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Full-Text Articles in East Asian Languages and Societies
The Qi-Liang Poets' Rediscovery And Imitation Of The Han Dynasty Music Bureau And Ancient Style Poetry, Yao Zhong
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The Qi-Liang Period was an important phase in the acceptance history of the Han Music Bureau Poetry and the ancient style poetry. The Qi-Liang poets rediscovered and imitated the Han poetry and through this they had developed a reflective relationship with the Han poetry in terms of technique, style and criticism. Their emphasis on the folk song tradition and on the Wu-dialect ballad (Wu Sheng Xi Qu) had not only highlighted the folk song features but also the lyric genre in the Music Bureau poetry, while their pursuit for lyricism, individualistic style and the expression of personal sentiments led to …
A Philosophical Discussion On Liu Xie's Concept Of Literary Talent Mindset, Shugong Zhao
A Philosophical Discussion On Liu Xie's Concept Of Literary Talent Mindset, Shugong Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The idea of literary talent mindset was epitomized in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons in the period of Wei-Jin and Six Dynasties. The book contained the most comprehensive and profound knowledge of literary mind as an aptitude, which was seminal to almost all the later discourses on the issue of literary talent, and its theoretical insight remains unsurpassable in many aspects. Liu Xie's philosophical view of the nature and human is reflected in this concept of literary talent mind, which gave both weight to gift and diligence, and the equal emphases on human efforts and born gift …
Gao Ershi's Concept Of The Refined And The Mundane In Calligraphic Art, Bin Zhou, Shuqiang Cui
Gao Ershi's Concept Of The Refined And The Mundane In Calligraphic Art, Bin Zhou, Shuqiang Cui
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The concepts of the refined and the mundane are a pair of important category in calligraphic aesthetics and Gao Ershi's ideas on this are reflected in three aspects. The first is to regard the classical as the refined and the contemporary as the mundane. This is realized by reviving and studying the cursive style for official writing. The second is to regard the cultured to be refined and the crafted as the mundane. This emphasizes the cultural and aesthetic implications and attributes of calligraphy. The third is to take the clear to be refined and the turbid to be mundane. …
On Liu Shipei's "On The Difference Of The Southern And The Northern China's Literature", Jian Wu
On Liu Shipei's "On The Difference Of The Southern And The Northern China's Literature", Jian Wu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Traditional distinction between the Southern and the Northern China's literature were made on historical specificities, while Liu Shipei in his pioneer essay in modern literary criticism "On the Difference between the Southern and the Northern China's Literature" took a theoretical perspective that viewed the distinction as an ahistorical literary framework a priori. Liu's argument may be read as a point for a paradigmatic breakup, but Liu did not push forward his idea in his practice. Instead, he attached more weight to the essence (zhi) over the literary (wen) in this traditional pair of concepts, and his contribution in the history …
Style-Breaking In Song-Dynasty Ci-Poetry And Its Acceptance In The Context Of "Flexible Method", Xiaoli Wang
Style-Breaking In Song-Dynasty Ci-Poetry And Its Acceptance In The Context Of "Flexible Method", Xiaoli Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The idea of "flexible method" in composting ci-poetry in the Song Dynasty has two essential elements of "rule" and "change," and this idea embodies the pursuit of literary innovation in the Song Dynasties. It is an important part of the poetic theory and has profound influence on the literary evolution in the Song Dynasties. The style-breaking methods such as "composing ci-poems like regulated poems" and "composing ci-poems like prose" were in effect the proliferation of the idea of "flexible method" in the field of ci-poetics. There has been much elucidation in the Song and Yuan commentaries on ci-poetry that echoes …
The Duality Of Expressive Rhetoric: The Intention Of Literary Mind And The Carving Of Dragon As Investigated From "Casting And Paring", Baojing Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
On the basis of a global reading of Liu Xie's Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragon, this paper proposes a link between the section "Casting and Paring" and the other sections in the book, and maintains that only through such a link can the structural features, cultural efficiency and Confucian responsibilities in Liu Xie's expressive rhetoric. The parallelism in argumentative mode between the section "Affections and Coloration" and the section "casting and paring" informs a two-sided rhetoric with affection as the subjective quality and casting as the textual quality. "Casting and paring" (argumentation and writing) is realized as a …
Historical Changes Of The Concept Of Female Beauty In The Pre-Qin Period From The Appreciation Of Ugliness To Beauty, Yongzhen Cheng
Historical Changes Of The Concept Of Female Beauty In The Pre-Qin Period From The Appreciation Of Ugliness To Beauty, Yongzhen Cheng
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The concept of female beauty in the Pre-Qin period underwent a great historical change from the appreciation of "the ugly" to that of "the beautiful." The image of beautiful females in the prehistoric age was characteristically "ugly and muscular," highlighting the reproductive function and death function of the Great Mother, and could be argued to be the embodiment of the victory of "the mother principle." The beautiful and the ugly were blended in the image of the female beauty in the Xia-Shang period, which was mainly because the establishment of patriarchy had turned the female from aesthetic subject into aesthetic …
On The Generic Hybridization Between Fiction And Biography, Qinghua Wang
On The Generic Hybridization Between Fiction And Biography, Qinghua Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Biography as a literary genre comes between unofficial history and fiction, although closer to fiction. This paper examines the hybridization between fiction and biography with examples from the public and private catalogues since the Song Dynasty, and it analyzes the common ground between the two genres in terms of generic features, compilation approaches, and raw materials and investigates the boundaries of the genres in terms of functional value, thematic appeal and narrative approaches.
Lyricism And The Age: The Debate Over The Function Of The New And The Old Poetic Forms And Its Significance In The Modern China, Jianwei Pan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
An important goal of the New Literature is to reflect the social politics of the age, while lyricism is also an issue for the New Poetry. The debate over the merits of the new and old forms is one of the key issues in the New Culture Movement. Putting the debate into the perspective of the relation between poetry and the age, the paper approaches the issue by examining the differences between the function of lyricism pertaining to the new and old forms of poetry, the reason behind the forms and the influence of the choices on the forms, and …
On Yu Yan's Poetic Thoughts, Shuzhen Yue
On Yu Yan's Poetic Thoughts, Shuzhen Yue
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The poetic theory of Yu Yan, a Ci-poetry theorist from the Ming Dynasty, is mainly presented in his Commentaries on Ci-Poetry from Yuan Garden, in which he claimed that shi-poetry, ci-poetry and qu-poetry had the same origin with ci-poetry as an indispensable developmental phase in literature along the musical aspect. He maintained that ci-poetry declined due to the loss of music for which ci-poetry functioned as the lyrics. He also demonstrated the different tastes of the Northern Song and the Southern Song Dynasties and examined the thematic approaches, styles and compositions in different forms of ci- and qu-poetry. It could …
The Transformation Of The Ci-Poetry Studies During Late-Qing And Early Roc Period As Exemplified By The Editorial Work On Wu Wenying's Poetry, Xuejun Chen
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The paper examines the phenomenon of the editorial work and critical annotations to Wu Wenying's Mengchuang Ci-Poems during the period from the Late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. During this period, four major scholars, namely, Wang Pengyun, Zheng Wenzhao, Zhu Zumou and Kuang Zhouni, studied Wu Wenying's poetry and, together with their disciples, promoted the fever of "Mengchuang Ci-Poems (Dreaming Window, the Art name of Wu Wenying)". These scholars and their disciples formed a lineage in criticism for Wu's poetry, which set an example for later compilation of ci-poetry anthologies and helped to establish the arguably last …
The Origin And Development Of Verse Structure Of "Introduction, Development, Contrast, And Conclusion", Xiaowei Zhang
The Origin And Development Of Verse Structure Of "Introduction, Development, Contrast, And Conclusion", Xiaowei Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The existent scholarship shows that the compositional structure of the four couplets in a regulated poem as "Introduction, Development, Contrast, and Conclusion" was first proposed by Yang Zai and Fan Peng in the Yuan Dynasty. Yang Zai summarized various comments and arguments on metric prosody in the Tang and Song dynasties, modified by his own views, while Fan Peng argued that the structuring might apply not only to regulated verse but to all the literary creation. Fan Peng had also proposed his own criteria for the structuring of regulated verse, based perhaps on his own Jiangxi local poetics. Fan Peng's …
A Synopsis Of The Conference Of "Literary Theory And Criticism In 1980s", Chunxiao Zhang
A Synopsis Of The Conference Of "Literary Theory And Criticism In 1980s", Chunxiao Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
No abstract provided.
Ideas Of Poetry Study And The Paradigms Of Chinese Poetry Studies, Shilun Zhong
Ideas Of Poetry Study And The Paradigms Of Chinese Poetry Studies, Shilun Zhong
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
From "the study of poetry and prose" in the pre-Qin period (before 221-207 B.C.) to "the study of The Book of Poetry" in the Han Dynasty and to "the study of poetry" in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the idea of poetry study in China undergoes constant change from the earliest concept of "expressing will (yanzhi)" in the antiquity. "Expressing will" is "recording events (jishi)" and "writing down the speech (jiyan) ," and fictionalization has no value in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties. The act of recording contributes the main content of Chinese ancient poetry, while the appropriation of poetry …
Telling, Telling Style Essay And Storytelling, Jinfeng Zhou
Telling, Telling Style Essay And Storytelling, Jinfeng Zhou
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In ancient China, storytelling (xiao shuo, literally, trivial telling) was considered as trivial in terms of the scope of the story, and in the pre-Qin period a type of "telling-style essay" was formed on the basis of telling. With "telling" as a link, the telling-style essay was related to "storytelling." There were different types of telling-style essay, each type having different stylistic features and functions. Among these types, the one that emphasized the exposition through imagistic narrative became the transition from "telling" to "storytelling," and this type of telling-style essay exhibited some stylistic connotations and features that profoundly influenced the …
"Lament" As A Genre In Literary Mind And The Carving Of Dragons And Selections Of Refined Literature, Junling Zhao
"Lament" As A Genre In Literary Mind And The Carving Of Dragons And Selections Of Refined Literature, Junling Zhao
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Liu Xie's Literary Mind and Xiao Tong's Selections of Refined Literature had different definitions and understanding of the genre to lament. Liu Xie's aim was to distinguish different style, so he defined the lament as a genre with the features shown in the earlier writings such as Pan Yue's lamentations over pre-mature deaths, and he did not include into the genre the later stylistic development. Xiao Tong took Pan Yue's more ritualistic Elegy for His Wife as an example for lament style. The main reason behind their differences lies in the fact that Liu Xie's expounding covered only to the …
On Lou Fang's Concept Of Moderation In His Prose Compilation The Recipe For Classical Prose, Xiaochuan Yu
On Lou Fang's Concept Of Moderation In His Prose Compilation The Recipe For Classical Prose, Xiaochuan Yu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Lou Fang's prose compilation The Recipe for Classical Prose was one of the most representative anthologies of ancient Chinese prose since its print in the Southern Song Dynasty, and Lou's commentaries in the anthology and his idea behind the compilation were emulated thereafter. The central rationale for selecting a piece of prose writing was Confucian moderation, emphasizing on the orthodoxy subject matter and moderate aesthetic taste, while the scope of selection was broad and the comments laconic and pertinent. His selection emphasized on the deliberate digression and implicitness of expression and the structuring of meaning delivery in the text, and …
The Implication Of History-In-Poetry And The Reception Of Li Shangyin In The Late Qing-Dynasty Poetry Circle, Weizhong Ma, Chen Li
The Implication Of History-In-Poetry And The Reception Of Li Shangyin In The Late Qing-Dynasty Poetry Circle, Weizhong Ma, Chen Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The debate over emulating the Tang or the Song Dynasty poetry was an important link in the evolution of the Qing-Dynasty poetry, in which the reception of Li Shangyin both pointed a direction for the retro poetics and became in most areas a continuation of territory poetics. The three acceptance models culminated the multi-perspective study of Li Shangyin's poetry. Taking into consideration of the complex social context, the paper claims that the concept of history-in-poetry could become the starting point to investigate the theoretical value of the reception of Li Shangyin in the late Qing-Dynasty poetry circle.
The Landscape Sentiments As The Chinese Symbol And Expression Of An Ecological Art, Guoming Yin
The Landscape Sentiments As The Chinese Symbol And Expression Of An Ecological Art, Guoming Yin
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In Chinese literature and arts, the sentimens in "shanshui" (mountains and waters, landscape) not only embody an aesthetic pursuit but also form a traditional cultural symbol. The sentiments display the artists’ consciousness of life and manifest the ecological connotation of "man in nature." The preposition of the landscape sentiments as a theoretical categorization may be helpful for the discovery of the universal value and new meaning of Chinese litearay theory in the context of comparative and cross-cultural studies.
Revolution And Transcendence: The Aesthetic Transformation In The "New Novel" In The Late Qing Dynasty, Jun Zhu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The rise of the "New Novel" started the "revolution in the circle of fiction writing" in the late Qing Dynasty. In literary history, the New Novels have not been done justice for the traditional ethics shown in these works were in contradictory with the modern political system. However, it is undeniable that these works had left rather deep influence on Chinese ideology, politics and culture in the 20th century. From Kang Youwei to Liang Qichao, Chinese literature had witnessed a historical process from external transcendence (triggered by the import of exotic political and scientific culture) to immanent transcendence (aroused by …
The Concept Of Witty Humor In The Poetry In The Qianlong-Jiaqing Reign Of The Qing Dynasty, Jieling Liang
The Concept Of Witty Humor In The Poetry In The Qianlong-Jiaqing Reign Of The Qing Dynasty, Jieling Liang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
In the period of Qianlong and Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty with the relative social stability, the leading poets pursued a style with witty humor, which led to the social fashion in poetry. Though Yuan Mei's taste was looked upon as poetic objective, it would be an interpretation to theoretically generalize it into the doctrine of a poetry school. The connotation of witty humor was the author's poetic sentiments toward social phenomena, which showed the poet's artistic craft. The denotation of the concept was relative to the poetics emphasizing moral function of literature. While the concept of witty humor …
The Motivation And Practice Of The Rise Of Classical Aesthetics Research In The 20th Century's China, Wei Han
The Motivation And Practice Of The Rise Of Classical Aesthetics Research In The 20th Century's China, Wei Han
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Chinese classical aesthetics research began in the 1980s, in an effort to establish the discipline of Chinese aesthetics under the complicated historical context. It was spurred by both the trend of cultural root-seeking against the background of enlightenment modernity and the pursuit of discourse power. In practice, studies on Wang Guowei and Zong Baihua formed the earliest mode of research, which in turn displayed the charm of ancient Chinese aesthetics. The studies had also constituted a potential model for and established a foundation stone for the classical aesthetics research in the years that followed.
On The Modern Transformation Of Ancient Literary Theory, Yun Wang
On The Modern Transformation Of Ancient Literary Theory, Yun Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Focusing on the contemporary research of the modern transformation of ancient literary theory in China, the paper intends to expose the implied cultural orientation behind the different ideas of and approaches to the modernization of ancient literary theory. This paper points out that, on the one hand, the approach to the modern transformation take the route from construction in the 1980s to deconstruction in 1990s and that, one the other hand, in terms of methodology, the need for an open system is widely accepted and the discursive power of closed conceptual system is undermined and dissolved. As a result, pluralist …
On Wang Youpu's Criticism On The Ancient-Style Prose And Its Value, Zukun Yu
On Wang Youpu's Criticism On The Ancient-Style Prose And Its Value, Zukun Yu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Critical practice on the ancient-style prose is an important part of the literary activity of Tongcheng School in the Qing Dynasty, and due research attention should be paid for understanding their prose theory. Wang You-pu (1681-1760) was one key figure in developing the school's prose theory. As a disciple of Fang Bao, the founder of the school, Wang developed Fang's notion of yifa (meaning-method) by expanding on the relationship between meaning (yi) and method (fa). Wang You-pu had also combined Fang's notion of meaning-method with Jin Shengtan's (1608-61) literary critical practice and vision, which not only sharpened his perceptive and …
The Influence Of Hu Yinglin's Shi Sou On Emura Hokkai's History Of Japanese Poetry, Xin Hu, Ming Yan
The Influence Of Hu Yinglin's Shi Sou On Emura Hokkai's History Of Japanese Poetry, Xin Hu, Ming Yan
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
When writing The History of Japanese Poetry, the Mid-Edo Japanese scholar Emura Hokkai (1707-1782) was deeply influenced by Shi Sou (An Anthology of Poetry) compiled by Chinese Ming-Dynasty scholar Hu Yingling's (1551-1602). In compiling method, Emura's History of Japanese Poetry was written in the way that integrated narration of history through poetry commentaries with biographical history. In thematic treatment, Emura developed Hu's concept of "qi yun" (spirit-mores) and proposed the concept of "shi dao" (generation-way), claiming that Hu's concept of "qi yun" was inherited by the Japanese and became the fundamental reason for the Japanese to develop its own poetics …
The Zen Buddhism's Thoughts Of No Difference Between Form And Empty In Dream Of The Red Chamber, Ranran Wang
The Zen Buddhism's Thoughts Of No Difference Between Form And Empty In Dream Of The Red Chamber, Ranran Wang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Zen Buddhism's idea of form-emptiness has often been viewed as "nothing," although form-emptiness means "no distinction between form and emptiness." The great wisdom in this notion is that on the one hand Zen Buddhism views things as dreams so man can't and shouldn't attach to any of things and on the other hand Zen Buddhism realizes that although the insight may help man cleanse of vain and evil thoughts it can remove the good in thoughts such as vitality and creativity, resulting in poverty of the good provided by things. Therefore, Zen Buddhism emphasizes that man should understand meaning of …
A Probe Into The Liu Xie's Concept Of Literary Virtue, Xinglu Zhou
A Probe Into The Liu Xie's Concept Of Literary Virtue, Xinglu Zhou
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Liu Xie (ca. 465-520) attached great importance to the literary virtues, and developed this unique elaboration of the concept in his Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragon. His elaborations in many chapters in the book redressed the prejudice that the literary man had no virtues, and he claimed that literary men should have the practical abilities, faith and sincerity, and personal integrity in political affairs and literary creation, no matter in the officialdom or in retreat. The paper argues that Liu Xie's emphasis on practice was rooted with his clan's quick rise and fall in the social status, and …
An Investigation Into Chen Wenshu's Criticism On Parallel Prose Through Poetry, Jinsong Li
An Investigation Into Chen Wenshu's Criticism On Parallel Prose Through Poetry, Jinsong Li
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
Chen Wenshu's (1771-1843) "On Parallel Prose Written in the Lamplight for Zhihui" is the only long poem discussing the genre of parallel prose and it has both theoretical and practical significance. The poem not only investigates the history of parallel prose but also examines various aspects of parallel prose in an effort to promote the genre for serious writers, and it greatly helps to enrich the theoretical resource on parallel prose. Chen's survey of the history and examinations of the practice of parallel prose are characteristic of the textual criticism prevailing in the Qianlong-Jiaqing Reign.
An Investigation Of The Late-Tang Poetics Through The Functional Structure Of The Retro Poetic Styles In "Talent And Taste Anthology", Yi'nan Zhang
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The retro style in the Tang poetry collection Talent and Taste Anthology (Cai Diao Anthology) mainly refers the imitation of the poetic styles in the ancient Qi and Liang. The retro style showed in the poetic forms of courtly five-character regulated poems (including extended form and Qi-Liang form), music bureau form (including quatrain) and ballad forms. This style has respective functions, with five-character regulated poems focusing on objects, music bureau forms on emotions and ballad forms on both. It may be said that the retro style in the Talent and Taste Anthology had constructed a relatively complete system of functions, …
Between Heaven And Human: On The Idea Of Heaven And The Transformation Of Poetry In The Mid-Tang Dynasty, Shun Liu
Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art
The relationship between the Heaven and man is a central issue in the transformation of Confucianism in the Mid-Tang period. The discourses on the Heaven by Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and Liu Yuxi help to promote the transformation of Confucianism and also greatly influence the transformation in literary creation. The differences in the poetry and prose between the three authors may also be interpreted from the perspective of the difference between their perceptions of the Heaven. The changes in the relationship between the Heaven and man lead to the broadened themes, innovated vocabulary, diversified styles and varied fresh imageries. Likewise, …