A Discussion Of Liu Zongyuan's Fables

The fables created by Liu Zongyuan enable the final establishment of the fable as anindependent literary form in Chinese literature history. Viewing Liu Zongyuan's fables as awhole, this paper explores into the writer's personal feelings and emotions contained in thefables as well as his literary achievement in his creation of fables.The introduction of the paper reviews in a general sense the development of the fable inTang Dynasty to clarify the irreplaceable position of Liu Zongyuan's fables in the history offables in his era. The main body of the paper consists of three parts.The first part, which is the critical part of the paper, tries to illustrate the writer's feelings andemotions expressed in his fables, mostly of which were created during the period when hispolitical ideal of "supporting and assisting the emperor while considering and concerning forthe civilians" clashed with his solitary and "imprisoned" life style after he was demoted.Specifically, this part analyses his solitude in resentment, memory in melancholy andpatriotism in anxiety, as he expresses in the line "Never forget the sufferance of people". Thesecond part observes the artistic values and stylistic features of his fables from an aestheticperspective, mainly his creation of miscellaneous typical images, his employment of conflictsto develop the plots, as well as his serious, concise and penetrating style. Through acomparison with the fables written in the period prior to Qin Dynasty, the last part analysesLiu Zongyuan's literary achievement of being creative in fable writing and influential inChinese literature history. In terms of form, fables by Liu Zongyuan transcend the status offables as accessorial literature before Qin Dynasty when, in the form of storytelling andanalogy, fables were scattered among philosophical and historical essays. Thus Liu Zongyuanestablishes fables as an independent literary style that can be presented in a variety of genres.In terms of content, Liu Zongyuan transforms the content of fables from the politicalphilosophy before Qin Dynasty to the social satire in his age, which has far-reachinginfluence for the later development of fables.