The Reception of Zuo Si’s “Poems on History” in Early Medieval China

Zuo Si(ca.253-ca.305)was a well-known poet in the Western Jin dynasty(265-316).More than half of his surviving poems are a series of eight“Poems on History”(Yongshi).There has been extensive research into the early medieval Chinese writers influenced by his“Yongshi.”However,this research can be further deepened and broadened.This article,based on previous scholarly findings,will examine the reception of these poems in three levels of literary and cultural context.The first level emphasizes the poetic practice of intertextual links between Zuo Si's poems and other literary works.The second level highlights primary sources of literary criticism to address the evaluations of Zuo Si's poems.The third level focuses on narrative to reveal how the educated elite employed these poems in their discourse.Investigating these three levels allows us to understand how poets,critics,and readers imitate,evaluate,and respond to these poems during the process of their reception.Furthermore,reception theory can help to uncover similarities and discrepancies in literary borrowings and assimilation(i.e.diction,imagery,and figure of speech)in the process of poetic composition and transmission.