User:Gcjdavid/Jiang Chunlin

Jiang Chunlin (1818 - 1868) was a Chinese poet of the Qing dynasty specialising in the ci (song lyric) style. Though not much is known about his life, he remains to be hailed as one of the foremost authors of the genre in his day. His works were applauded by later poets such as Ye Gongzhuo and Tan Xian.

Life
Jiang was born in 1818 in Jiangyin (today a county in Jiangsu province) to a father with an official position, later taking up becoming the sheriff of Jingmen in 1829. The identity of his mother is unknown, except that she died in 1857.

At a young age, he won himself fame within literati circles by composing poetry on the Yellow Crane Tower, at the young age of 16.

In 1848, Jiang took up a lowly position as a salt administrator in Dongtai until his mother passed away in 1857. After a few more years in Dongtai taking up miscellaneous positions, he migrated to Taizhou (of Jiangsu province), producing some of his most distinguished poetry.

Jiang went to Suzhou to seek for financial assistance and committed suicide, jumping off Chuihong Bridge in Wujiang (now a district of Suzhou).

Poetry
Though born very late in the history of Chinese poetry, he created a more than proportional impact on ci poetry. He was described as a Du Fu of the ci genre by Tan Xian and Jin Wuxiang due to his descriptions of war-stricken regions during the Taiping Rebellion. Wu Mei even applauded him as the best ci poet of the Qing dynasty. (詞學通論).

His collection of works were first published in 1861, and the collection was completed with another additional edition in 1874. 169 of Jiang's song lyrics have survived till the present day; a small number as compared to giants like Chen Weisong or Xin Qiji. Most of his shi poetry has been lost; only 85 survive.