The art of allusion in Li Shangyin

grantor: University of TorontoMany poems by Li Shangyin (ca.812-858), an eminent poet of the Tang Dynasty, possess highly allusive characteristics. It is recognized that Li Shangyin's use of allusion is a development in Chinese literary history where one finds a preference for allusion among poets of previous ages. To show how exactly Li Shangyin's allusions work is in a way to explicate the poetic significance of allusion in classical poetry. Framed mainly within traditional poetic concerns, this study focuses on the function of allusion in some highly allusive poems by Li Shangyin, trying to bring allusion into a rhetorical function which works as a constitutive element of the poetic system and thus contributes to the process of poetic signification. While carrying out this task, the study also renders a presentation of the poetic world of Li Shangyin's poems. In the central chapters in this study, through discussing one particular allusion the poet favors (Chapter 2), and analyzing and interpreting his poems on history (Chapter 3) and his untitled poems (Chapter 4), Li Shangyin's major modes of allusiveness, such as "overt" and "assimilative" modes, and "orthodox" and "inverted" modes, are examined and the poet is seen to be engaged with sophisticated craft and complex structures to create a subtle and oblique ambiance in his poetic world. His complex and indefinite poetry is largely related with his use of allusion, especially his internalized use of it in which a mood, tone, or atmosphere is usually dominant. The study sees the art of allusion in Li Shangyin as a highly crafted and conscious one. This art is based upon a dialectic understanding of the literary past. That Li Shangyin's poetic creativity is accomplished by means of manipulating prior literary material shows the power and richness of the literary convention to which almost all great poets have recourse.Ph.D