A Study Of The Origin Of Xiang In Chinese And West Poetics

Focused on sorting out some of the core concepts or terms in the ancient Chinese traditional poetic theory which are closely related with present comparative study, this dissertation aims at rethinking and reinterpreting them in order to construct a systematic theory of comparative literature and comparative poetics between China and the West, which will lead to the construction of a new theoretical system of contemporary literature with the properties of Chinese traditionStarted from the perspectives of Chinese poetry, this dissertation tries to clarify some traditional terms of the ancient Chinese poetics that are misinterpreted in modern Chinese literary theories. By doing so, the dissertation has singled out some universally proper terms from the ancient Chinese literary or poetic terms for detailed study in the hope of exploring some means to fuse Chinese and West poetics or literary theory, and on this basis, try to establish a sound contemporary theoretical system universally accepted both by the Chinese and the West which has embodied these terms as the basic core categories of the comparative poetics.At the beginning, the dissertation makes a survey on the discursive controversy put forward by some scholars about the naming problem of poetics or literary theory respectively defined on the west and China that with a affirmative conclusion on comparative poetics in order to prove that the comparative poetics is legitimate. The final aim and purpose in the study intends to find out the fuse point between the two, which is also most difficult. In view of this, the key method is to go out from the old categories or conceptual errors and probe a new theoretical start for comparative studies.Based on this theoretical standpoint, the dissertation starts from the key term, xiang(象) (image or idea-image some other versions ) in the traditional Chinese poetics and probes the origins and discusses its philosophical and poetic meaning through comparative study in an all-around way at the same time. Besides, it completely probes some of the important questions relevant to the Chinese and western comparative poetic studiesFirstly, a complete retrospect of the present interpretation of xiang, 象. Through the reflection of ebb and flow of the two important terms, xingxiang 形象(a seeing form or vision and yixiang 意象(image or mental picture) in the modern literary theory during the past five decades, the dissertation tries to make a research of the abuses in its modern interpretation and use in the right perspective.Secondly, an investigation is made to the origin, development of the concept of Xiang "象" between Chinese and the West from the three perspectives: philosophy, religion and literary theory. Through a comprehensive retrospect of xiang(image) in the traditional Chinese poetic theory, its historical development process beginning from the term of xiang in Yi Jing, the Book of Changes, its abstract sense in the hermeneutic study of traditional Confucius and Taoist philosophies, and the shifting changes to the poetic criticism theory in Tang Dynasty. Xiang, as a poetic concept, which is supposed to be finally defined in the sense of poetic theory as a core category through the long periods of some dynasties of pre-Qing, Hans, Weijin and the North and South dynasties. By making this close study, the dissertation justifies and clarifies it as a basic core category in ancient traditional Chinese poetic theory as well as its basic concept in the survey of different historical contexts.In the following parts, in investigation of the process of western poetic theory, the dissertation, taking the traditional Chinese xiang theory as a basic category, makes a thorough investigation of its development from ancient Greece to Renaissance, in the discussion on the connotation and denotation of the term of Platonic eidos and imago of Christianity in the sense of xiang and tries to find out the differences and similarities between Chinese and western poetics, and intends to communicate or fuse the two with xiang. Through the description this dissertation draws a conclusionthat in the west the term of image or imagery also saw a process of shifting from philosophy and religion to the literary use as the term xiang has the same process in ancient China, which proves the dissertation's assumption of the access for xiang to the western poetics as a fundamental category so as to ascertain the universal properness of the term xiang as a key concept in the literary theory and thus establish its theoretical legitimacy for xiang as a starting point for comparative poetic study between Chinese and the western cultures.Lastly, based on the above argumentation, that justifies xiang as the common basic poetic concept in both Chinese and western, the dissertation mainly focuses on the analysis of overseas sinologists' understanding of xiang in Chinese literary theory at present time, and finally finds out the joint between Chinese and western poetics.The basic position of this dissertation is based on interpreting western poetic theory by means of traditional Chinese poetic theory; insisting on employing the basic traditional interpretation means of relying on raw materials, emphasizing on the empirical analysis in the traditional Chinese poetic theory, and meanwhile, great efforts are made to keep due dialectic quality in theoretical respect.