On Jiang Kong-yang's Literary Criticism

Jiang Kong-yang is a famous aesthetician. His Creation Aesthetics has been studied by so many scholars, but his literary criticism is ignored for long. In fact, under the influence of his Creation Aesthetics, his literary criticism takes on its own characteristics. In this thesis, the author divides Jiang Kong-yang抯 literary criticism into three periods. The first happens from 1950s to 1960s, and it is affected by the new literary trend which was based on the Mao Ze-dong抯 literary thoughts. His literary criticism in this period are guided by the principle of Socialistic Realism. So he raises his own standards to literary criticism, namely the combination of contents and artistic techniques. He also pays close attention to the truthfulness and typicalness in the literary creation. The second takes place from the end of 1 970s to 1980s, and it is influenced by his Creation Aesthetics which combines truth, goodness and beauty. So he emphasizes the creativity of critics and artists. As to critical standards, he reemphasizes his artistic standards. On the function of literary criticism, he realizes it by modeling artistic images and artistic characters. The third covers from 1 990s to now, and it is still affected by his Creative Aesthetics. The literary criticism of this period is the one directed by the theory of the aesthetic relationship between human being and reality. As a conclusion of his study, he claims that criticism is an emotional, individual and creative action. Generally speaking, there are three features in his literary criticism. Firstly, he emphasizes the relation between the artistic creation and social life. Secondly, he always puts great emphasis on the artistic image in his practice of literary criticism. Thirdly, his literary criticism is based on his Creation Aesthetics, and enriches his aesthetic theory.