Did Men of Song Belt Out “Tang Ci”? An Explanation of the Poem “I Only Fear the Spring Breeze Will Chop Me Apart” 「唐詞是宋人喊出來」的嗎？ 說「只怕春風斬斷我」

An Explanation of the Poem "I Only Fear the Spring Breeze Will Chop Me Apart" 「唐詞是宋人喊出 來」的嗎？ 說「只怕春風斬斷我」This essay, originally published in Chinese under the title "Tang ci bian zheng" 「唐詞」辯證 (Discriminations and corrections on the term "Tang ci"),1 is assembled and revised from three prior articles on song lyrics discovered in the Dunhuang manuscripts.2It represents the culmination of a heated debate about the Tang origins and identity of the ci genre that unfolded between Jao and Ren Bantang 任半塘 in the late 1980's and early 1990's.The debate, however, is difficult to untangle from a prior discourse traceable to Wang Guowei 王國維 and Hu Shi 胡適 a generation earlier.3Jao's position in the following essay emphasizes the continuity of both the term ci 詞 and its referent, which may 1 First published as Jao Tsung-i, "'Tang ci' bian zheng" 「唐詞」辯證, Jiuzhou yuekan 九州 月刊, 4 (1992): 160-162, which was revised from "Wei 'Tang ci' jin yi jie" 為「唐詞」進一 解, Mingbao yuekan 明報月刊, 11 (1989): 97-100; "Tang ci zai bian-tan yin xing Li Weigong Wang Jiangnan de zhiqu he quzici de xinshang wenti" 唐詞再辯-談印行《李衛公望江 南》的旨趣和曲子詞的欣賞問題, Mingbao yuekan, 12 (1990): 46-48; and "'Zhan chun feng' de chudian" 「斬春風」的出典, Mingbao yuekan, 2 (1991): 56-57.