The Poet-Historian Qian Qianyi.

• Author: Bryant, Daniel
• Position: Book review

The Poet-Historian Qian Qianyi. By LAWRENCE C. H. YIM. NEW YORK: ROUTLEDGE, 2009. Pp. 222. $ 130.

In common with most of the great poets of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, Ch'ien Ch'ien-yi A [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (the Qian Qianyi of the book under review, which uses the pinyin system for transcribing Chinese) has not been extensively studied, especially in non-Chinese scholarship. We have long needed a full study of his life and works in English, one that would set both the man and his writings in their historical context. In spite of its title, this book is not that work, for it focuses on only one aspect of Ch'ien's life and works, his role in the tradition of 'poetic history' (shift shih [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), but it is a solid piece of scholarship that will contribute to our understanding of the writer and his times.

Ch'ien is generally known best for his having served briefly in the administration of the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty, having previously been an official of the Ming, which the Ch'ing had replaced. This double service evidently troubled Ch'ien himself, and he became posthumously notorious for it after the Ch'ien-lung emperor declared him disloyal and treacherous and ordered the complete destruction of all of his works.

The author wisely concerns himself not with sterile debates about whether Ch'ien was a good man or a bad one for serving two dynasties, but rather with what he calls "Ming loyalist poetics" and with Ch'ien's part in this literary phenomenon of the mid-seventeenth century. As he puts it, "if our interests lie in understanding the existential conditions of life, the literature, and the layers and contours of feeling and emotion of the writers of the Ming-Ch'ing transition, we must go beyond what a political-ethical position would allow" (p. 3).

The book is divided into two parts. The first of these, "Qian 's theory of shishi [shih shih] and historical contexts" comprises the first two chapters. The first of these, the longest and most complex of the book, considers Ch'ien's theory as a reflection of Ming loyalism. The heart of it is a translation and commentary on Ch'ien's "Preface to Hu Chih-kuo's Poetry" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] The translation of the Preface is divided into sections (pp. 20-21, 26, 33, 40-42), each section being followed by very full discussion that ranges widely and quotes at some length other essays by Ch'ien as well as works by other writers. In spite of the use of subtitles within the chapter, it is hard at times for a reader to see where the author is headed. It would have been a good idea to begin the chapter with a paragraph setting out in outline...