ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the notion of jingjie has presented challenges for readers, because Wang uses the term to refer to both shi and ci poems, but at the same time says that it is the “most important element in a consideration of ci.” What happens in ci poetry is quite distinct from bi or xing. Chen Zengshou experienced the fall of the Qing dynasty, the chaos of the warlord period, and the Japanese occupation. Throughout history, people have evinced a variety of responses to the fall of dynasties. Chen Zengshou had lived through the destruction of the late Qing and the Republican Revolution; he had experienced life under the Japanese puppet state of Manchuria, and the privations of war.
