A Study Of Li Yu's Literature

Li Yu was a writer in post-Korea period. He lived in an era when Korea shifted in society, politics, and culture. During this period of time, feudal society waned while agriculture, commerce and handcraft throve and developed in the relatively stable political environment. In the academic and ideological field, the idea of practical learning became popular, opposing to dogmatic and traditional moral rationale. The ruling class that was represented by Zheng Zu supported the classic school with the principle of "Writing must follow Qin Han, while poetry, Tang" . The classic school advocated "pure literature style" . Li Yu kept the national literature theory under the mainstream. He thought literature should change with the era and geography, highlighting the practical writing style in opposition to the copy of classics. In the use of language, he advocated the use of Korean national language with the consistency between language and the literature.Li Yu' s writing style was incisive while his language was exquisite and beautiful. His writings reflected his criticism to the society, sense of social reform as well as the descriptions of true human emotions. His poetry theory "Introduction to Slang and Proverb" and his poetry "Slang and Proverb" transcend the domain of traditional Chinese literature, reach out to the life of ordinary people. Most of his poetry depicted a true picture of female emotional life, while his essays mainly reflected the social transition between late 18^th century and early 19^th century, the social phenomenon and human relations. Li Yu was different from Pu Zhi Yuan whose writng emphasized the structure and genre. Li' s writings paid more attention to the absurdity of the story, truly reflected the social customs. His essays reached the climax in literature.This dissertation studies the Fu, book, ba, journal, theory, speech, explanation, argumentation, ce, wen se, biography, slang, proverb, and play in Li Yu' s Tan Ting Book Series. The study will focus on the use of slang, proverb in Li' s works to reflect the female life, and to discover Li Yu' s literature theory, stylistics, theme consciousness and aesthetic features.The study first introduced the social cultural background that brought about the Li Yu' s literature. It discussed Li Yu' s lifetime, education, and the friendship with Jin Lv, Jiang Yi Tian, Shen Lu Chong, which had great impact on the formation of his literature opinions. The study then discussed the reasons of social cultural reforms in post-Li era, the background and the stylistics of Zheng Zu who had important influence to Li' s career. Although Li was a talented writer, he was not accepted for his "flawed style" . He was exiled to the border, spent most of his life there. In spite of these, Li did not change his style, continued his writhing of Slang and Proverb, Essays.The study expounded on Li Yu' s literature, discussed the practical learning school at post-Li era, the literature view of "back to the ancients" , and the Gong An literature that had important impact on Li' s literature to illustrate different literature ideas and the borrowing and absorption of Li' s literature from them. Considering the incorporation, literature of an era had always been influenced and then developed from the last generation and then created its new literature. The Chinese culture incorporated by Li came from more ideology and literature views of Kang Xi era, and the end of Ming and early Qing dynasty than Qian Long, Jia Jing time.The study also discussed the theme consciousness of Li Yu' s literature. It analyzed the use of satire and description in Li' s literature to present his criticism and satire to the society, his revelation of the paradox of class system and imperial examination system, and the loyal consciousness of female customs. Li Yu thought if noblemen and barbarians each undertook their responsibilities, they would find what they did was in their own interests, would be devoted to the cause. Therefore, the nation would be peaceful. As for the attitude that barbarians supported the noblemen, if the attitude is sincere, like a filial son or bereaved daughter taking care of their parents, it would be appropriate to say either "support noblemen" or "support barbarians" .The study expounded the aesthetic feature, the value and position in the history of literature of Li Yu' s literary works. Li Yu' s literary works had strong aesthetic elements, presenting trivial, exquisite, and individual emotional expressions. Different from the last generation, the female at post-Li era gradually shook off the yoke, and set free their emotions. This release of female emotions can be considered as the turning point from the medieval emotion to the modern emotion. In comparison with Li' s limit on special topics and feelings, Li Yu' s Han poems expressed various emotions and described different subjects, reaching the climax of Han poem that expressed female emotions.Li Yu' s literature was different from the traditional ideas. It was a new literature ambition. Li Yu had made more achievements than other writers. He was undoubtedly an important figure in the literature history at post-Li era. With his insistence on the independent creation of national literature, and disapproval of the traditional pure literature that was based on rationale, Li Yu played the role of bridge to construct the modern Korean literature. This is the exact value and position of Li Yu' s writings in the history of literature.