清代中葉之後，隨著國勢日衰，社會漸趨動盪，風俗改易，學術思想、文學創作亦隨之而變。乾隆盛世，一片政興人和，及至晚期，乾嘉盛世一轉而為嘉道之衰，一部份的詩歌理論與創作亦隨之而變，移為呼應時代劇變的低吟與呼喊，龔自珍特為卓犖者。論者或謂「尊情」之說，類於「寄託」；「童心」之說，探源於李贄。然李贄倡導「童心」之學術背景與內涵，與龔自珍異，設使龔自珍襲其「童心」之說而未轉易，則將簡化其學術意義與重要性。本文主要探討主題有三：一為龔自珍詩歌創作與政治局勢、家國興衰之呼應，藉此導入第二主題；第二主題則為梳理「尊情說」之發展及其內涵，再進一步轉入第三主題，亦即其詩歌所尊之情，當植基於「童心」之真。本文之結論，則在綰合上述三主題，觀看其詩歌之情感發抒之傾向。

The Chinese society was plunged into turmoil with the decline of the Qing Dynasty after 1800. Not only its customs but also its academic culture and literary creation underwent radical transformation. In the flourishing age under the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the politics and the society were both kept in a state of harmony. However, the Qing Dynasty began to decline in power since the reigns of the Jiaqing and Daoguang Emperors. Some theories of poetry and literary creations were therefore re-orientated towards crooning and lamenting the radical change of times. Zi-zhen Gong served as a scholar par excellence in this field. Scholars may compare the “respect of sentiment” to “sustenance,” while the theory of kidult spirit can be traced back to Zhi Li who came from a different academic background and advocated different system of study from those of Zi-zhen Gong. The latter’s academic achievement and contribution would be overlooked if we assume that he applied Li’s theory of kidult spirit without any revision. This article proceeds in three parts. The first part features the relevance of Gong’s poetry to the political situation and the vicissitudes of the Qing Dynasty. The second part elaborates on the development and content of “respect of sentiment.” The third part seeks to establish the argument that the sentiment respected in Gong’s poetry was based on the nature of kidult spirit. This article concludes with a synthetic analysis of the three themes, through which we can grasp how Gong expressed his sentiment with poetry.