Struggles for Survival and Moral Integrity: A Study of Early Qing Loyalist Poetry in Jiangnan

“The gentleman should pursue moral integrity, not mere survival” is a long-circulated Confucian maxim. Out of loyalty and righteousness, the so-called loyalists(yimin) refused to serve a new ruling house, thereby declining the rewards and benefits offered by the new dynasty. One might reasonably assume, therefore, that issues of livelihood would have been beneath their notice. Yet in practice, livelihood was among the concerns that most actively preoccupied the Ming loyalists. Regarding subsistence, what kinds of survival predicaments did they face? And how did they give voice to these predicaments in their poetry?

This book examines the poetic writings on livelihood by loyalists in Jiangnan during the early Qing period, adopting a group-oriented research perspective. It analyzes how biographical records portrayed their means of subsistence, as well as how their thematic writings reflected poverty and struggles to make a living. From this, the book demonstrates that such poetic works not only reveal the harsh experiences of battling for survival, but also strive to construct an ideal image of unwavering commitment to moral integrity. In this respect, they present a dialectical tension distinct from the moralizing tendencies often found in traditional biographical accounts. Through this lens, the book deepens our understanding of the livelihood issues faced by the Ming loyalists and their poetic ideals, while also providing an important window into the continuities and transformations of early Qing poetry.