Xizai "arts Takes Its Creation

Liu Xizai (1813-1881) was China's well-known scholar,literary theorist and educatorof late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).The Summary o fArts,his literary review,was anothertheoretical work that expounds on all forms literary works following The Literary Mindand Carving of Dragons by Liu xie.Apart from outstanding achievements in literary theory,Liu Xizai also had greataccomplishments in literary writings.His literary works,the Summary of Arts and hisliterary writings,are collected in Zuo Fei Ji,which is what this paper intends to deal with.There were six parts in The Summary of Arts:As the first part of the book,The Summary of Prose had an attribute of guidingprinciples.Liu Xizai both had the idea of learning from the classics and the philosophy ofmind of Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming.The essay had detailed analyses of theevolution of prose and traditional theories such as expression of emotion and argument,break and continuation etc.Besides,there were good opinions about how to comment onand learn from the predecessors.By comparison with prose,The Summary of Poem discussed the characteristics ofChinese poems.Liu Xizai posed the viewpoint of understanding the author by knowinghis historical background.He also summarized many writing methods about poem andexpounded on his compatible theory of artistic style.In The Summary ofFu,Liu Xizai first elaborated on the origin,evolution,and natureof Fu,then analyzed the relationship between material world and oneself.He alsodiscussed the art of narrating in detail and the creation of artistic image.At last,Liu Xizaianalyzed the concordance of one's moral standing and quality of his works.In The Summary of Ci,Liu Xizai made detailed analyses of Ci.On the contrary,hisanalyses of Qu were simple.At the beginning of the essay,Liu Xizai put special emphasison the status of Ci.He considered that there were three kinds of Ci.In addition,Liu Xizaidiscussed the writing skills and some essential factors in writing such as character,word,temperament and so on.He also expounded on the artistic style of Ci.At the end,bycomparing Qu with Ci,Liu Xizai discussed the characteristics and writing skills of Qubriefly.The theory of image and connotation had deeply influenced Liu Xizai's thought ofcalligraphy.He analyzed the evolution and system of Chinese classical calligraphy.Meantime,Liu Xizai expressed opinions about artistic style of calligraphy.At last,Hesummed up writing skills of different patterns of calligraphy,especially of cursive hand. The research object of The Summary of Jingyi is Eight-part Essay.Liu Xizaiemphasized the same importance of one's works and moral character.The criticism andresearch method were appropriate.Liu Xizai's perspectives about the evolution of Jingyican help us understand it better.The top valuable part in the essay was the theory aboutwriting skills.Literary works collected in Liu Xizai's Zuo Fei Ji include the fable anthology Wu YaZi and a volume of proses,poetry and Ci,Qu.Some of the fables in Wu Yazi embody Liu Xizai's Confucian ideas,indifference tofame and wealth as well as pursuit of freedom while others are instructive and satirical.Interms of the arts and techniques employed,Wu Ya Zi is characterized by reasoning withscenarios and examples commonly seen in life,ingeniously using contrast and satire,andcreating themes out of fables of its predecessors and stories of historical figures.Liu Xizai's proses cover a wide range of topics,rich in content and generally short.They can be divided into two major categories,i.e.didactic and narrative proses,of whichthere are special articles about the theory of prose.His proses place equal emphasis onreasoning and empathy.While there is much imitation of previous works,lots ofinnovations can also be found in Liu Xizai's proses.Liu Xizai's poems fall into six categories,namely,didactic poems,travel poems,poems on horseback,poems on social intercourse,and poems in poetry review,covering awide range of topics.Liu Xizai's poems deal with feelings and sentiments triggered inreal life.Main techniques adopted are implying morals by appealing to sentiments andeliciting empathy through reasoning.Liu Xizai's Ci mainly deal with life as a recluse,melancholy and homesickness onjourneys,sentiments and reflections on life,the art of Ci,and problems concerningsociety and livelihood.In style,they are natural and unassuming,reflecting a combinationof graciousness and wildness,which is unique in the field in the Qing Dynasty.The fewQu created by Liu Xizai are characterized by their natural flow.