Su Shi: Pluralistic view of values and 'making poetry out of prose'

This study examines the problem of "making poetry out of prose" from a new perspective. In light of Bakhtin's understanding of literary genre, I see an inherent link between "making poetry out of prose" in Su Shi's poetry and an intellectual orientation of Su Shi characterized by a pluralistic view of values and a "prosaic wisdom." By placing Su Shi in the entire history of Chinese intellectual thought and examining the ways he dealt with various situations in his life and his approach to diverse ideas, I demonstrate that Su Shi refuses to take any system of thought as absolute truth, opposes intellectual uniformity, and advocates an openness to and respect for different ideas and views.;I then analyze in detail some of Su Shi's poems to illustrate how the main stylistic features of "making poetry out of prose" reflect his pluralistic views. I note that Su Shi uses a wide variety of words to describe various experiences, some of which were considered not "proper" materials for poetry. The dynamic and refreshing languages reflect a new sense of the world. The abundance of argumentative discourse is another major characteristic of "making poetry out of prose" in Su Shi. In my analyses, Su Shi showed his open mind and diverse aesthetic tastes by the argumentative discourses.;Finally, I read Su Shi's poetry in comparison with the works of a number of major Jin and Tang poets to show how Su Shi's attitude toward political career and his views of the self were different from his predecessors'. In my view, a pluralistic view of values in traditional China entails a deviation from certain widely-held mainstream values. My conclusion is that a pluralistic view of values is the major legacy Su Shi left, and by "making poetry out of prose," Su Shi produced a freer, more diverse poetry and broke a new path for the Chinese poetic tradition.