On The Reception History Of Wang Guowei's Literary Criticism

This thesis will research the reception history of Wang Guowei's literary criticism,which will discuss the modes and reasons of different kinds of reception,the influence for the reception because of different knowledge structures,different value orientations and different backgrounds of researchers, and will give the conclusion for the reasons of the success and the failure of the reception.The thesis intends to achieve three purposes:firstly.it will outline the full view of the reception history;secondly,it will reveal the law of the reception; thirdly,it will disclose the enlightment and lessons drawn from the reception history for the modern transformation of Chinese literary criticism.This thesis will dislapy the complete picture pf the reception history through the diachronic approach,and the different modes of reception through the synchronic approach.At the same time,it will focus on the talks between Wang Guowei's theories and theories from Chinese and foreign cultures,between Wan Guowei's minds and the thinking trend of his time,between Wang Guowei's thought and his researchers'thought,between researchers'minds and the thinking trend of their times.between the thought of this thesis'author and the thought of all the researchers',through which the thesis will reveal the conflicts and problems of the studies brought by the displacement of theories,contexts and understandings.The thesis consists of 6 main parts. The main ideas of each part are:The introduction part introduces the contents,the methods and defects of the study on Wang Guowei's literary criticism.puts forward the research object and scope, and distinguishes the two different concepts "the history of reception"and "the research on the history of reception".What's more important,this part points out that thesis will begin the study with problems and discussions.The first chapter discusses the debates.the contributions and the shortages during the process of linking Wang Guowei's literary criticism with politics. Due to many reasons,Wang Guowei's literary criticism is criticized by many researchers.By then,"Jen Chien Tz'u Hua" is regarded as the classic book.Most researchers inclined to attack the classic books.Therefore.it becomes the attacking object quickly.According to their standpoints, the investigators can be classified into two groups:the group of binary opposition and the group of creative tansformation.The discussions of the group of binary opposition focus on the problem that whether Wang Guowei's literary criticism is materialistic or idealistic.Although there is only one criterion,there are still many different opinions when probing into some specific problems.Li Zehou is the spokesman of the group of creative tansformation.w hose purpose is to transform Wang Guowei's literary criticism.He finds out the common thoughts of "Yi Jing"and "Dian Xing".which is the basis for transforming; and then he extracts two couples of concepts "Xing—Shen" and "Qing—Li".which is the logic foundation for transforming. The second chapter explores how the Life Poetics transforms Wang Guowei's literary criticism.The Life Poetics refers to the philosophy trend led by Wilhelm Dilthey, Henri Bergson, Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer etc. from the very beginning.Later.it is classified into several kinds because of its collision and integration with the Chinese Poetics which brings with itself some characteristics of the Life Poetics.Different standpointds and choices also contribute to its classification.Generally speaking, the Life Poetics focuses on the individual's life.With the help from life experiences.it inclines to pursue the transcendent meaning of the life,which makes the Chinese Poetics more colorful.Ye Jiaying and Xia Zhongyi study Wang Guowei's literary criticism from the angle of the Life Poetics.Ye Jiaying establishes her analysis on the ground of the Chinese Poetics.The concept "Xing" which focuses on the interaction between the human and the outside world gives her much inspiration.Xia Zhongyi borrows theories from the western Life Poetics.The third chapter sums up the contributions and flaws of the method of the influence study. The academic relation between Arthur Schopenhauer and Wang Guowei is one of the most important parts in the research of Wang Guowei's literary criticism,which is mentioned by many scholars but lacked further exploration.Fo Chu is the first person who takes the use of many original texts to give the support to the idea that Wang Guowei's literary criticism is greatly influnced by Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy.He finds out concrete evidences to help us understand what influnces Wang Guowei got from Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy.This method is carried on by Wang Youxin.The difference between them is that Wang Youxin mainly study how Wang Guowei transforms Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy into the theories he needs in his analysis.The fourth chapter solves the problem of the position and functions of Chinese traditional culture in Wang Guowei's literary criticism.The research on Wang Guowei's literary criticism is done in two ways.One is analyzing the influnces of western culture on Wang Guowei's literary criticism. The conclusion is that Arthur Schopenhauer's minds have many impacts on Wang Guowei's literary criticism.The other is analyzing the influnces of Chinese culture on Wang Guowei's literary criticism. The conclusion is that Wang Shizhen's and Yan Yu'minds have many impacts on Wang Guowei's literary criticism.Fo Chu's book "on Wang Guowei's Literary Criticism" finds out the influnces from Arthur Schopenhauer.If we want to make contributions to the research on Wang Guowei's literary criticism.we have to turn for the Chinese tradition.Thus.the inner logic way of study comes out,which aims at solving the problem of the position and functions of Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism in Wang Guowei's literary criticism.The fifith chapter analyze the research of Wang Guowei's literary criticism in the holistic approach.There are many advantages as well as disadvantages in the study before.Many discussions are confined in the given thinking mode and it seems that the discussions are far away from Wang Guowei's literary criticism itself.The holistic approach appears in this background,which tries to rethink Wang Guowei's literary criticism according to his way and spirit of pursuing the truth. Wang Guowei suggests that we should break the walls between the old and the new, the Chinese culture and the western culture,and the ancient and the modern,which is highly praised by Qian Zhongshu. The holistic approach underlines the importance of integration.It goes back to the original text,analyze Wang Guowei's real spirit, takes the text as a whole and then goes on with the study.The conclusion part summarizes the characteristics of Wang Guowei's literary criticism.The first is the forms are mixed.The second is the concepts are used without defining.The third is the discourse is blended.The angles of Politics,Life Poetics,Influnce study,Inner Logic and Holistic approach and so on are the the reflections of the complexity.the ambiguity and the openess of Wang Guowei's literary criticism.Each angle tells us the truth ae well as the faults.The research of Wang Guowei's literary criticism can't be confined within the debate of the concept,the method and the system. We may study how Wang Guowei transforms the Chinese literary criticism in the future.