A Study On James J.Y.Liu's Poetics

This essay deals with Professor James J. Y. Liu's poetics on the basis of his books on Pre-modern Chinese literature. The study uses the diachronic and comparative analysis methods.We can chart the course of his development by reading a succession of his books : The Art of Chinese Poetry (1962) , Chinese Theories of Literature , (1975) I.anguage-Parcidox-Poetics( 1988) .Firstly, Prof Liifs educational background in Chinese classics and traditional scholarship on the one hand and Western literary studies on the other provided his great success in the field of the Comparative Literature between China and West. His approach to criticism kept evolving with I. A. Richards , William Empson , Husserl , Ingarden , Dufrenne . Mallarme ,T. S. Eliot.Secondly, the issues which occupy Prof. Liu's whole life is the nature of Chinese poetic expression and how to get some convergences between the traditional Chinese poetics and the Western ones and hermeneutics. So, in his hooks, Prof. Liu provides the general English readers with the features aboutthe Chinese characters and Chinese poetry. Affected by Abrams , he tries to induce systems of literary theory from the often unsystematic and fragmentary modes of critical discourse in China Some of his views built on the comparative study of Western and Chinese theories of literature offer some successors new way of exploration in this field.Finally, the author gives a great worship to Prof. Liu after comparing him with professor Stephen. Owen. The author believe the different approach and attitude between (he two great sinologist may offer a new change and breakthrough of the Comparative Poetics between China and West.