On Albert Wu's "epic" Concept

Wu Weiye is one of the most important poets between the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. This paper focuses on the concrete connation and development of"historical poetry"which is Wu's core idea and its influence upon Chinese ancient poetry.The first chapter mainly discussed how Wu's idea about"historical poetry"comes into being. The social environment and"practical trend"are the main outer reasons for the development of this idea. And his experience proceeded from the oxymoron between the idea about the country-governing and individual entertainment before the perish of Ming, to his eager purchase of being alive and remaining loyal to the former Ming, until his complicated thought tortured by regret, shame and wanting of redemption after his subdue to Qing serve as the direct reason for this idea which is the mediation for the various outer reasons effect on this idea.The second chapter discussed about the connotation and evolution of this idea. He thought the"historical poetry"should include the facts as well as the feelings of individual during the historical precession which then changing into the new theory"the history of emotion synchronized with the facts".The third chapter discussed about the embodiment of this idea in his works of"Meicun style"and other plays. The feature of this style changes from an emphasis on objective narration in Ming to the equal emphasis of narration and emotional expression until the perfect mingle of the two after his subdue which is the very embodiment of his idea of"historical poetry"in each stage. The influence of this idea is also obvious in his plays.The fourth chapter discussed about the correspondent literary theories with this idea in three aspects: the goal, the resources, and criticism of literary creation. He take the country-governing and the permanence of his literary fame as the two main purposes, take the narrator and the world, that is, the subjective and objective factors as the two key resources, also his new theory of criticism"learn about the narrator and his time from his work", all show his special idea of"historical poetry".The ground idea of this paper can be summarized as follow: The"historical poetry"idea of Wu Weiye was developed under the combined effects of the social...