“The imagery in Li Qingzhao's song lyrics”

The reading of natural imagery in Chinese literary tradition has involved uncovering the “true” feelings of the poet and the fusing of scene (jing) and emotion (qing) in time became an aesthetic value as well as a mode of reading imagery (as has been discussed by Pauline Yu in The Reading of Imagery in the Chinese Poetic Tradition (1987), James J.Y. Liu in The Art of Chinese Poetry, (1962) Zuoya Cao in The Internal and the External: A Comparison of the Artistic Use of Natural Imagery in English Romantic and Chinese Classical Poetry (1998)). During the Song dynasty (960-1279), a lyrical poetic genre called ci (song lyrics) was most popular, in which the expression of “genuine” emotion became a desired aesthetic value, and this then also involved the scene, the natural imagery. The distinguishing of two major styles in the genre was connected with the imagery and the emotions embodied in them, based on cultural stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. In this paper, I will analyze and discuss the natural imagery in the song lyrics by the most prominent female poet in the Song dynasty, Li Qingzhao (1084-1156?). My aim is to attempt to show how Li Qingzhao in her literary creation skillfully makes use of the conventional reading of imagery along with her mastery of specific genre conventions, to create an impression of her song lyrics as expressing her own “genuine” emotions.