順治十六年(1659)，屈大均(1630－1696)寫下不少意義極不尋常的詠梅詩。(不下二十首，含詞一闋。)屈氏詠梅，每寓故國之思與身世之感。梅在屈氏筆底是明室的縮影、明遺氏的化身。本文探究屈氏詠梅詩的結構、象徵、託寓，討論其引發的有關詩體的理論問題，並藉以闡示明清易代之際的遺民情境。本文認為，屈氏寫作這些詠梅詩是透過詩篇思考遺氏在明、清改朝換代的歷史境況衷所可、所應扮現的角色。屈氏在在透露著一個信念：遺民雖為政治、社會邊緣化了的「微物」，仍應自許為改變歷史塗轍的媒介。屈詩展現三個互為表衷的母題：忠義、隱逸與復生。屈氏所關注的，是明、清之際的歷史記憶及明遺民主體性詩性的呈現，而這兩者是通過體物、詠物(梅)的手段而成就的。因而本文採析詠物詩體在屈氏操作下的形態。為了凸顯明遺氏所面對、所喚起的情境，本文嘗試重構宋遺氏和明遺民精神、心理意益的某些重要元素。

Qu Dajun (1630-1696) spent the better part of 1659 in Nanjing where he produced some twenty poems on plum trees. The plum emerges as Ming loyalism incarnate, and Qu encourages the reader to see him as a Ming loyalist. This paper examines how Qu shapes the Ming memory and his intended image in the poems. Analyzing the structure and symbolism of the verses, we discover three interrelated motifs: loyalty, seclusion, and rebirth. Qu's message is that even though the loyalists are marginalized figures of the day, they still see themselves as historical agents to revive the fallen Ming house. What engages Qu is a poetic representation of the historical memory of the Ming-Qing transition and the Ming loyalist subjectivity. Qu's poems are written in the mode of "poetry on objects." This entails a theoretical investigation into Qu's poetic formulations. To probe the loyalist condition that Qu is faced with, a comparison of the experiences of the Ming and the Song loyalists is conducted.