A Study Of The Development Of Gong' An School And Its Disposition Theory

Gong'an School is an important literary school in late Ming Dynasty advocating disposition theory in opposition to the Seven-person School's claim of returning to the ancient. The Xing-ling Theory held by Gong'an School has been regarded as one of the influential research objects in the study of literary theories of Ming Dynasty. The theory bears significant influence on the literary theories prevailing late Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty and even May 4th period, and has been considered the theoretical base from which disposition theory literary school developed and changed afterwards. Therefore it has much significance in Chinese literary critic history. Hence the academic importance of studying Gong'an School's Disposition Theory.Much research work has been made on the literary theories of Gong'an School, especially the Disposition Theory, the core of the school. Yet there is still much to be clarified and discussed despite the systemic research work. This thesis intends to clear up the development of Gong'an School and its Disposition Theory, and to argue four questions.The analysis of the thesis is made mainly from the following four aspects.First, the necessity and peculiarity of Gong'an School's appearance. The thesis holds that its necessity lies in that Gong'an School appeared under the natural law of literature's development, i.e. Chinese literary history is characterized with an alternative appearance of two streams, with one suggesting that literature should be used for the benefits of the society and the other for the expressing of personal feelings. Advocating that the trend of returning to the ancient must be removed in literary field, Gong'an School seemed surely to appear and thrive. And its peculiarity can be found in the Disposition Theory, which was put forward by Yuan Hong-dao, the key figure of the school, influenced by the unique literary and social practice of Wuzhong.Second, the discussion of Gong'an School's Disposition Theory. In this part, the ideological origins and the content of the Disposition Theory are analyzed.The first to be discussed is the ideological origins of Gong'an School's Disposition Theory. Based on Guo Shao-yu's theory of three ideological origins of Gong'an School, namely ideological field, operatic field and poetic field, the writer of the thesis makes some thorough analysis on the operatic and poetic fields, on which little research work...