Li Yu is known as the Emperor of Ci for thousands of years. The predecessors studied Li Yu's Ci from the aspects of artistic style, image characteristics and emotional expression. However, no scholars have analyzed Li Yu's Ci from the spatial dimension. In the process of reading Li Yu's Ci, it is found that the artistic achievements of Li Yu's Ci, especially his later Ci, can not be separated from the spatial connotation contained in his Ci. The spatial connotation presented in the Ci text brings a sense of three-dimension and layering to his works, and forms a certain spatial tension, which enriches the meaning of Ci while producing the beauty of tension. Therefore, the study of the spatial connotation in Li Yu's later Ci can help us grasp the inner connotation of Ci more deeply.
Literary research from the perspective of space has changed the long-neglected state of space in literature, opened up a new horizon of literary research, and provided a new method for literary criticism. Therefore, it is a meaningful attempt to penetrate into Li Yu's Ci from the perspective of space theory and explain the spatial implication of his text. From the perspective of space theory, this paper tries to interpret the connotation of literary space in Li Yu's later Ci poems from three aspects: house space, heterotopia and the third space.
Through analysis, we can know that the space presented in Li Yu's later Ci is not only a geographical place or a physical space, it is also an important carrier of the poet's emotion and heart, with rich spatial connotation.
First of all, the space related to the ‘old state’ appeared in Li Yu's later ci poetry became the ‘space to resist the hostile forces’ by the poets which was the ‘house space’ for the poet's soul to rest. Such a house space expresses the inner space of the poet. under the imagination of the poet, the house space is poetically constructed, and the house space also protects the inner space of the poet.
Secondly, the poet, as the king of the subjugated country, was filled with pain and sorrow. He was puzzled by this feeling and went into a dream, creating a heterotopian space through his dream. Among them, the poet combines and splices various elements arbitrarily, realizes the reappearance and construction of the real space existing in reality, and satisfies the poet's reminiscence and nostalgia for his homeland. At the same time, there is an infinite tension between the dream space and the real space, which makes the Ci-poetry more extensive.
Finally, Li Yu's later Ci poems constructed the ‘third space’ which contains the universal feeling of human beings through the infinite extension of dynamic space, the thought of ascending height and the space partition. This enables his Ci to break through the space of the times, nations and classes, to express some universal thoughts and feelings of all mankind and some common spiritual space, so that readers can have a certain resonance, can appreciate and be touched.
Through the interpretation of the connotations of home space, heterotopia and third space in Li Yu's later Ci poems, we can better feel and understand the real life experience, unspeakable inner feelings and profound philosophical thinking contained in the Ci poems.