Reflections On The Modern Construction Of Chinese Literary Criticism

In the early 20th century, the Chinese literary critical context witnessed so dramatic a change that traditional criticism found it hard to adapt to the new growth and it was thus necessary to construct a modern critical paradigm on such various levels as critical concepts, methods, discourse and ways of activity. Confronted with these complex issues, critics had to take careful consideration and make their own decisions. Among the crucial topics that every individual could not but face are: 1) how to bridge the gap between the West and our native land, i.e.. how to accept the foreign influence and turn it into our own use; 2) how to negotiate between traditional and modern criticisms so as to inject new blood into the "longitudinal inheritance" by way of "horizontal transplantation"; 3) how to deal with the entanglement of new cognitions-about the aesthetic modernity, about literature itself and the independence and functions of literary criticism that arose in the process of social modernization-with the deep social concern shown by literature in times of national crisis; 4) how, in order to defend the independence and autonomy of literature, to resist its commercialization, the inevitable product of modern society, and express the academic standpoints of modern scholars.Starting from the above issues that were encountered by Chinese literary criticism in its modern construction and are still of historical continuity in contemporary criticism, this dissertation attempts to carry out a case study of the Jing School and examine the modern critical construction, since, in spite of the universality of the above issues themselves, the reflections of the Jing School are quite representative. Efforts are made to avoid separating the historical stand from the critical stand as well as to integrate the case study with problem solving and highlight the consciousness of paradigms, problems and historical data. In addition, in the perspective of modern critical construction, this dissertation hopes to expand the research of the Jing criticism, labeled as "aesthetic criticism" by scholars, and to reveal its profound achievements by both historical and realistic standards.Firstly, the construction of modern Chinese literary criticism started exactly at the time when the whole nation was in great survival anxiety and the native cultureencountered an unprecedented crisis, whereupon the people who were eager for new things and changes had to turn their eyes to the West. However, once Western learning kept pouring in, critics realized that the reception of theories depended not only on temporary practical needs-even though the mechanical application of foreign theories might generate an impact for some time, they could not stand firm if completely isolated from the native spirit. Thus it was necessary to achieve their mutual comprehension and conversion on the deep historical and cultural level through academic and theoretical exploration, comparison and synthesis. In this aspect, the Jing School found an obvious source in Western learning and the critical path it chose to explore was also meaningful, i.e. generally, it took the native culture, including its traditional deposits and realistic developments, as the motive eind basis for the absorption and adjustment of various Western theories and concepts, which in turn became the potential, internal logical framework for the construction of a modern critical paradigm. Specifically speaking, the Jing critics answered the call of the time and actively sought foreign theoretical support in their construction of modern criticism. They not only accepted Western humanism as a kind of grass-root modern concept, but also accumulated and even creatively transformed numerous Western literary concepts, critical theories and methods by way of combination, compromise and integration. What is enlightening to the present day is that, while mastering the Western theoretical resources through a comprehensive study, the Jing School showed a strong "native sense": it took the nativ...