Abstract:

Although expelled by “Literary Revolution” from the modern literary scene in the early 20th century, the traditional-style poetry has not completely disappeared yet. In a quiet or hidden way, it retreated into the private realms of intellectuals over the past century, often manifesting as personal exchange of verses. The half-century-long poetic exchange (1938–1988) between Qian Zhongshu and Mao Xiaolu (Shuzi) is described as “soulful” because the profound spiritual resonance that their sincere exchanges evoked during critical periods in each other’s life histories has offered a form of “soul solace”. For Qian Zhongshu, this “soul solace” primarily manifested between 1939 and 1941 in the dimension of “a human being and the self”, grounding his “willingness to sacrifice for scholarship.” For Shuzi, it occurred between 1942 and 1947 in the dimension of “a human being and the nation”, soothing his ethical concerns over “being a cypress or a pine”. It was in Qian Zhongshu’s effort to comfort Shuzi’s ethical dilemmas that he innovatively transformed the traditional rhyming style of poetic exchange rooted in millennia of Chinese poetic history into a non-rhyming narrative style. To explore Qian Zhongshu’s rhymed poetic exchange for Shuzi’s suffering soul, one should consult Collected Poems from Huaiju; to delve into his non-rhymed poetic exchange for Shuzi’s troubled soul, one must carefully examine the figure of “Dong Xiechuan” in Chapter Three of Qian Zhongshu’s novel Fortress Besieged.

Key words: Qian Zhongshu, soulful exchange of verses, Shuzi, poetic companion of a suffering soul, Collected Poems from Huaiju, Fortress Besieged, Dong Xiechuan