The Relation Between Analects, The Human World, Cosmic Wind And Lin Yutang's Theory Of Free Prose

The present thesis aims at illustrating the development of Lin Yutang's theory of free prose and his close relationship with the magazines like New Thread, Analects, The Human World and Cosmic Wind by conducting a systematic study on these magazines.The publication of the magazine New Thread in 1924 and the formation of the"New Thread"community created a unique"chatting"atmosphere in the"New Thread"period. The magazine and its style was the setting for the development of free prose. Lin Yutang joined the"New Thread"community and cultivated close friendship with Zhou Zuoren and Lu Xun. This had profound influence on Lin's promotion of humorous prose and his construction of free prose.With New Thread as the preclude, the magazine Analects came into existence. Analects not only inherited the pungent and humorous characteristics of New Thread, but also mingled with the social context and Lin's theory and interpretation. Though humor became popular at the time when Analects was well received, the humor embodied in Analects was not identical with that of Lin's. It was unavoidable that Analects published in it many farce essays and that many essays which were not humorous but revealed individual personality were not published. Therefore, Lin Yutang was determined to enlarge the scope of prose, not just restrained to humorous essays.After reading Shen Qiwu's Collection of Contemporary Essays, Lin felt that nothing was better than the prose of the Gong'an School in late Ming dynasty and being inspired by the free style of Gong'an School, he immediately wrote two Papers, in which he put forward his theory of free prose. His theory included not only the elements of"sincerity"and"individuality", but also one's own experience, that is"being understanding". From then on, Lin, based on the expressionist aesthetics and the free style of Gong'an School, began to move from humor to freedom.A. disputes over the scope of prose ,Lin not only enlarge the scope of prose ,but also put the free prose on the social life.B. disputes over the way to express one's expectations and feelings. Lin illustrated the individual characteristics by free prose.C. disputes caused by punctuations and publics language. Lin stated that the language for prose was modern Chinese.After The Human World stopped publication, Lin started another magazine, Cosmic Wind to promote pro-emotion literature, adding elements of"reason"and"wisdom"to free prose. This revealed the development and maturity of his literary theory. His free prose and his close relationship with the above four magazines constructed the theoretical system of his free prose, which embodied Lin's individualism and represented his personality.