On The Ancient Chinese Theory Of Genres

The division of genres refers to the research on the classification of the literary kinds to establish the system and order. The difference of genres results from people's different views on literary nature. The division of genres is the most fundamental problem of literary studies, and also a very important part of literary theory. The literary critics in ancient China committed themselves to classifying the various literary works according to their different genres, clarifying their relationships, finding out their commonality and individuality so as to establish some idealized and stereotyped principles to interpret and standardize literary works. The ancient Chinese theory of genres contributes to literary creation and literary appreciation, thus it promotes the flowering of Chinese literature. However, due to the historical discontinuity since the May4th Movement of 1919, ancient Chinese theory of genres falls into disrespect for a long time.The purpose of the dissertation is to select the important and representative theoretical works on the genres according to the ancient Chinese genre theory, and analyze them in depth in connection to their historical context, so we can trace the development of ancient Chinese theory of genres, and dig out the genre-dividing methods so that we could figure out the historical interpretation of literary ideas inherent in it, even reveal the changes of people's aesthetical psychology and sentiments along with the evolution of Chinese theory of genres.The dissertation consists of three parts. Its first part is about the basic ancient Chinese theory of genres. Its second part does research on the ancient Chinesetheory of genres in a comprehensive way. Its third part deals with the representative works on ancient Chinese theory of genresIts first part, that is, Chapter One, deals with the basic ancient Chinese theory of genres, which is the foundation of the dissertation. Specifically speaking, it chiefly focuses on the following questions: what is the literary style? What is stylistics? What is the genre theory? It also deals with the objects of genre theory, its methods as well as the differences between genre theory and stylistics? The author also evaluates the achievements and methods of modern Western stylistics. The main academic original points of the part could be summarized as follows: the style of ancient Chinese literary is different from the western concept of style or genre in three aspects, that is, the style of literary form, the style of language and the literary grace of style. The style of literary form refers to the types or forms of literature; the style of language refers to the particular characteristics of language and the system of language; the literary grace of style refers to the holistic grace the typical language brings out and, is the combined result of the subjective sensation and the objective requirement of literary style. In short, throughout history there is no absolute and sole standard to divide the literary genres at home and abroad.Second part consists of Chapter Two and Chapter Three, and deals with the ancient Chinese theory of genres in a comprehensive way.Chapter Two is about the evolution of ancient Chinese theory of genres. Ancient Chinese genres differ in thousands of ways, and the divisions of literary genres of each historical period are also various, so the author hope to dig out the mainstream genre-classifing ideas only by relying on the related representative documents. The main ideas and original points are as follows: the development of ancient Chinese theory of genres can be divided into four periods, that is, before the Han Dynasty, it is the embryonic stage of ancient Chinese theory of genres; during the Wei, Jing, Southern and Northern Dynasties, its mature period: during the Sui, Tang, Song and Yuang Dynasties, its developmental period; and During Ming and Qing Dynasties, all previous related theories are synthesized and brought to theirhighest development. The symbol of maturity of genre theory is the birth of "CaoPei's SiKe BaTi Theory" (CaoPei, a famous literary theorist in Wei-Jin Period of ancient China). In a word, the number of the literary genres goes through the rise and fall.Chapter Three is concerned with the principles of literary classification. The main original points are as follows: the genre theory abides by two principles. One is to "trace the sources", and the other "to classify according to their types". Ancient Chinese genre theory is a pretty comprehensive theoretical system that accommodates itself to the historical development of ancient Chinese literature. It explores the difference of the genres, and also looks for their links. It classifies literary writings according to their common names, and differentiates them to deduce basic literary principles. It follows the principle of diversity of genres without the hierarchical differences and with clear order. Ancient Chinese genre theory epitomizes the pan-literature concept in ancient China.This part is about the "general" study, while the study of the representative works on ancient Chinese genre theories is typically a case study. Thus from general to specific, by combining the two, this paper is meant to provide a complete enquiry into the problem.Third part deals with the study of the representative works on ancient Chinese genre theories. It includes Chapter Four and Chapter Five. As a case study, this part, based on the penetrating analyses of a number of important works on genre theory, objectively and historically manifests the relative genre classification, and reflects the historical "truth" as much as possible. Here the word truth is in the quotation marks, in that complete restoration of the historical truth is impossible. Western Reception Theory clearly tells us that instead of complete restoration of a history, any literary study is no more than a complex of objective historical facts, subjective historical knowledge, historical understanding and the discourses and texts that represent the history.Chapter Four is about the genre classification and literary views inWenxindiaolong, in which my main ideas and creative points are dealt with as follows: there are some subjective and objective conditions under which Liu Xie completed his genre classification. The genre classification in Wenxindiaolong should include 34 categories and 78 types. It is Liu Xie who inherited the genre classification tradition, and finally set up a relatively complete theoretical system of genre classification. Liu's pan-literature views marked by "accommodation" are reflected in his genre classification.Chapter Five is concerned with the genre classification and literary views in Zhaoming Literary Anthology. Its main views and creative points are as follows. Most scholars nowadays hold that there are 39 genres in the Anthology. If we add the ones mentioned in the Preface which are not included in the Anthology, and in the meantime delete those who carry a different name but refer to the same type, we can draw a conclusion that Zhaoming Literary Anthology is concerned with 47 genres. In contrast to Liu Xie's classification, Xiao Tong's has a theoretical achievement, namely "the classification centered around categories". He firstly carried out a widespread research on the ancient and modern genres in the form of poem, thus making many popular articles at that time fall into certain categories. However, with regard to tracing the sources, the argumentation of genre classification in Xiao Tong's Preface to Literary Anthology doesn't abound in creativity. The anthology paid much attention to the well-written articles, which laid emphasis on "new variants", so its compiling rules are simply to inherit the tradition, that's not enough to say it purposefully gives us a differentiation of literature from non-literature. The academic values of this dissertation are listed as follows: 1. This dissertation firstly makes a systematic study of Chinese ancient genre theories. Till now, much has been done in the field of Chinese ancient genre study, but the thorough and systematic study of Chinese ancient genre classification is still quite rare. In the light of microanalyses and macro analyses, this dissertation offers us a penetrating study of the issue. It aims at giving us a historical panorama of Chinese ancient genre theories. At the same time, through the case study of sometypical works, this dissertation is meant to dig out the basic thoughts and methods of Chinese ancient genre theories.2. This dissertation lays a solid foundation for cross-cultural genre comparative study. The genology in Comparative Literature stresses the interdependence, mutual influence, and contradistinction of the genres in different countries. It breaks up the isolated and closed state of genre studies, and requires the scholars to probe its peculiarity, its classification criteria, and its transmission and variation in the horizons of transnational, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary study. To stage a comparative study of genres, we need to have a profound understanding of the parts concerned. As to the comparative study between Chinese genres and the Western ones, we should have a good command of the historical situations of Chinese ancient genre classification. This is what the dissertation is meant to do, that is, to lay the foundation of further research in this field.3. The study of Chinese ancient genre classification is of reference significance. To research on Chinese ancient genre theories is not simply to make clear how the ancient did. What it counts here is that it meets the requirements of our time. Many new forms of literature arise, and any fixed literary classification methods meets with challenges. How can we construct our genre classification according to the new situations at the present time? It may have a long way to go. From the ancient Chinese genre classification and their literary views, from a much longer history, to consider the problem as a whole will be of great significance. In brief, what we need is to comprehensively study and pool all those valuable theoretical resources.4.This study is conducive to the historical interpretations of the literary views in ancient China. Modern Chinese literary views are often employed by some scholars to cut out ancient literary theories, and to castrate the ancient ideological system in order to collect a phrase or two which serve the modern Chinese literary points of view. This dissertation, based on the complete study of Chinese ancient genre classification and its unique literary views, stresses the disparity between the ancient literary views and modern literary views in China. The relations between thetwo are somewhat complicated: sometimes they are closely connected; sometimes they are quite different from each other.