A Study Of Yuan Hongdao's Letters

Yuan Hongdao was one of the leaders of the literature reformation in late Ming Dynasty. In his theory of nature spirit, literature aesthetic standard was reality of the author's feeling instead of perfection on morality. ChiDu, one of the letter's names in ancient China, was changing to be an aesthetic style which expresses authors' emotion from a practical style because of the influence of the literature trends in late Ming Dynasty. From form to content, from language to style, letters presented a new appearance comparing with the former ones. During the course of letters' changing, Yuan Hongdao was another key writer, following LiZhi just behind.This paper contains three parts:First, introduce and analyze the present state of the study on Yuan Hongdao and explain the significance of studying Yuan Hongdao's letters. The study on Yuan Hongdao involves his letters, but the study on Yuan Hongdao's letters is far too little. With regard to the large proportion of his letters to his works, especial to his essays, and his special partiality for the style of letter, the study of Yuan Hongdao's letters should be a special problem, which is very important for the study of Yuan Hongdao. Perhaps we should consider the study of his letters to be a breakthrough point of the study of Yuan Hongdao.Second, discuss Yuan Hongdao's letters by stages in hiscollected works. Most of the letters written during WuZhong period complain about the hardness of being a lower government official in feudal society, hungering for an unrestrained life of his own, claiming a philosophy on life of seeking one's own comfotebleness in spite of the duty as an official under a feudal ruler , as a member of a big family, which was conflicting with Confucianism. The letters written during Beijing period show the first change of his thought. He eradicated the radical thoughts and doings in the former period, and lived a rigorous life, saying Goodbye to the luxury. Theletters of Gong'an period record his second change of thought. He held a negative attitude towards indulging oneself in creature lust, but he couldn't bear the hardness of strict temperance. So he decided to keep an ordinary heart. To some extent, Yuan Hongdao was a typical model of the intellectuals who had independentpersonalities but didn't know how to behave in a society that put high premium on the life of collective members.Third, study Yuan Hongdao' theory of nature spirit how to change letter to an aesthetic style from a practical style and the aesthetic pursuit of his letters. Letter became a very important category of essay in late Ming Dynasty, and Yuan Hongdao' letters show the features of essay first: short, delicate, interesting and humorous; in the same time the language was beautiful because of rhetoric in his letters, especially the metaphors and parallelisms. As far as the aesthetic state his letters reach, Yuan Hongdao deserves to be mentioned as a great master in Chinese letter literature with other noted personages such as Su Shi.