Liu Chia-mo (1814-1853), a native of Houguan in Fujian, once served as an educational instructor at Ningde and a school counselor in Taiwan Prefecture during the Daoguang and Hsienfeng reigns of the Ching Dynasty. Owing to a lack of relevant literature and access to his poetry, academics have not come up with any comprehensive study concerning Liu Chia-mo, his works and his social life. Therefore, this research was intended to construct the life story of Liu Chia-mo from the first-hand historical documents including Liu Chia-mo’s works— First Draft by Waidingmoa Bridge Recluse, Dungyang Little Grass, Sword Poetry, Wandering Ambition in Crane Pen, Guanhai Chi, Haiyin Shi, Hsieh Chang-ting’s Gambling Chess Villa Collection (Shi, Wen, Tsu, Tsu Words, Notebook), and the recently discovered Gambling Chess Villa Draft, Chang Chi-liang’s Chang Heng-fu Collection, Si-Po-Tzu Hall Poetry, Huang Tsung-yi’s Po-Suo Poetry, and Wei Hsiu-jen’s Hai-Nan-Shan Hall Poetry.
This dissertation takes realism in the poetry by Liu Chia-mo as its subject. It will demonstrate his patriotism, concern over the livelihood of civilians and responsibilities and expectations for the world mainly through the textual study of First Draft by Waidingmoa Bridge Recluse, Dungyang Little Grass, Guanhai Chi and Haiyin Shi.
The Introduction section consists of a literature review of Liu Chia-mo and the characteristics of his poetry of realism. Chapter One briefly describes Liu Chia-mo’s historical background in the spirit of knowing the person from the world. Chapter Two explores the life of Liu Chia-mo, his publication of poetry and literature, and his literary creativity with aside from his poetry. Chapter Three deals chiefly with First Draft by Waidingmoa Bridge Recluse to study his poetry on the Sino-British Opium War. Chapter Four examines Dungyang Little Grass together with Wandering Ambition in Crane Pen to study the poetry composed during his service as an educational instructor at Ningde. Chapter Five focuses on the discussion of Guanhai Chi and Haiyin Shi, two poetic texts composed by Liu Chia-mo during his service as a school counselor in Taiwan Prefecture that address social issues in the Chinese-dominated Taiwan society during the Daoguang and Hsienfeng reigns as an effort to cure social illness and improve public morality from a perspective of observing customs.
An estimated total of 1,100 poems were composed by Liu Chia-mo, whose contents range from the Opium War, Taiwanese social traditions and customs, expressions of praise for matters in painting, landscape description, and family relationships and friendship. Characterized by detailed quotations, occasional dialectal usages and transformation of vulgarity into gracefulness, they are all works that express a love of native land. In its concluding section the paper briefly considers the contents of Liu’s poetry as an effort to deepen the study of Liu Chiao-mo and Taiwanese literature.