Study Of Jiang Zhiyou’s Literary Thoughts

In the context of the Eastward Spread of Western Civilization,the meaning of"literature"in the modern sense gradually emerged in the late Qing dynasty.Literati at the time,especially those who had once lived in Japan in late Qing,such as Jiang Zhiyou,made a great difference in the progress.Plenty of terms and theoretical systems that we take for granted nowadays can be traced back to monographs and translations from Japan in early days.The dissertation focuses on the component and resources of Jiang Zhiyou’s literary thoughts,and the causes and effects on the system of Chinese literary theory and criticism.In addition,in the huge dispute about whether we should write classical Chinese or vernacular Chinese in pre-modern time,Jiang Zhiyou and some other writers and critics,who once stood with the trend and invigorated literary circles,however,were regarded as conservatives hindering the progress and sticking to ancient rules.Nevertheless,there appears to be a clue behind his seemingly retrogressive thoughts.Thus,another aim of the dissertation is to explore Jiang Zhiyou’s views and methods when he dealt with the relationship between the ancient and the new,the domestic and the exotic.The preface sorts out and discriminates Jiang Zhiyou’s main experiences and works with a review of previous studies.In the past,Poetry Collection of Leaving from the Homeland,which was pressed in Japan in 1917,was seldom noticed by researchers.The collection is of value,as it contains Jiang’s significant ideas of poems and essays,and provides direct evidence to explore his mentality during the transition period from Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China.Chapter 1 probes into Jiang’s definition of"literature"and different genres,and the path of his concepts.Beside poems and essays,there were some other genres such as"mythology","history",and"fiction".He drew a new term"mythology"into Chinese literary system,where Japan played a role as an agent,and equated its status with"history",emphasizing on their inspiring impact.His comprehension of"fiction"and"drama" were constructed with an expectation that they could have positive impacts on the society,where he also borrowed the western term"tragedy".There were different attitudes towards poems and essays on the basis of his own practical experience,in addition to being influenced by traditional views.Although the boundary between genres sometimes seemed vague,Jiang’s views showed his attempt to break the construction of Chinese traditional knowledge system.Chapter 2 discusses about the relationship between Jiang’s writing requirements and statecraft ambitions.He considered"pithy and accurate"as the general rule for writing essays,and emphasizes writers’visions and horizons.All of the above was because of his desire that literature could change the atmosphere of the society,enlighten the people and salvage the country.Such expectation encouraged authors to participate in social affairs.Jiang claimed that the author had"unique and profound feelings",should"make good use of feelings",and advocated"common feelings".In addition to traditionally attaching importance to the"true",the emphasis on the"use"of feelings was a new development in the progress of literary thoughts of feelings in pre-modern time.Chapter 3 analyzes Jiang’s attention to the role of readers.In the article"Cold Articles and Hot Articles",although he discussed both author’s psychology and the readers’,due to his emphasis on the"use",actually he paid more attention to the function of readers.That is,the readers’psychology can not only serve as the standard for the classification of articles,but also effect the overall fashion of articles in the society.Jiang encouraged readers to exert their subjective initiative to explicate and supplement the text of works.He also distinguished the categories of readers,especially affirmed the role of critics,and believed that critics could serve as an intermediary between authors and ordinary readers for better communication,which should be beneficial to the both.It was different from a lot of literati in Ming and Qing dynasties.In conclusion,Jiang Zhiyou constructed his literary thoughts in both comparative and introspective ways.It was a common method for Jiang to develop literary criticism by forming a comparative perspective between China and foreign countries,incorporating Chinese literature into world literature.As for attitudes towards the ancient and the moden,he attempted to take advantages of beneficial elements from Chinese traditional resources and revise those unfavorable parts.Learning abroad in early days,then returning back to self,reflected that Jiang Zhiyou was in a dilemma between the ancient and the modern,the domestic and the exotic,and finally made his choices.It seemed"inappropriate"but was representative in pre-modern time,and raised a lot of topics that deserves discussing even in current days.