Imperial Authority, Locality, and Gender: The Political Dynamics of Poetry Anthology Compilation in Qing and Early Republican China (1767–1919)
Abstract This article examines two groups of poetry anthologies created in honor of specific locales. The first group, from the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century, contains works predominately by men hailing from a specific locale. The second group, from the nineteenth to early twentieth century, comprises poetry anthologies exclusively devoted to women also from specific localities. By tracing connections among the various anthologies, this article aims to identify the defining cultural and political factors in their creation and to reveal the political dynamics of literary production on various levels: 1) the prestigious or canonical collections which acted as models or even counter-models; 2) the continuum and tension between “our dynasty” (the empire) and “our locality”; 3) the promotion of female authors at both the dynastic and local levels; 4) the participation by some early-twentieth century anthologists in the National Learning Movement. These findings demonstrate the importance of studying the creation of poetry anthologies in China’s recent past toward understanding the politics of literary production or cultural initiatives.