The Research Of The Revival Society Literati On The Book

In the Ming Dynasty, the theory of Zhu Xi is taken as the national and authorized theory,thus causes the decline of the official research on the Book, and the impractical style oflearning of Wang Yangming’s theory also influences the study of the Book. During the lateMing Dynasty, literal societies rise and the Revival Society, as the influential society at thattime, leads the third climax of revival in the Ming Dynasty. It tries to correct the impracticalstyle of learning by putting forward slogans of reviving the ancient learning and using it andso starts the climax of studying the ancient classics and learning. It is the importantcomponent of the study of the Book in the Ming Dynasty.The thesis is made up of three parts: the introductory part, the body and the conclusion.The introductory part indicates the value and meaning and the present research of the chosentopic; the framework of the thesis and method of research. The body has general remarks andseparate analysis. The first chapter generally comments the works and characteristics of studyof the Revival Society on the Book. On the basis of the different characteristics of the study ofthe Revival Society on the Book, the separate section is composed of three layers: the literary,textual and poetical layers. Chapter One begins the analysis from Wan Shihua’s essays on theBook and He Yisun’s Touch of the Poems, as they stands for the highest level of the literaryresearch of the Revival Society. The remarkable achievements of the Revival Society on theBook is not attained by accident but is related to the literary trend at that time. And activitiessuch as essay selecting and compiling help the development of literature as well as theresearch on the Book. The ways of interpreting poems of Wang Shihua and He Yisun are themanifestation of the literary interpretation on the Book. He’s trend of emphasizing the firstline of the preface reflects that the then poem interpretation has combined the interpretationsof Han and Song Dynasties. The textual research on the Book centers on Gu Menglin’spopular work:About the Book. Restrained by its textual feature, this work shows respect toZhu Xi’s Collection of Poems on the general understanding of the purpose of poems, but onnaming and exegesis, the work gathers others’ ideas, spares no efforts to do textual researchand often shows new ideas. It makes addition and correction to Zhu Xi’s Collection of Poems,which shows the trend to be practical.The different societies’ debates helps the appearance ofliterary interpretation. The Revival Society has different ideas with other societies on ancientand present essays, so it debates with other literary ideas, which objectively helps develop literary theory and poem interpretation. Without bearing the task of passing on the classicsand doctrine and the pressure of textual research, it interprets the Book in terms of literature.To certain degree, it shows the debate of the Tang and Song essays, the distinction of an essayand a poem, and emphasis on the origins since the Ming Dynasty. This thesis cites the worksof Song Zhengbi, Xu Shifu, Fang Yizhi, He Yisun and Chen Hongxu to investigate thespecific characteristics of the interpretation of the Book by the Revival Society. The turmoil ofthe late Ming Dynasty influences the viewpoint on poem’s enlightenment function of theliterati in the Revival Society and they show these ideas in some of their works. Their literarytheory of practicality, shown from Confucius poem enlightenment function, emphasizes thefunction of interfering the reality. Chen Zilong’s preach that even at declining times oneshould send out the voice of prime times, and Zhang Fu’s poetical viewpoint of emphasizingon elegance and correctness, are both the enhancement of the Confucius poem enlightenmentfunctionIn a word, the research of the Revival Society on the Book is the main force of theancient research in the Ming Dynasty. It makes great contributions in the study ofanti-traditional literature, in the changing process of the research on the Book to practicalityand in the interpretation on the Book.