The Research On Yongzheng’s Literary Thoughts

Emperor Yong Zheng of Qing Dynasty had an important impact on the deve-lopment of literature with his literary thoughts and policies. With a comprehensive study of the the literary works and decrees written by Yong Zheng, the dissertation intends to do a textual research on the written communication between Kang Xi and Yong Zheng, Yong Zheng and his ministers; besides, the volume of Yong Di Poems and Si Yi Tang Poems are collected and analysed. On the basis of these, a summary of Yong Zheng’s literary thoughts is provided.The core idea of Yong Zheng’s literary thoughts was extreme Pragmatism.Yong zheng inherited and developed the pragmatic view towards literature of Emperor Kang Xi. He used articles as an important means of political control. He wrote a large number of decrees and replied to his ministers in the format of long articles. He criti-cised his enemy with poems composed by all the officers in the capital. The extremely pragmatic thoughts led to further tightening of cultural policy. The social situation for literary activities became worse."Yazheng Qingzhen" was the most influential among Yong Zheng’s literary thoughts. He developed the literary theory of Kang Xi on Elegance and posed the view "Yazheng Qingzhen".Published in the format of a decree, it became the standard of imperial examination and influenced the Qing Dynasty for nealy200years. Being the representative of the Tong Chen essay, Fang Bao has the similar thoughts of Yong Zheng. The pursuit of Elegance extended from the imperial exami-nation to essay, poetry, novels and other literary genres. Novels and dramas had been ruined further during the reign of Yong Zheng.Out of his pragmatism, Yong Zheng did not like writing poetry. But as an emperor, he personally involved in the creation of poetry. His elegant poetry had become the model of guidance for those in the poetic circle. Poets had been controlled by Yong Zheng through the imperial examination. They were both officials and poets, which formed a group of high status poets.