"Ugan" Theory Of Japanese Poetics In Terms Of Chinese Literary Criticism

As has been well-observed, traditional Chinese poetics has greatly impacted the inception and development of Japanese poetics. Most noteworthy, the many traits displayed by the latter all along implicitly, if not openly, reflect the Chinese tradition of poetics. Literary theories centering upon"Ugan", a concept internal to the Middle-Age Japanese literature, for exemplification, comprises, indeed a theoretical framework replenished with Japanese-styled aesthetics; still, as suggested by Sigeimi Taniyama, it dates back to the Chinese poetic thinking initiated by Liu Xie and Zhong Rong, through Yan Yu featuring such approaches as the so-called"revealed thinking,""dawning of enlightenment,"and"consonance possessed of gods,"etc. Given these facts, the present dissertation bases itself on the"five-word construct"proposition expounded by Professor Chen, Linagyun in his Systematic Scheme of Chinese Poetics, toward a historical exposition of the formation of ugan-led poetics, as well as a hermeneutics on all the aspects Ugan encompasses.The idea of"ugan", as perceived by Sigeimi Taniyama, can be approached on two planes, narrow and broad. This perspective has opened new grounds for the surveying of ugan-led poetics that flowered in the Middle-Age Japanese literature. For the simple fact that poets in Japan's Classical Age varied in their conception and interpretation of"ugan", leading therewith much of an obscurity rather than clarity. To confound the issue, Chinese scholars have almost always brought"ugan"under treatment from the single angle of stylistics, categorizing, therefore, ugan into such distinct sub-genres as"ugan of sorrow,""ugan simplicity,"and"ugan of secluded quietude."Undeniably, Sigeimi Taniyam's propostion exalted ugan to a height dominating all other poetics, while incorporating into itself a slew of concepts in the ranges of"after-taste,""the heart within,""air of fecundity,""tissue image,"and"arresting charm,"culminating in a body poetics ramifying into ontology, composition critique, methodology, stylistics, and ideal context.The present dissertation employs Chinese poetics for the purposes of theoretical address The underlying assumptions are: Japanese poetics find their roots in the poetics that surfaced in the Wei-Jin-Six Dynasties period of Chinese history; disservice would be rendered to any study of classical poetics, hence Japanese poetics, should there fail a mention of Confucianism, Buddhism and Zen Buddhism. In comparison, it is Buddhism that cuts deep into Japanese poetics, Confucian politics and utilitarianism do weigh somehow and somewhat on it, though. That is to say, while traditional poetics are borne on the wings of Confucian virtues and Buddhist aesthetics, the Middle-Age Japanese counterpart fly on the single wing of aesthetics dyed with thick hues of Buddhism. To a great extent,"ugan"or profundity, a quality shared by classical Japanese poetry,...