The Study And Classification Of The Fables In Liezi

Liezi School had been famous for its'value on Nihilism'in Pre-Qin Dynasty and had been referred many times in books, like LüShi Chun Qiu, Shizi and Zhuangzi. Due to the preservation and spread of Zhang Zhan, Liezi , as one important ancient works, basically remains and reflects the philosophical thoughts of Taoism. At the same time, this book is embedded with high aesthetic value, with allegories as its main body and discussional, explanatory letters as its assistance. However, the research on Liezi has taken its primary form on calibration and observation throughout history. And especially,"Dubiously Authenticated Theory"had been popular in Recent and Modern Times. These factors have greatly bounded the research on its ideology and content.Based on the facts above, this thesis tries to cast away'true and fake'controversy. Instead, it will base on the existent files, refers to the chronological calibration, takes the one-hundred fables as its intruding point and subject and finally assorts and analyzes those fables. Thus, the endowed ideology and content can be achieved. This thesis is made up of three parts: 1) Introduction. Firstly, this part states some relevant issues on the current research and value of Liezi fables in order to establish the investigative clues and methods. Then, this part compares and analyzes the relation between fables in Liezi and the other contemporary ones. Though this comparison, this part gets the conclusion that: although this issue is still disputable, the fables in this book have already taken the characters in Pre-Qin Dynasty, through which the category of the former can be assured. Then, according to the connotation of fables in the dynasty, this part assorts the ones in Liezi, altogether one hundred and one in number. 2) Philosophical part. This part summarizes and assorts these fables from the perspective of the Origin Theory, the Cognitive Theory, and the Experience, Practice of Dao. This leads to Dao as the origion of Liezi and"Ji"(幾),"Chi"(气) as its theory basis, which forms"Cosmogenesis". And the Dao cognitive theory, which reflects"Death-Living Thought","Value on Nihilism',"Dream-Awakeness Thought"and "Keep Accordant with the Destination Thought", is arrived. This theory takes Nihilism as its life criterion, pays much attention on the happiness of living and death, acquires man's mental telepathy on reality, holds the inner side of things and finally knows how to be in harmony with Nature. Then this part states how to experience and achieve Dao from the following view points: holding inside virtue, reflecting on the Inner and Outer, dealing with the later, opposing tricks, getting rid of personal enmity and other three ones. Lastly, this part explains how to use Dao to deal with the relations between persons, man and society, and man and nature. 3) Literary part. This part is analyzed in three perspectives: the themes of the fables, major characters and integrative aesthetic features. As for the themes of the fables, they are characterized for its extensiveness and variability, reflecting the social life in Pre-Qin Dynasty. This includes original science and technology, the arguments among Masters, the national polity and the social life. As for the molding of characters, this book is firstly known for its variability, like the sages and their followers in Ru and Dao, emperors, the officers and the common people. Especially the figures, like craftsman, kids, mythological figures, robbers and knight-errant, all have their own features. Secondly, it is known for its new definition on the major characters, many of which have been endowed with new significance. Confucius has his new identification as the representative of Dao; monarch becomes a pious cenobite; the common people are actually ones with skilled Dao. What's more, these fables have brilliant artistic literary features, like their romantic and fresh plot, mature narration, primitively simple and classical language and variable ways of molding. In a word, in the way of assortment, analyzes the objective value of Liezi fables on philosophy and literature.