The Formation And Development Of Genre System In Middle Ages

Literary genre, whose progress draws the clues of literature context, is one of the core categories in literature study. As an ever flourishing period for literature, Chinese Middle Ages witnesses the maturing, forming and systematizing of genre theories. Among the numerous masterpieces during that time, Wen Xuan and Wen Xin Diao Long outstand as the most important ones, which show the evolution of genre theories in the background of Middle Ages.Compare to the genres in Collected Works of Ancient Times, Qing, Han, Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties, it is shown that Liu Xie selected most of the common genres from the Pre-Qin period to Jin Dynasty in his Wen Xin Diao Long, which means Liu Xie did take the popularity and essentiality into concern. On the other hand, Liu Xie also selected some less common genres to support his idea about classic literature, and to illustrate his own literary theory. Given the position of Wen Xin Diao Long as the writing orientation, Liu Xie placed more emphases on genres which could best explicate his own theory rather than to mirror the genre development and status quo.Referring to Wen Xuan, it is true that when selecting works, the editor Xiao Tong preferred articles with literary grace and recreational beauty, rather than popular generality or practical utility as a genre. In the meanwhile, he valued the combination of’quality’and’literariness’so that some works reaching this standard were also picked. The individual experience and social fashion affected Xiao Tong at the same time. Therefore, according to the literary sense and perception of Xiao Tong and people then, Wen Xuan, as a guide corpora of classic works for scholars’writing, has the ’Literariness’as its main choosing criterion. There are great overlaps between Wen Xuan and Collected Works, to some degree indicating the general genre concept in Middle Ages.Therefore, the total genres in Wen Xin Diao Long and Wen Xuan should mainly represent the significant ones in Middle Ages. By comparing with those in Wen Yuan Ying Hua and Song Wen Jian, the wax and wane of literary genres can be demonstrated clearly. In this process, as the genres were classified more and more explicitly and particularly, the ones with unique role and sufficient function remain, while the others with obscure bounds disappear. Thanks to the development of the society, there also emerge some new genres meeting scholars’ potential demands. What’s more, the Ancient Prose Movement in Tang and Song Dynasty, asking for the intrinsically essential integration of various genres, made a profound influence on the development of genres, by modifying them to fulfil the expressive requirement of people and starting some new temporizing ones as well.Genre stems from the categorizing process of literary function, character and purpose. As a result, whether a kind of genre can go beyond time depends not only on its unique communicating effect and satisfactory conveying sufficiency, but also on the objective and scientific criteria when setting a new genre. To sum up, the vicissitude history of genre is actually the history of adaption and adjustment by writers and their interaction with articles, aiming at chasing the ultimate goal of expressing human being itself.