On The Poetic Development Of Chuangtzu

The poetic development of Chuangtzu is an important phenomenon of Chinese poetics. Its inner logic aims at explaining the activities of poem creation from the perspective of Chuangtzu. It highlights the metaphysical feature of poems and enriches the connotations of Chinese classic poetics which inherits its mature form from Confucius thoughts. In view of the importance of this phenomenon, the present study intends to investigate this poetic development from the ideological perspective. This thesis firstly gives a review of the inner logic contained in Laotzu and Chuangtzu from the aspect of the relationship between the world and the poet. Based on this, the present author then examines the metaphysical quality of poems. Finally, taking Su Shi’s poetics as an instance, the present author conducts a preliminary study of the poetic development of Chuangtzu in the chronological order.This phenomenon originates from Chuangtzu’s "simulating Tao with craft". Stimulated by the metaphysic thoughts, the idea of "simulating poems with Tao" began to emerge since the periods of Wei and Jin. Seen from the aspect of subordination, the former idea dominates Tao over craft and uses craft to interpret Tao. Its purpose is to verify Tao with craft, and to include craft characterized of metaphysics into Tao. The later idea, however, emphasizes the self-contenting essence of poem creation, and is characterized by the form of dominating poetic craft over Tao and expounding poems with Tao. The emphasis is put on explaining the interaction between the poet and the world from the perspective of Chuangtzu. It is characterized by the Gongfu Theory (transforming from "emptiness and tranquillity" to "a state of intuitive meditation") and the Realm Theory ("observing objects with Tao"). This is an account of poem creation on the basis of Chuangtzu’s idea of "devine king". But due to the failure in explaining the interaction between the poet and his or her poems in terms of "reification" from the perspective of Chuangtzu, the idea of "simulating poems with Tao" was still in the forming stage. This idea did not become mature until Su Shi formed his conception of "appreciating craft with Tao" based on his thought of "composing the shape according to thing" and further developed the Gongfu Theory and the Realm Theory, and completely elaborated the relationships between the poet and his or her poems as well as the relationships between the poems and their readers. At that time the poetic development of Chuangtzu finally gained its mature form.