Confucian Poetics In The Axial Age

The research paradigm of Chinese poetics is ushering in transformation.This kind of transformation stems from the continuous influx of western literary theory since the last century and the identity crisis triggered by the continuous propulsion of crosscultural comparative poetics.On the other hand,it benefits from the initiative introspection of Chinese poetic researchers themselves in crisis and the appeal of the construction of national academic discourse in Chinese academic circles echoes in the field of Chinese classical poetics since the new century.In this multi-dimensional comprehensive interdisciplinary and cross-cultural academic context,we tentatively proposed the topic of "Confucian Poetics in the Axial Age".The purpose of proposing this topic is to return to the original state of Chinese poetics,and to place the pre-Qin Confucian poetics in the synchronic context of the "Axial Age".Then within the overall vision of Chinese and western classical poetics,the pre-Qin Confucian poetics was studied from the perspective of heaven and human,which is a particular dimension of intellectual history.Under the perspective of "Great Literary Theory" and the method of cross-cultural comparison,we will outline the basic clues of the pre-Qin Confucian poetics' origin and occurrence.The unique discourse identity of will be determined simultaneously.The main theoretical framework cited in this dissertation is "Axial Age" and "Perspective of Heaven and Human".The former comes from the "Axial Age" of the German philosopher Jaspers and the "Philosophy Breakthrough" of the American sociologist Parsons,and the latter which is shared by East and West thinkers in the Axial Age as a basic framework.As an assumption,the "Axial Age" links Eastern and Western civilizations,and provides a existential domain for the establishment of comparability between ancient Greek poetics and the pre-Qin Confucian poetics.The "Perspective of Heaven and Human" is also shared by the East and West thinkers in the Axial Age.The framework of thought provides an thought domain for the establishment of the comparability between the ancient Greek poetics and the pre-Qin Confucian poetics.Specific to the pre-Qin Confucianism,with the becoming of the domain of thought in the domain of existence,the relationship between heaven and human has also experienced the unique process which is from "Unity of Heaven and Human" of the Zhou Gong's "De"(?)to the "Unity of Heaven and Human" of Confucius' "Ren"(?),then to the "Unity of Heaven and Human" of Mencius' "Cheng"(?)and ending with "Separation of Heaven and Human" of Xuncius' naturalism.Following the process,the pre-Qin Confucians produced various discourse expressions in the field of poetics.The generation of these discourse expressions is basically synchronized with the generation of Confucian thoughts.It was initially implicit,and then it gradually became explicit and determined its paradigm finally.The emergence and nature of the pre-Qin Confucian poetics is inseparable with the early Chinese state forms in the Axial Age,which is particularly obvious in the parallel comparisons between the ancient Greek poetics and the ancient Greek polis.Due to the differences in natural conditions,there are fundamental differences in the development paths of ancient civilizations between China and the West.The West is "breakthrough" and China is "continuity".Western "breakthroughs" are mainly reflected that the innovation of technology and production methods break the shackles of the natural ecosystem in the development of civilization,and China's "continuity" is reflected in the continuation of the relationship between man and the world and nature in the process of civilization development.Specific to the formation period of the country,"breakthrough" and "continuity" are manifested as "revolution" and "reformation." The "revolution" of the Western is embodied the "geographical" which breaks through "consanguineous" in the formation of the ancient Greek polis;while China's "reform" is reflected in the formation of the western zhou state in maintaining the old organization the "consanguineous",added the "geographical" as the new,so present a "consanguineous + geography" complex form.As a result of the above,ancient Chinese and Western societies also showed differences in the field of literary and poetics.The ancient China of the patriarchal society established the lyrical tradition by using lyric poems as the main literary expression style,and developed the unique affective-expressive poetics on this foundational genre.The ancient Greeks of the polis society established the narrative tradition by using the drama as the main literary expression style,and generated the unique imitation poetics on this foundational genre.This paper is divided into six parts,which are "Introduction","The first chapter:The construction of Zhou's moral world and the origin of Confucian poetics in the pre-Qin period","The second chapter: The Socratic turn of Confucius' thoughts and the emergence of Confucian poetics in the pre-Qin period","The third chapter: The birth of the Mencius' " unity of heaven and human " new paradigm and the change of the pre-Qin Confucian poetics" and "The fourth chapter: the absolute breakthrough of the view of Heaven and Human and the preliminary determination of the Pre-Qin Confucian poetics paradigm" and "Conclusion".