Liu Zong-yuan's Ancient Prose Theory Research

As one of the great master of"the ancient prose movement", apart from the outstanding creation of prose, Liu Zong-yuan also has his own unique insight in ancient chinese prose theory. Maybe these views are not as systematic as HanYu's, but they are the thoughts with depth and high level, and there are some originality and breakthrough on certain problems. So the thesis tries to do study on his ancient prose theroy, in order to clarify its train and deep meanings.The thesis consists of four parts.The first part tries to introduce LiuZong-yuan's"Tao". After"the Revolt of An and Shi", LiuZong-yuan witnessed the suffering of people in his childhood, so he received the thought of school"the new Spring and Autumn Annals"when he was an adult. The school devaluates"Zhuo Zhuan", commends"GongYang Zhuan"and"Gu Giang Zhuan", and tries to explain"Zhuan"from the Confucianism classics. They do not take the facts and exposition seriously, but attache importance to their own explanation, intend to give impact on the reality. Based on these, LiuZong-yuan forms his"Tao of DaZhong". LiuZong-yuan's"Tao"values people's willing, also tries to contact realistic existence. ( The main part of LiuZong-yuan's thought is Confucianism,but it mixes the Buddhism and the individual theory, so his ancient prose theory is also complex.) LiuZong-yuan proposes"article can interpret Tao", besides this, the"Tao"also means the feather of poem and articles, so LiuZong-yuan sees the difference between poem and article clearly.The second part introduces LiuZong-yuan's view of prose."article can interpret Tao"as the slogan of"the ancient prose movement"fits for the reform of society at that time, because the movement connectes with the intellectuals'desire closely, who want to revitalize the Tang empire and revive Confucianism.