A Preliminary Study on the Art of Xin Qiji's Self-Address as "Laozi" in His Ci Poems
Abstract
Xin Qiji frequently referred to himself as "Laozi"—literally, "this old man"—a self-designation that appears sixteen times in his ci poetry. This form of address runs through his later creative career and carries multiple emotional inflections, including self-mockery, arrogance, indignation, and heroic unconstraint. It functions not only as a linguistic strategy through which he withdraws from the dominant framework of socio-political judgment and affirms the self-sufficiency of his own subjectivity, but also as an externalization of his Confucian commitment to serving the world and his affinity with Lao-Zhuang thought under particular life circumstances. At the artistic level, this self-designation became a linguistic foundation of the bold and unconstrained ci style, helping to establish the technical transformation associated with "using prose methods in ci composition" and adding a distinct note of humor to the genre. Xin Qiji's use of "Laozi" as a self-appellation exerted a significant influence on the Xin school of ci poets in the Southern Song, as well as on later writers such as Lu You, Yuan Haowen, and Chen Weisong. It expanded the social and communicative functions of ci, established a new paradigm for the bold and unconstrained school, and became an important marker of the literati transformation of the ci genre.
References
- Shen, J. H. (2006). A literary and cultural analysis of the literati's self-address as "Laozi" in the Song Dynasty. Seeking Truth, (2), 109-114.
- Chen, Y. (2020). An exploration of the "joyful realm" in Jiaxuan's ci poems — Also on the life sentiment in the aesthetic spirit of the Song Dynasty. Journal of Chinese Verse Studies, 34(2), 80-86.
- Zhang, H. O. (1995). On the elegant personality consciousness in Jiaxuan's ci poems. Journal of Ningbo Teachers College (Social Science Edition), (2), 15-19.
- Zhang, H. O. (1993). An exploration of heroic personality consciousness in Jiaxuan's ci poems. Journal of Guangzhou University (Social Science Edition), (1), 93-100.
- Xin, Q. J. (2007). Chronological and annotated edition of Jiaxuan's ci poems. Shanghai Classics Publishing House.
- Lan, B. G. (2024). A study on the artistic achievements of Xin Qiji's ci poems during his seclusion in Jiangxi (Unpublished master's thesis). Nanchang University, Nanchang.
- Ye, J. Y. (1990). On Xin Qiji's ci poems. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Xin Qiji (pp. 187-204). China Center of Advanced Science and Technology.
- Zhao, W. J. (2023). A study on self-writing in Xin Qiji's Daihu ci poems (Unpublished master's thesis). Henan University, Kaifeng.
- Shi, H. (2020). On the expression of self-consciousness in Jiaxuan's ci poems (Unpublished master's thesis). Liaoning Normal University, Dalian.
- Wang, K. M. (2021). On the writing of old age in Xin Qiji's ci poems. Journal of Shangrao Normal University, 41(5), 56-64.
- Lu You (2011). Lu You Ci Collection [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Publishing House