Shuie’s Literary Thoughts From The Perspective Of Neo-Confucianism

Shi Jie(A.D.1005-1045)was an important pioneer of Neo-Confucianism in the early Northern Song Dynasty.He was known as the "Three Gentlemen in the Early Song Dynasty" together with Hu Yuan and Sun Fu."Three Messrs.in the Early Song Dynasty" not only opened the revolutionary thoughts of Confucianism in the Song Dynasty,but also played an extremely important role in the ancient prose movement in the early Song Dynasty.Based on the social and historical background of Shi Jie’s time,this paper makes a thorough analysis of Shi Jie’s collected works by using the method of the fineness of original Canon,and classifies his literary thoughts into a more systematic system.Shi Jie’s literary thought is roughly composed of three aspects: one is the literary axiology based on the Confucian social function orientation,the other is the literary creation theory that emphasizes elegance and integrity,and the third is the literary criticism that demands "urbanity" and conforms to the content and form.The axiology is the starting point of Shi Jie’s literary thought.Shi Jie demands that all literary creation must take the Confucian Canon and Confucian ethics as the core,and the concept of Taoism,namely the way of Confucius and the way of the former saints,is the foundation of literary conception.Since Confucianism is the idea,it will be tainted with the use of governing the world,so the article should be "straight cut at that time" without scruple.The formation of creation theory is inseparable from Shi Jie’s understanding of "sincerity","nature","qi" and other noumenon categories of Neo-Confucianism.He required that people should first achieve "sincerity" and appreciate the way of heaven and earth in writing articles,and then create "to the medium to the right" articles on the basis of a deep understanding of Confucian concepts.Criticism is standing on the premise that the content and form of the article are related to each other,requiring the article to be "Zong Jing" and "Zheng Sheng",learning the writing rules of the saints,so as to make the article concise and elegant and pure.Of course,Shi Jie’s literary thought is not out of thin air,he also has its model to imitate.As the leader of the ancient prose movement in the tang dynasty,Han Yu first advocated "the system of literature" and "the system of Taoism",and his efforts to change the current situation of the tang dynasty in which the Taoism lost the system of literature provided reference for Shi Jie to change the style of literature based on Confucianism and Taoism.The early Song Dynasty was also faced with the status quo of the disappearance of ancient prose.Liu Kai and Mu Xiu pointed out two different routes for the ancient prose movement in the early Song Dynasty by following the ancient road and ancient prose.Shi Jie developed his theory of "Taoism" and "Wentong" on the basis of his predecessors,but due to his own fanaticism of advocating Confucianism and Taoism,the idea of Wentao went to extremes.The formation of Shi Jie’s literary thought has its specific social,economic and cultural factors,and is closely related to his personality.The way of sages is Shi Jie’s inevitable pursuit,and the only criterion for his literary creation is to write literature that is complementary to the way of sages.