The Influence Of Taoist On BeiJing School Novels

From the beginning of the 20^th century on, the communication between tradition and modern, east and west has been under vehement discussion. As an important aesthetic resource of Chinese traditional philosophy and aesthetics, Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu have exerted great influence to the modern writers under this cross-cultural context. The way those modern writers interpreted and assimilated the two philosophers' ideas undoubtedly became the bull's eye during this discussion. With the approaches of archetypal research, comparative study, and the combined method of literary humanity and hermeneutics, this dissertation endeavors to probe how Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu's aesthetics has influenced Beijing School novels on topics, literary value, outlook on life, aesthetic representation and etc., so as to show how the two philosophers' ideas find their way into China's modern novels and further emphasize the importance of Taoist to the aesthetic formation of Chinese modern novels.Of the many novelists belonging to the "Beijing School", only five (Fei Ming, Sheng Congwen, Ling Shuhua, Lu Fen and Wang Zengqi) can best represent the Taoist and have made astonishing achievements in this field. This dissertation will focus on their works and analyze their cultural and aesthetic links with traditional Taoist aesthetics, thus to explain how Chinese Modern Literature transited to traditional Chinese culture during the growing process from infantry to maturity. With the acceptance of Taoist aesthetics, Beijing School novels has become the symbol of "Pure Literary Spirit" in Chinese modern literature history, providing a vivid case study for the current popular topic of "the Modern Transition of Chinese Classical Aesthetics and Literary Theory".