Friends of Huang Jingren (1748-1783) through his poetry

Huang Jingren was one of the most prominent poets of the eighteenth century in China. Poetry of Huang Jingren stands out among the many schools that developed in the eighteenth century during the Qing dynasty. The poet’s life, full of adversity, had a significant influence on the forming of his world view and general emotional component of his poems. Under the influence of fate, the poet formed complicated and rather peevish character. In the eyes of his contemporaries and people of subsequent generations he was a reserved, proud and lonely man. That image can be found in his poems. However, while studying abroad or during the service Huang always had a lot of friends, which to some extent facilitated his mental suffering caused by pessimistic character and lingering disease that tormented the poet since childhood. In the collection of works of Huang more than three hundred poems were dedicated to his friends, who played a significant role in his life. This article discusses the three most intimate friends of the poet, who had a great influence on him and his work. There were few friend peers in Huang’s life, but they were people close to him by spirit, with about the same origin and with similar attitude. The main friend for almost the entire life of the poet was Hong Liangji; the greatest number of poems in the Liangdangxuan collection is dedicated to him, and he is also sometimes referred to in the works, the names of which are not directly mentioned his name. After Huang Jingren became famous, he found new friends. One of them was Wan Yinxin. His attitude to poetry was similar to the attitude of Huang. Another one of the closest friends of Huang was Wang Zhong. Huang and Wang were similar in fate and character. Huang Jingren devoted quite a large number of poems to Wang Zhong, and that shows that their friendship was fairly close and trusting. We can divide poems devoted to friends into four main groups. The first one, thoughts about friends in moments of emotional loneliness. The second one, the poems of consolation written during the years of wandering. The third one, the poems written in response to the poems of friends permeated with an atmosphere of joy (there are not too much of such poems among Huang’s poetry). The fourth one, stories about troubles and failures which Huang Jingren was telling to his friends.