Zheng Qi Ge(Wen Tianxiang)

Wen Tianxiang (1236-1283), who led a losing war defending the Southern Song regime against the invading Mongols and died as a martyr after years in captivity, was primarily remembered as a national hero and loyalist. He was among the earliest to be introduced to the West as one of "The Makers of Cathay," and his poem "Ode to the Noble Spirit" (Zheng qi ge) is among only a few hundred of classical Chinese poems which has been given many renditions in various European languages. A prolific writer notwithstanding, Wen Tianxiang's achievements as a poet in his own right largely stay in the shade of his reputation as a historical figure. The papers in this panel consider Wen Tianxiang's place in literary and cultural history from several different angles. In what ways can we appreciate Wen Tianxiang's poetry in terms of "continuity and mutation" (Liu Xie's tong bian)? How should his shi and ci poetry be evaluated in comparison to that of his contemporaries? How should Wen Tianxiang, as a man of letters, be situated in the thirteenth-century cultural context in his views of poetry and his positions on the dao xue? And how do these relate to his actual poetic practice? The panel attempts to explore these questions using aesthetic and cultural approaches as well as explication du texte.