Ci Made by Sushi and Lai Qingzhao
2 min readSu Shi made the greatest contribution to the development of ci poetry.
He broke through the subtle and decadent style popular since the Late Tang and，by adding a masculine power to it，broadened its scope to form a free and powerful ci style of his own.
Su Shi did not conceal his opinion that “poetry is a type of ci，”and his ci poems cover a wide range of subject matter，effectively putting into practice the idea“no meaning cannot be ex-pressed in poetry，and no event cannot be translated into poetry.”As a re-sult，parting，thoughts on the past，odes to things，mourning and argu-ment could all be written in the ci form.In this way the ci form became the vector for his thoughts，his character，his aspirations and his interests.As people from ancient times recounted，“When the ci form developed in the time of Su Dongpo，it became free，powerful and unreserved，like poetry，like prose，and like wondrous visions of the world.”
Lai Qingzhao
The Song poems writen by Li Qingzhao were well-polished，lively and elegant；they were distinctive and vivid with a very strong artistic appeal to the readers.Demarcated by the establishment of the Southern Song，her works could be divided into two phases.In the first phase，her works de scribed chiefly her life as a maiden and as a young wife，showing her pas-sion for nature and love.
They were sprightly and tender.In the secondphase her works were mournful and moving.Her sorrow resulted from the vicissitudes of her life and her mourning for the decline of the nation.This sorrow was very profound.No wonder when Liu Chenweng，a patriotic lyri-cist living at the close of the Song Dynasty，wept when he read these works of hers and wrote a matching Song poem in similar rhymes.
