Zhu Xi's Theory Of Poetry

Zhu xi is another great thinker and educationist after Confucius in China. He bought Neo-Confucianism to its highest development by the synthesis of all earlier Confucian ideologies. With this Collected Commentaries on the "Four Books" being taken as criteria of imperial examinations, zhu Xi's ideology also became the official one. In later respecting- scholar thought of trend, his Neo- Confucian ideology was strengthened and its influence on his poem creation was exaggerated. It was even said that his poems were equal to his Neo- Confucian works, which, no doubt, is not scientific. Reading his 1412 pieces of poems, I find his poems are varied in content. A few poems with pure theory only amassed in 100 pieces of Xun Meng Jue Ju. Except that, his poems describe the beautiful scenery in nature, concern current affairs and farm work and praise the deep friendship. By the means of comparison, this thesis tries to tap the talent power of Zhu Xi's poems and to return his poems to their original shape and reappear the objective relation between his poem's and his Neo- Confucian ideology.The foreword includes the simple introduction to Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucian ideology, his poems creation and the current research situation.The main body is constituted of two parts. In the first part, I classify Zhu Xi's poems into four kinds according to content: poems about natural scenery, poems about affairs in life, poems about Neo- Confucianism and poems about friendship. Comparing Zhu Xi's poem's to those of earlier Neo-Confucians, I put emphases on Zhu Xi's development to the achievement that had and the new unique realm he created, For example, he extended poems about natural scenery and created the poems about current affairs. The second part discusses artistic features of Zhu Xi's poems. Generally speaking it is delicate and natural, which displays on three aspects: (1) the subject comes from everyday life and the poetical images extend to heart, (2) The poetical mode is delicate (3) the language is simple and unadorned.The last part summarize the whole work: Zhu Xi's poems have well ideological contend and artistical quality. So his poems should have a part in the poetical history of Song Dynasty.