Writing Contrast and Imagination of Elegy: The Respective Ci by Jiang Tan and Guan Ying beyond Qiudeng Suoyi

This study focuses on Jiang Tan’s Qiudeng Suoyi, Reminiscences Under Autumn Lamplight, and the respective Ci of Jiang and Guan Ying, Jiang’s wife. It explores the parallels and discrepancies in their depiction of life and emotions. Contrary to the popular view of their marriage as flawless, their relationship was fraught with realistic contradictions and estrangement. The root cause of the misperception lies in the divergence between stylistic features and authorial motives. Unlike the vividly detailed memoir-style prose of Qiudeng Suoyi, the respective ci poetry of Jiang and Guan exhibits a heightened documentary and confessional quality. Compared with the vividly detailed memoir-style prose of Qiudeng Suoyi, the poetry of Jiang and Guan (including Jiang’s elegiac collection Chouluan Ji, possesses a stronger documentary and lyrical quality. These poems truthfully reflect the struggles and anguish of the two amid poverty and illness. Ultimately, the stylistic differences between prose and poetry obscure the real texture of their daily life. Furthermore, the specific motives reveal that both Qiudeng Suoyi and Chouluan Ji, involve deliberate imagination and artistic shaping by the authors.