Fang Hui's Theory On Formalism

Fang Hui, a poet who lived in the Yuan Dynasty of China, had investigated the poetry of the Six Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty elaborately. Based on going to root of Chinese poetry and comparing with the traditional Confucian poetics, he commented that poems should follow the example of "Jiangxi Poetry School", and advocated the parlance of "one founder and three ancestors". He had appreciated classic poetry from the literary style and had thought highly of "Jiangxi Poetry Style". Moreover, he commented on the culture of poets, and appreciated the wide breadth of vision. Under the direction of lineal Confucian poetics, Fang Hui not only pursued the skills of poetizing, but also laid stress on the formalisim.The organization of the thesis is as follow:The first chapter of this thesis makes a retrospect to the development of Chinese poetry and the birth of Jiangxi Poetry School. What should be noticed is that the pursuit of aesthetic form is an inborn characteristic of traditional Chinese poetry while much attention was paid to the ethic and moralization;Chapter two and chapter three which is the main body of the thesis, discuss Fang Hui's theory of formalism comments as a whole. Chapter two discusses the formalism literature theory start with the theory of syntax, couplet, shining focus of poetry, word exacting and function word. Fang Hui held that syntax is an independent family, the value of poetry is precious for the distingue inspirit, and stress should be put on the function words exacting, and word, sentence, chapter and rhythm should coordinate with each other in formality. Chapter three analyzes Fang Hui's theory of formalism comments from the angles of the layout and rhythm of poetry. Fang Hui is expert at recherche transfixion and connecting of verses, the pursuit of mellow rhythm while obdurate usage appears occasionally;In chapter four, a comparison is made between Chinese comments and Hesperian comments on exterior form. It illuminates the historic status and practical significance of Fang Hui's comments on exterior form. It not only produces profound effect on the development of poetics theory of later ages, but also provides a viewpoint of comparative comparison of literature commend of China and that of the West, which may be referred in the current literature comments nowadays.