(Source)
This concludes the series on anti-Qing Ming loyalist poetry (抗淸詩人, 항청시인). The poems were taken from Anthology of Qing Dynasty Classical Chinese Poetry (淸代詩選, 청대시선), translated into Korean by Kim Hakju (金學主, 김학주) a professor at Seoul National University and published by Myungmundang (明文堂, 명문당). When I had visited Korea earlier this year and looked around some of the large bookstores, I noticed that there was more variety of books on Classical Chinese and China in general. With the perceived and real ascendancy of modern China, it seems that many Koreans too are becoming interested in Chinese studies — after all, China is right next door. The breadth and depth of some of the newly published works impressed me. I saw books on Taoist texts with original, historical commentaries by Chinese and Korean scholars and a few that even claimed to be the first Korean translations. There were also more works from other periods of Chinese history.
One period in Chinese history of particular interest is the dynasty transition from the Han-ruled Ming dynasty to the Manchu Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty continues to play a significant role in how the Chinese view and understand themselves today. In the early 20th century, Chinese revolutionaries, such as Sun Yat-sen (孫文, 손문, 1866-1925), often employed anti-Manchu sentiment for their cause. Today, many Chinese fault the Manchus for China’s decline in the 18th-19th centuries and are quite proud of throwing off the Qing dynasty’s yoke. To attain a better understanding of this period, I selected a few poems from the anthology I thought that were interesting on this topic:
- Qu Dajun (屈大均, 굴대균, 1630-1696) – Lulian Tower (魯連臺, 노련대)
- Wu Jiaji (吳嘉紀, 오가기, 1618-1684) – The Li Family’s Daughter-in-Law (李家娘, 이가낭)
- Gu Yanwu (顧炎武, 고염무, 1613-1683) – Autumn Mountains (秋山, 추산)
- Huang Zongxi (黃宗羲, 황종희, 1610-1695) – Mourning Changshui (哀蒼水, 애창수)
- Wu Weiye (吳偉業, 오위업, 1609-1671) – A Spontaneous Sigh (自嘆, 자탄)
- Qian Qianyi (錢謙益, 전겸익, 1582-1664) – A Reply to Sheng Jitao’s Leaf Poem (和盛集陶落葉詩, 화성집도락엽시)
The list can be found in the exhibit tab at the top of the blog.
