Song's family had been locally known as a prominent family.Under the Qing Dynasty the total number of the family members reached as many as several hundred.Growing and thriving without holding a public office,the Song's family attached great importance to education,scholarly honor and official rank.It gradually became an influential and intellectual family after the year 1446 that Song Li made himself a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination.At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty,Song Cunbiao,Song Zhengbi,and Song Zhengyu from the Song's family established themselves in literary circles.They functioned as the mainstay of both a literary society called Jishe and its Cloud School of Ci-poetry in Songjiang.As a child,Song Cunbiao enjoyed a reputation for his talent and brilliance.He liked composing poems by nature.One of his two collections of poetry,Yao He Ji by name,is based on his being after the styles of several hundred poets in the Tang Dynasty.The other collection is Feng Xiang Lou Shi.But none of them is available at present.His extant poems and essays can only be found in Jishe Renshen Hegao.The collection of his ci-poems entitled Qiu Shi Xiang Ci is included in Chang He Shi Yu.Song Zhengbi was well known for his poems when he was young.In 1625,he made friends with Chen Zilong,who thought highly of his works.In addition to his poems and essays,he wrote two books about literary theory,called Baozhentang Shiping and Baozhentang Shihua.Chang He Shi Yu included his ci collection Xiepu Changhe Xiangci.Song Zhengyu was an up-and-coming youngster of Jishe Society,later becoming one of the ″three poets of the Cloud School″(the other two being Li Wen and Chen Zilong) that led the local literature in Songjiang.Known as a prolific writer,he wrote and compiled many books,such as Lin Wu Wen Gao,Lin Wu Shi Gao,and Huang Ming Shi(Xuan(co-authored) with Chen Zilong and Li Wen).In addition,he collated Tang poems with five characters to each line,which were selected and compiled by Chen Zilong in 1643.His collections of ci-poems include Feng Xiang Lou Ci and Hailv Changhe Xiangci.Song Siyu,the eldest son of Song Cunbiao,was a new star in the Song's family.When he was in his mid teens,he produced his collections of poems and essays respectively,which were highly praised by Chen Weisong.Good at composing ci-poetry,Siyu had his own collection entitled Li E Xuan Ci.Another important man was Song Maocheng,the father of Song Zhengyu whom the academic community has not paid close attention to.Song Maocheng's extant books of poems include the 47-volume Jiu Yue Ji and the 4-volume Jiu Yue Bie Ji.It is seldom known that Maocheng also composed ci-poems.Twelve pieces of the genre are a good addition to Jiu Yue Ji,although they are not in the newly published collection of Quan Ming Ci(The Complete Collection of Ming Ci-Poems).Song's family members had been very active in ci-poetic circles in the late Ming and the early Qing period.In the Cloud School of Ci-poetry,most groups of cipoets came from different families.Of all these groups,the largest group was the one from the Song's family that includes famous Song Maocheng,Song Zhengbi,Song Cunbiao,Song Jingyu,Song Zhengyu,Song Siyu,Song Taiyuan,Song Zunian,and Song Tailu.Given all these above,if research is to be done regarding the prefecture-county culture of Songjiang during the late Ming and early Qing period,especially the Cloud School,the Song's family cannot be ignored at all.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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