Study On Li Zhi's Literary Theory

What Li Zhi brings common people firstly is endless disputes. These disputes come from the appraisal on him and continue to exist successively in contemporary society. People, who worship him, regard him as the sage directly; while ones that object to him, consider him as a dreadful monster.Previous academic achievements lay particular emphasis either on the research on the relationship between Li Zhi's thoughts and mind theory or on the literary thought of Li Zhi and study on its influence on the ideological trend of literature of Ming Dynasty, or touched upon Li Zhi while expounding the relationship between the mind theory and ideological trend of literature of Ming Dynasty. However, the specific studies on his philosophical thoughts, the relation between philosophical thoughts and mind theory, his literary view influenced by mind theory are relatively few and weak.On the basis of absorbing previous academic and research achievements, this thesis will try to study "sincerity " and run through thread of all Li's life. It will seek to explore how it exists in thought of Li Zhi, how it reflects in his literary and critical articles? It is our hope to have a clear and comprehensive understanding on him from this perspective.The main body of this thesis is divided into three chapters.Chapter One illustrates the origin of the mind theory that produces Li's thoughts. No matter what his school experiences or his communication experiences withothers were, it is no doubt that he is influenced deeply by mind theory. This chapter is divided into four parts in order to probe into the tremendous influence Li Zhi received from YangMing Wang, Ji Wang, Gen Wang and RuFang Luo respectively.Chapter Two explains the thought of looking for the truth influenced by Li's mind theory. Li seldom mentioned the conception of "sincerity" though it was the most popular one at that time. In fact, according to Li Zhi's understanding, seeking Dao changes gradually from goodness to the sincerity of human nature, from respecting social groups to respecting individuals.Chapter Three elaborates on Li Zhi's literary thought of looking for the truth on the foundation of" mind theory ". Li Zhi, as a bedlamite influenced by mind theory, fights with the hypocritical literary world by the way of the characteristics of "sincerity" and introduces "sincerity" to literary criticism comprehensively, which makes the dismal literary circle take on a new look and marks the beginning of promoting true feelings and personality in literature of Ming Dynasty.