ABSTRACT
Ci is short for quzi ci or words of songs. It is a type of poetry fitted to music and used for songs. Literati of the Middle Tang period studied folk ci, and by doing so made a breakthrough contribution to the ci corpus. Zhang Zhihe, Wei Yingwu, Wang Jian, Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi all wrote successful pieces in this vein. In the late Tang and Five Dynasties periods scholarly ci poems made great strides. If Wen's ci poems can be called understated, then Wei's ci poems can be called explicit, as he pours out his heart, telling the reader quite straightforwardly of his romantic notions. The Northern Song Dynasty in the main inherited the musical tradition of the Southern Tang Dynasty, but at the same time transformed it somewhat. The ci poetry of the Southern Song Dynasty had a new and different appearance from that of the Northern Song Dynasty.
