A Study On The New Changes In Literary Aesthetics At The Late Eastern Han Dynasty

The end of the Eastern Han was a turbulent time.It was a time when the conservative and innovation,the demise of the old and the emergence of the new,were intertwined,a characteristic of a time of historical transitions.As the “Literature of the Periods Connecting the Past and the Future”,the various elements of the late Han literature were crucial to the development of classical Chinese literature,both in terms of heritage and innovation.At different stages of its development,the realisation of the aesthetic essence of literature also presents a complex picture.The thesis takes a specific era such as the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty,which is made up of many complex elements,and takes the literary works of this period as the main object of study to find the aesthetic renewal aspect of late Han literature on the basis of a comparison with literary creations before the end of the Han Dynasty.The thesis is divided into seven parts.The introductory section is mainly a review of the literature.The “disconnect”between the aesthetic nature of literature and the study of literature of the Han and Wei dynasties requires that the scholarly community take a serious look at the “new changes”in the literary aesthetic of the late Eastern Han period.Generally speaking,there has been a wealth of research on the new changes in literature at the end of the Han period,but most of the works or articles are limited by conclusive judgements.There is still a gap in the detailed discussion of the changes in specific images and forms in literature from an aesthetic perspective.Therefore,there is still room for research on the new aesthetic changes in literature at the end of the Eastern Han period.For the development of the study,the concepts involved in the title are explained in Chapter 1.Firstly,the term “late Eastern Han” in the thesis refers to the period from the first year of Emperor Huan’s Jianhe reign(147 AD)to the 25 th year of Emperor Xian’s Jian’an reign(220 AD).Secondly,although the Han people held the concept of Pan-literature,they were already aware of the ’aesthetic’ nature of literature at the time.The thesis therefore focuses on the analysis of the more literary poetry of the literati,with some prose as an argument.In addition to this,and after assembling a definition of the concept of ’aesthetics’,the thesis argues that the study of literary aesthetics should be discussed in terms of both the “content” and the “form” of literature.Finally,Most of the“new changes” discussed in the thesis are based on the “new changes” that occurred in the literary and aesthetic traditions of the Qin and Han dynasties.The spirit of “new changes” that the people of the late Han Dynasty displayed in their artistic expression and everyday life,seeking newness and innovation,also provides inspiration for the following discussion of new changes in literary aesthetics.Chapter 2 provides a general social cultural analysis overview of the ’end of the Eastern Han’,an era of transitional character.In terms of productivity and economic relations,the late Han period saw the development of a flourishing farm economy,with most of the land and commerce owned by the gentry,who had great economic power.However,the common people were living in precarious conditions amidst natural and man-made disasters.The political ecology at the end of the Han Dynasty was characterised by political disruption by incompetent and related people,interference by eunuchs,and disagreements between rulers and their subjects.With such a change in power,the authority and order of the king failed and wars became frequent.In terms of social psychology and ideology,the people of the late Han period were pessimistic and depressed.In a constant state of boredom and doubt about the chaos of social order,people sought meaning in their existence.As a result,the literary writings of the past overshadowed the popular literature of the time and guided the development of literature in the spirit of “erudition and versatility” and “seeking truth from facts”.Lao and Zhuang thought,Buddhism and Taoism,and even the belief in ghosts and gods all reveal the spirit of the people of the late Han to resist despair and actively grasp life.Chapter 3 examines the new manifestations of the literary aesthetics in terms of‘content’ in end of the Eastern Han period.The literature of the late Han Dynasty placed greater emphasis on the representation of the real and the mundane and on the expression of sincere emotions than did the literature of the Western Han and the first and middle Eastern Han.The writers’ depiction of people,events,objects and scenes is more detailed,and the emotions they put forward and metaphorically express themselves are stronger.Chapter 4 discusses the new manifestations of literary aesthetics in terms of ‘form’in end of the Eastern Han period.The literary style of the late Han Dynasty became more refined and mature,and the language tended to be more commonplace and simple.With the complementarity of image and form,the literature of the late Han period is more moving and profoundly sincere and interesting.At the same time,many of the elements of the new aesthetic changes in late Han literature were inherited and revived from the literature of past dynasties.However,on the basis of the inheritance,the late Han literature has managed to bring out the new,showing a deeper and more poignant character of the times.Chapter 5 builds on the analysis of aesthetic changes in literary “content”and “form”in Chapter 3 and 4,and explores the literary historical significance and unique value of the new elements of aesthetic change in late Eastern Han literature.The sentiment of the end of Han literature,the beauty of apocalyptic sentimentality,the melancholy beauty of timely pleasure and the tragic beauty of building a career,the strong aesthetic of secular life and the beauty of rebellion and madness had an important influence on the development of literature for future generations.The unique value of late Han literature itself lies in the strong and widespread communal loneliness of life that pervaded the literature,and the writers who worked in this loneliness showed a strong emotional confusion.The concluding section wraps up the whole paper,summarizing the full argument,pointing out the shortcomings of the paper and the direction to be worked on in the future.