On Wang Anshi's Scholarship On The Changes And The Poetry

This dissertation mainly focuses on three main questions,the ideological origin of Wang Anshi`s theory of Changes,his thought of theory of Changes and its influence on his poetic ideas.The first point of this dissertation is to verify the ideological origin of Wang Anshi`s theory of Changes,including his theory of Word from Wang's family,his teachers,the social and academic background,his circle of friends and acquaintances and other aspects.Surrounded by the “Tao”,Wang Anshi established the Tao of the Heaven which is composed of Tao,the five elements and all things orderly and the Tao of Human which consists of the saints and kings,five things and all people in the world.Based on this,Wang Anshi debated on the variance of Humanity and Sensibility.Wang said that essences of all things in the world are given by the Tao with almost no effort.We can't evaluate the essences by good and evil.In addition,Wang Anshi respected saints highly.The saints teach the way of heaven,change the law and cultivate themselves.They play the role of communication between heaven and man.Wang Anshi`s theory of “Tao” and “humanity” reflects the rationality,harmony,peace and no mystery.It developed the Heaven-Worship of Confucianism.Besides,It is the development of Confucian rationalism and the embodiment of the spirit of the Song and Ming dynasties.Wang`s poetic ideas is to take the relationship between "Tao" and "Literature" as the center.He thought we should respect Tao,not just the Confucian ethics.The creations of saints in literature is to be compliant with Tao,so they are classics.Tao,Human and literature form an organic whole.Literature arts have double values in pragmatism and aesthetics.When you write poems,you pay attention to not only form but also its spirit.If you grasp the underlying spirit of the thing,then you could express it perfectly in your poems.Additionally,the unsuccessful scholars always placed their ideals and emotions in their work in order to interfere practical livelihood by carrier of scripts.