Research On Critical Imagery Of "Hibiscus Rising Out Of Water" In The Southern Dynasty

Critical imagery refers to a"fully expressed image"conveying certain literary ideas or critical views in image criticism.As one of the most representative criticism methods in ancient literary criticism in China,image criticism has always been the focus of academic research.In contrast,the research field of critical imagery is relatively deserted.To this end,this paper studies the critical imagery of'hibiscus rising out of water"in the Northern and Southern Dynasties,expecting to open a new research category for the ancient Chinese literary theory by initially exploring the generation of this classical critical image."Hibiscus rising out of water"is one of the most influential critical imagery.It was proposed by poet monk Liu Tang Huixiu in Liu Song Dynasty,and became distinguished after being quoted in Grades of Poetry by Zhong Rong.After the variant imagery development of"branch water produces the Lotus"in Tang Dynasty and"autumn lotus"in Song Dynasty,it gradually evolved into the reference to Xie Lingyun's poems and special image metaphor with pure and natural style.Meantime,"hibiscus rising out of water"represents"natural beauty"contrastive with"artificial beauty"represented by"gorgeously wrought",and it has also been one of the most important research hotspots in Chinese aesthetics field.Moreover,this imagery shows great vitality in the fields in addition to literary criticism,and is widely used as a common idiom.This paper consists of three chapters.The introduction defines"critical imagery of hibiscus rising out of water"and reviews the current research status.Particularly,the introduction part proposes"six elements of image criticism",namely,the world,critics,critical objects,meanings,critical imagery and readers.The six elements form the whole process of image criticism in the interaction,which is the theoretical basis of research on critical imagery in this paper.Chapter One Forming Background of Critical Imagery"Hibiscus Rising out of Water"mainly analyzes the"inherent meaning"between"hibiscus rising out of water"critical imagery and critical objects under the background of the Southern Dynasties:How the two aesthetic concepts"nature and"beauty"have been formed under the influence of multiple factors,such as the combination of metaphysics and Buddhism,literati aesthetics and individual lyricism.Meantime,by summarizing the diachronic change of"hibiscus rising out of water"in literary works,it is concluded that the imagery hibiscus contains the natural and bright beauty,and images feminine beauty and noble and unsullied gentlemen.Moreover,under the influence of Buddhist thought,it has the new connotation of "being unsullied from mud".In Chapter Two Establishment of Critical Imagery"Hibiscus Rising out of Water "in the Northern Dynasty,it is confirmed that the critical imagery"hibiscus rising out of water"proposed by Tang Huixiu was proposed before the critical imagery"lotus just in bloom"by diachronic text analysis.The etymological analysis indicates that it is a product under the influence of Buddhist culture.In terms of the specific generation process of critical imagery"hibiscus rising out of water",the critical imagery was actually introduced into the Buddhist concept by critic Tang Huixiu to praise Xie Lingyun's poems free from convention and demote Yang Yanzhi's colourfully and dazzlingly embellished poems.Zhong Rong as a reader decoded the"natural"and"bright"beauty contained in critical imagery"hibiscus rising out of water",which reflects Zhong Rong's praise of Xie Lingyun's poems.Moreover,"hibiscus rising out of water"as a critical imagery,its meaning generates the poetic characteristics by the intervention of readers as the subject.This paper mainly has two innovation points.Firstly,the development and transition of imagery"hibiscus rising out of water"before the Five Tang Dynasties from the diachronic perspective by reviewing the relevant literature,so as to solve the questions in literature history,such as sequential order of "hibiscus rising out of water"and"lotus just in bloom".Secondly,by deconstructing"the six elements of image criticism",the actual general process of critical imagery"hibiscus rising out of water"and the respective role of each element in the process are clarified.