HSIEH T'IAO AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF FIVE-CHARACTER POETRY (CHINESE, HSIEH LING-YUN, T'AO CH'IEN, SIX DYNASTIES)

This dissertation is divided into five chapters. The introductory chapter states the subject and scope of my dissertation and gives a short account of Hsieh T'iao's life and times.In Chapter Three, I demonstrate Hsieh Ling-yun's influence on Pao Chao and Hsieh T'iao. I also study the transformation of "the art of beholder." In Hsieh T'iao's shan-shui poetry this transformation is marked by a change from a linear sequence of views or a single panoramic view to a "highlighted" view. Formally, this is a process of change from Ancient-Style poetry to Recent-Style poetry. My discussion of the fusion of emotion and scene in Hsieh T'iao's works will include shan-shui poetry and chueh-chu.Chapter Four discusses the art of description and versification in yung-wu poetry, including related issues such as the activities of literary groups, the popularity of allusions, and the development of versification in regulated poetry.A short epilogue draws on critical opinions of Hsieh T'iao to shed more light on his style and its place in the evolution of Recent-Style poetry.In Chapter Two, I analyze the poetic tradition, especially chao-yin poetry (poetry on summoning the recluse), yu-hsien poetry (poetry on roaming immortals), and hsuan-yen poetry (poetry on metaphysical discourse) in order to trace the development of nature poetry, which leads to a comparative study between T'ao Yuan-ming's t'ien-yuan (field and garden) poetry and Hsieh Ling-yun's shan-shui (mountain and water) poetry. I also make a comparison of linguistic features, including use of nouns, verbs, and parallelism.