On Reconstructing "Yijing" Of Classical Chinese Poetry In English--From Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Yijing, also known as aesthetic conception, is the core concept of traditional Chinese aesthetics, and therefore is in the central place of poetry composition and appreciation. Its origin and aesthetic features are deeply rooted in Buddhism and Taoism, but its artistic structure, which consists of object, image, stage and perception, are not totally absent in Western philosophies and aesthetic values. This means, yijing as a traditional Chinese aesthetic value, could be reconstructed in English.The uniqueness of this thesis is to give an elaborate explanation on yijing and study its reconstruction in the English language, which most studies of classical Chinese poetry only compacted into one chapter.The thesis starts with the origin and development of yijing, from ancient times to Wang Guowei's (王国维)comprehensive illustration. Some of the similar Western philosophies are brought up for comparison, partly to stress the uniqueness of yijing, partly to demonstrate that the concept of yijing is not totally absent in the West, so the reconstruction is not impossible.Reception Aesthetic, which generated from Germany in the 1960s, bears some similarities with yijing. It advocates the triangle relations among author, text and the reader, but it gives particular attention to the reader, who it claims is the essential part in literary works. The reader fills the gaps and indeterminacies in a literary work with his own understanding, thus carrying out the communication with the author. Yijing has two kinds, one is implicit, in which the poet clearly expressed his ideas; the other is explicit, in which the poet refrained to give his opinions. The latter, in fact, has invited reader's active participation. It is safe to say that only with the reader's participation could Yijing be complete.Based on the above understanding, the possibilities of reconstruction of yijing is composed of two parts. On one hand, the objective conditionings, namely the language disparities and the differences between Chinese and English poems have impeded a thorough reconstruction. On the other hand, translator could exercise his subjectivity by using methods such as imitation, recast, rewrite, and the like. Meanwhile he will keep the imagination room as well as appropriate aesthetic distance for the TL reader.