Abstract
This thesis focuses on the unique re-emergence of long narrative poems in the classical style in late 19th and early 20th-century China. The noted long poems are written in the genre of Changqing style, 長慶體, an ancient heptasyllabic style featuring grand historical narratives of dynastic change around imperial gardens and prominent heroines/heroes, in the elaborate form of poetic expression. In this dissertation, I closely analyze representative Changqing-style epics by four prominent scholar-poets — Wang Kaiyun 王闓運 (1833–1916), Wang Guowei 王國維 (1877–1927), Fan Zengxiang 樊增祥 (1846–1931), and Chen Yinke 陳寅恪 (1890–1969) — unearthing literary value overlooked in previous scholarship. These untimely epics of the Changqing style manifested the literary classicism and cultural conservatism of Chinese intellectuals in the irredeemable progress of Chinese modernization. This dissertation is one of the first English-language works of scholarship on Changqing-style poetry written in late Qing and Republican China.
Committee Chair
Lingchei Chen
Committee Members
Jamie Newhard; Robert Hegel; Steven Zwicker; William Hedberg; Zhao Ma
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Author's Department
East Asian Languages and Culture: Chinese
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
8-2-2025
Language
English (en)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/bwxq-1q51
Author's ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9998-2531
Recommended Citation
Yue, Huanyu, "Untimely Epics: The Tradition of Changqing-style Poetry in Late Qing and Republican China (1870s–1920s)" (2025). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 3628.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/bwxq-1q51