When reading the Nalan Xingde’s collection of phrase, most people can feel the profound insights into our lives rendered through his words, like a blossoming orchid, so sincere and full of tenderness and emotions. While many can sense the delightfulness expressed in his free-spirited works, few can grasp the agony of unfulfilled dreams hidden in each phrase. Throughout his short-lived life of 31 years, he imbued his poems with such unadulterated truthfulness that they will always be adored by many generations of readers.
This essay, titled ‘the study on Nalan Xingde : Pusaman’, focuses on Pusaman, which consists of 27 pieces, and tries to interpret the meaning and what makes it unique. The entire body of work was written in the form of each phrase consisting of two sections of 5 and 7 words, with a total of 44 words in each poem. Following the rules of Xiaoling, which requires both sections to rhyme with each other and change rhyme every two phrases with a total of 4 changes in rhyme, the entire poems are filled with a mixtures of joy, sorrow, delight, and loss.
This essay is divided into 6 chapters. The first chapter explains the motivation and purpose of this essay, and provides a list of the related essays and important works by researchers. The second chapter dives into the details of his prestigious family background and his upbringing as the son of a high-ranking government official while examining his heart-breaking relationship with other women, his unfulfilled ambitions as well as his attitude towards friendship and belief in being honest and true. Chapter three focuses on the themes and contents of Pusaman. With four main themes that include love, condolences, friendship, and things that happened at frontier fortress, it shows all the human encounters in his world with sincerity that touches readers’ heart. Chapter four analyzes his writing styles. Learning writing at a very young age, he demonstrates an excellent understanding in rhetoric and adaptation of words. Chapter five analyzes the rules and formats of his music. With the use of several intonations and rhymes, his poems often connect to readers with their compelling diversity. Chapter six is the conclusion of the whole essay.
The entire collection combines the styles of different factions of poets in early Ching dynasty, such as Huajian faction or Yunjian faction, and also showcases his own original style. As someone from Manchuria, he was able to keep an open mind towards the creative styles of different factions while subtly and organically incorporating them into his works to convey his observations of all the joys and sorrows that make up people’s lives. What is shown in his works are the vibrant but yet modest style in Yunjian, the magnificent grandeur in Yangxian, and the simplicity and elegance in ZheXi. All is created without intentional imitation, but with a pure intention to share a sense of feeling caught at a moment that moved his heart. Reading the fascinating Pusaman is like enjoy a glass of fine wine infused with a drop of bubbly sweetness, transcending readers to a dimension
