The role of mentors in the life and poetry of Huang Jingren

This article is devoted to the one of the most notable representatives of traditional Chinese poetry of the Qing dynasty - Huang Jingren (1749-1783). In Huang's collected works, over 300 poems are devoted to his friends, and a tenth of them - to those whom he considered his mentors. Most often, those were people of an older age, who became his teachers and advisors at the same time. Some patronized him, providing opportunity to work with them; with others, he would seek advice on matters of poetry and discuss poems. Over the years, a few of them became not only the young poet's senior companions, but also his friends. The poems devoted to such people are rich in social and historical background, and replete with the poet's rather hard personal life experience, his thoughts and feelings. They do not only evolve the scenery of social and intellectual life in the midst of the Qianlong Emperor’s reign before readers’ eyes, but also provide a better understanding of the poet’s personality and the distinctness of his worldview. Throughout his rather short life, Huang Jingren had a few friend mentors, who appreciated his talent, respected him and wished to help. Shao Qitao played one of the most important roles in Huang’s life. He was not the first to discover Huang’s talent, but he helped this talent evolve and move in the right direction. Another teacher and a person who predetermined a lot of Huang’s life was Zhu Yun, who served as an education supervisor (xueshi) in the Anhui province. One of the most famous Qing poets, Yuan Mei should also be mentioned. He was a man of great talent, who founded his own poetry school and wrote «Suiyuan Shihua or Poetry Talks from Sui Garden». Despite the disparity in age (almost 33 years), they were still friends. Yuan Mei admired the young talent, whereas Huang venerated the Teacher. All these senior mentors played a certain role in the poet’s life and work and many poems in the «Liangdangxuan» collection are devoted to them.