Liu Yuxi's Theory Of Article

As one of the unnoticed litterateur of "the ancient prose movement", Liu Yuxi also has his own opinion on ancient Chinese article theory as well as his outstanding achievement of composition. Maybe these views are not as systematic as HanYu's, but they are the thoughts with depth and high level, and have some creations and breakthroughs on certain problems. This thesis tries to study his ancient article theory, in order to clarify its skeleton and deep meanings.The thesis consists of four parts, except one introduction at the beginning. The preface briefly introduces Liu Yuxi's life, the circulation of his collection, the research on Liu Yuxi in academy since the last Century; especially review the achievement of the research on Liu Yuxi's theory of article. And then points out the train of thought and methods for this thesis, and the problem researched.Part one: By talking about the view of the article in Tang Dynasty and before, we may come to the conclusion that all styles were called article at the beginning, the change of view caused by the separation between"Wen"and"Bi"formed in the Southern Dynasties was intermitted. Then, the separation between poetry and"Wen"became the tendency again, the poem pays attention to the art character, and the"Wen"returns to the period when classic, collection of essays, history were not separated. At the same time, we should also know that this is a long and slow process, and not a simple repeat, but a dialectically development.Part two: Expatiating on Liu Yuxi's poetics and the natural connotative style formed from this theory. Hence, we must refer to Liu Yuxi's"Jing coming from the exterior of Xiang"first in this part. Liu Yuxi was the first people who put forward"Jing coming from the exterior of Xiang"and related"Jing"with"Xiang", which was a pioneering viewpoint. He contributed himself to clearly putting forward that integrating meaning with"Xiang"is the process of artistic thinking. Although the theory of artistic conception was not first put forward by Liu Yuxi, this theory has been improved by him, which directly enlightened Sikong Tu's"exceeding the image, grasping the core"and"image out of images""feeling out of the taste""meaning out of the rhyme", Yan Yu's"sound in the air, spirit on the face, moon in the water, object in the mirror"in the Song Dynasty, Wang Shizhen's theory of romantic charm in the Qing Dynasty and Wang Guowei's theory of meaning. In the next place, Liu Yuxi's concept of Zhong Tao and poetry exactly reflect the thinking character of mid-Tang, and besides, it affects apparently on poetry in Song Dynasty. Hence, Liu Yuxi's poetics and poetry play a connecting role between the preceding and the following in the process of conversion between Tang and Song. Finally, Liu Yuxi's article displays a unique natural style under the guidance of the theory of"Jing coming from the exterior of Xiang"and"void-quietness produce poetry".Part three: Analyzing Liu Yuxi's utilitarianism of article. Liu Yuxi's theory of article was very different from that of Han Yu's and Liu Zongyuan's. It was obvious in the theories of"keeping up with the changing times"and"changing with the political metamorphosis". Furthermore, we can find that utilitarianism was Liu Yuxi's purpose of composition. Composing from the sense anxiety and the spirit of concerning with realities was the trend of departure of composition in mid-Tang. From this major background, Liu Yuxi's theory of article and most of his articles reflected this character.Part four: Starting with Liu Yuxi's viewpoint of Zhong Tao, we will interpret the cause of Liu Yuxi's theory of article. Liu Yuxi's viewpoint of Zhong Tao played a very important role in his composition. Elegiac address of Han Yu:"you are good at prose and I am good at disputing","disputation"heavily rely on the way of Zhong Tao thinking. Liu Yuxi's viewpoint of Zhong Tao also influenced his ancient and modern literary theory. Liu Yuxi's concept of Zhong Tao object embody the way of moderate thinking if we review carefully the process of his discussion; Concept of paying attention to the well-being of the masses was an important part of Liu Yuxi's theory of article; Liu Yuxi also applied the theory of Zhong Tao to comment on other's article.This is the basic structure of this thesis, followed by the context.