Categories of Chinese Literary Theories in the Middle Ancient Age

By Furui Zhan

The book highlights the categories of Chinese literary theories in the Middle Ancient period, such as the mind and feeling theories, literary endowment, literary style, literary change, and trueness to the spirit, shedding new light on the ancient Chinese literature research.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Feb 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781504316668

Furui Zhan

Furui ZHAN (1953— ), the former director of the National Library of China and deputy director of the Academy of Chinese Ancient Literary Theories, currently presides over the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

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Copyright © 2018, 2019 Furui ZHAN.

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ISBN: 978-1-5043-1665-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1666-8 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 02/14/2019

Sponsored by Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences

(本书受中华社会科学基金资助)

Translated by

Yongliang HUANG

Shelie ZHANG

Qingchun DUAN

Lianmei ZHANG

Xiaoyu JING

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter I           Wen De, or the Virtue of Writing

1. Overview

2. Tracing the Origin of shi yan zhi, or "Poetry Speaks for

the Mind"

3. Han Confucian Scholars’ Views on the Book of Poetry and Poetry Speaks for the Mind

4. Shi yuan qing, or Poetry is derived from the feelings

5. Wen, "wen zhang" and "li", or Pattern, Literature and Ornateness

CHAPTER II     Wen Shu, or the Art of Writing

1. Overview

2. Interpretation of the General Art of Writing

3. From "xin you (Spiritual Traveling)" to "shen si (Miraculous Imagination)"

4. Comparison and Metaphor and Artistic Imagination

5. Four Tones and Eight Defects and the Consciousness of Prosody

CHAPTER III     Wen Ti, or the Literary Style

1. Overview

2. Qi: From Philosophy to Literature

3. Ti and xing, or Style and Personality

4. The Elegant Style and the Wind and Bone

5. Poetry in the Yongming Period and yin xiu (Concealed Beauty)

CHAPTER IV     Wen Bian, or the Literary Change

1. Overview

2. Interpretation of tong bian

3. Modeling on the Classics and tong bian (Changing According to the Times)

4. Evaluating the Songs of Chu and tong bian

5. Literary Novelty and the Unbridled Style

Supplement

Evolvement of the Theory of chuan shen, or Trueness to the Spirit

Appendix 1 Table of Contents in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons

Appendix 2 Glossary

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

1

The subject matters of study in this book are the categories of Chinese literature in the Middle Ancient period.

The Middle Ancient period is a variably defined span of time. Guo Shaoyu divides the Chinese literature into three periods—Far Ancient, Middle Ancient, and Near Ancient—in his A Critical History of the Chinese Literature, where the Middle Ancient period began from the Jian’an Years and ended with the Five Dynasties (191-959 AD). The historians commonly bracket the dynasties of Wei, Jin, Southern Dynasties, Northern Dynasties, Tang, and Song in the Middle Ancient Period, but sometimes it also includes the two Han dynasties. Liu Shipei argues in his A History of the Chinese Middle Ancient Literature that the Middle Ancient Period actually began from the last years of the Han Dynasty and ended with the Liang Dynasty. His opinion is adopted by other scholars like Wang Yao (1986: 4) who discusses in his A Critical History of the Middle Ancient Literature issues arising from the end of the Han Dynasty to the Liang and Chen dynasties, a period generally referred to as the Eight Dynasties in the past. The concept Middle Ancient as is employed in this book resembles the definition used by Liu Shipei and Wang Yao, which mainly refers to the period extending from the Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties¹.

Category originates from a term in philosophy, which is defined by the dialectical materialists as a form of mental activity reflecting the intrinsic relationship between objective things. It is commonly used to generalize the properties, attributes and relationships of the said things. When it is applied in literary theory, category refers to the generalization or reflection of the nature, property, and the intrinsic relationship of the literary issues proposed by writers and critics.

The literary theories in the Middle Ancient period experienced a process of shaping, development, maturity, and prosperity. They were intuitive prior to the Han Dynasty, became self-conscious during the Han Dynasty, and reached its peak in Wei, Jin, and Southern Dynasties, which were known as the Golden Age of literary criticism. A substantial number of concepts and categories were proposed in the period such as shi yan zhi, shi yuan qing, wen zhang, shen si, bi xing, ti xing, feng gu, yin xiu, and tong bian, which were all highly extensive in scope, covering almost every aspect in literature including nature, attribute, composition, form, technique, style and literary development.

Some concepts and categories—shi yan zhi, shi yuan qing, wen zhang, and bi xing, shi yan zhi, or poetry speaks for the mind—had been proposed prior to the Qin Dynasty and were further developed and perfected in the Middle Ancient period. They were regarded as the earliest guidelines in Chinese poetic criticism. The term was first introduced by the pre-Qin scholars and then perfected in the Han Dynasty. As it evolved, the term gained an ontological sense, its emotional connotation was clarified and its guiding principles of moral propriety and righteousness were discussed thoroughly. Although the concept was first proposed in the pre-Qin period, it was not established until the Han Dynasty. Comparatively, the concept of shi yuan qing, or poetry derives from the feelings, was never explicitly proposed and still less generalized as a literary category by the pre-Qin scholars. However, they did have a vague understanding of it as shown by the authors of Shi Jing, or the Book of Poetry and Chu Ci, or the Songs of Chu.

The concept was first developed in Mao’s Preface to Poetry, which emphasized the unity of the mind and the feeling. In the post-Han dynasties, it demonstrated the temperament exhibited by the literati and lyricism at the time. Due to its emphasis on individual feelings and neglection of moral propriety and righteousness, it became prevalent in the Six Dynasties. Bi xing, which corresponds roughly to comparison and metaphor and first appeared in the Offices of Spring in the Rites of Zhou, was also a pre-Qin invention. However, the term as was used in the Rites of Zhou seemed to refer to two different styles of poetry. As it evolved in the Middle Ancient times, the term began to refer to two different ways of expression and two artistic categories.

As could be seen from these concepts, theoretical categories of literature are products of historical development. They are both stable and volatile, and could be continuously replenished, improved, modified or renewed in the historical process to suit the development and changes of the times and literature.

It is quite natural, then, that in the Middle Ancient period, a series of new concepts or categories were proposed, such as shen si, ti xing, wen qi, feng gu, yin xiu, and tong bian. Take shen si for an example. The term was not mentioned in either the pre-Qin period or the Han Dynasty. The first person to employ the two characters of shen si was Cao Zhi in his poem To My Precious Sword. Hua He, an official of Wu, also used the same characters in A Plea to Grant Amnesty to Lou Xuan. In a later period, Liu Xie borrowed the concept to generalize artistic imagination, making it one of the most creative theoretical categories of literature in the Middle Ancient period.

To sum up, there are three stages in the development of theoretical categories of literature in the Middle Ancient period:

The first stage is the two Han dynasties. In this period, theorists still focused on the nature of literature and critics were zealous to discuss the social role, function and value of literature. Poetry speaks for the mind was still a major theoretical category to be supplemented and perfected.

In this period, the beauty of literature was revealed—albeit without further exploration as a result of the independent existence of the literati and the rise of a new literary genre fu, also known as rhymed prose. It is also useful to note the narrowing of the connotations of the concept of wen zhang, meaning bright and colorful writings. However, the intrinsic attributes and laws of literary composition had yet to enter the horizon of the critics. We might as well call this period the initial stage of conscious literature.

The second stage is the Wei and Jin Dynasties. This was a period when literary composition and criticism became completely conscious. The writers and critics had a new understanding of the nature of literature, which resulted in a new literary concept—shi yuan qing, or poetry is derived from the feelings—making it one of the two prevalent poetic theories.

The period also saw rising tides of literary composition known as Jian’an literature² and Zhengshi literature³, which were far-reaching in their influence. Accordingly, the inner laws of literature were also recognized and summarized. The division of literary genres and their requirements, artistic imagination in literary composition, the form and techniques of literary expression, and the relationship between the literary styles and the individual authors were all expounded in a crude fashion. Unfortunately, except for wen qi, no more theoretical concepts or categories was produced in this period.

The third stage falls between the Qi and Liang Dynasties. A chain of important works of literary criticism were composed in the period such as Liu Xie’s The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons and Zhong Rong’s Ranks of Poetry. The former was especially notable for its extensive coverage and exquisite thinking. It was also highly theoretical and systematic, making it a great monument in the history of the Chinese literature. Its publishing pushed literary criticism to its peak in the Middle Ancient period.

The inner and outer laws governing literature were summarized and analyzed on a full scale in this period. A large group of theoretic concepts and categories were proposed such as shen si, ti xing, feng gu, yin xiu and tong bian. The upsurge of such theoretical categories unmistakably marked the complete consciousness of literary composition and literary criticism. It also signaled a steep rise in the mental capacity for the then critics and theorists, who were capable of analyzing and inducing from diverse literary phenomena, and summarizing effectively the connotations of a theoretical concept that had extensive denotations.

2

The proposition and formation of a literary category is not an isolated mental phenomenon. Contemporary politics and social life can directly influence such process. Other factors such as philosophy, literature, and aesthetics can also have varied degrees of impact on it. Theoretical categories are mostly related to philosophy and literary composition. Therefore, emphasis must be laid on both subjects when studying the literary categories of the Middle Ancient period.

Category is a common form of logic in theoretical thinking. Any specific discipline of learning or science cannot exist without theoretical thinking or categories. The philosophical category, with its wider denotation, will ultimately influence the categories of the specific disciplines. It is quite natural that the proposition and formation of the Chinese literary theoretical categories in the Middle Ancient period are closely related to Chinese philosophy. First, some categories are directly borrowed from the Chinese philosophy. One distinguished example is wen qi, which was proposed by Cao Pi in his essay entitled A Discourse on Literature. The other is tong bian, which was proposed by Liu Xie in his The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons.

"Qi"⁴ (literally wind or air) is a typical Chinese theoretical category, which has wide denotations and is elusive in meaning. Different times would see different explanations of the term by different scholars. From the pre-Qin period throughout the two Han dynasties, qi slowly evolved to become the root of everything in the universe. Man’s personality was, therefore, determined by qi, too. Cao Pi borrowed the term qi, both the name and the substance, into literary criticism, trying to explain the root cause of the personality in literary composition and literary style.

Similarly, Liu Xie also borrowed the philosophical category, but he differed from Cao Pi in that he borrowed the name of tong bian from the Chinese philosophy then widened its sense to establish his literary theory.

"Tong bian" is first seen in the Commentary on I Ching (or the Book of Changes). Its literal meaning is to understand and change. The point is constant change, which is seen throughout the Book of Changes. Liu Xie employed the term to endorse his theory of literary change. However, he did not write about the changes. He absorbed the constant and the change from the Chinese philosophy in the wider scope so that the inheritance and change running through his The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons can be observed.

Second, the connotations of some literary categories are influenced or inspired by philosophy despite not borrowing the philosophical concepts directly.

The earliest theories on artistic imagination were first proposed by Lu Ji in his The Art of Writing and Liu Xie in his The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. It is obvious that Lu Ji’s coinage of xin you (literally roaming of the heart or spiritual traveling) and Liu Xie’s shen si (literally divine meditation or miraculous imagination) were not philosophical, but they were undoubtedly influenced by the metaphysical debates on speech and meaning in the Wei and Jin dynasties. The Art of Writing was inspired by his dejection at the incapability to match idea, object, and speech in literary composition. Lu Ji wanted to study the ways of heart’s roaming, to solve the contradiction between idea, object and speech, and to make the three match each other congruently. Liu Xie also dealt with the relations of the above-mentioned three in Chapter XXVI in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons:

[So] the mystery of imagination lies in the merging of the spirit with the physical world objects…. The world is comprehended through appearances; the mind responds with reason…. Ideas come from the mind; the choice of words is guided by ideas. Ideas and words can be so closely knit as to be in perfect harmony; they can fit so badly as to fall totally apart.

In his opinion, speech was determined by ideas, and ideas were determined by artistic conception, which in turn was derived from the interchange with the outside world. The key point in shen si is the same one as that of xin you: how ideas could express objects and how speech could express ideas.

The debate on speech and ideas was a favorite topic for the metaphysicists in the Wei and Jin dynasties. Could speech fully express a man’s ideas? The metaphysicists were divided into three groups. One group thought that speech could not fully express man’s ideas. Among other scholars, Xun Can, Jiang Ji, Zhong Hui, and Fu Gu upheld this viewpoint. They traced their viewpoint to the Commentary on the Book of Changes, which quotes:

Confucius said: Books cannot contain all the words, and the words in a book cannot contain all the ideas of the sage; Does it mean, however, that the sage’s ideas cannot be seen?

and to Zhuangzi, which carries the following in the chapter of The Way of Heaven: Books are nothings but words. Words are bound by ideas, which cannot be expressed by words. This school of opinion was the most prevalent and the most influential at the time.

The second group thought that when one got the idea, he would forget the words. They, too, resorted to the works of Zhuangzi, who said in the chapter of The Outside World that

What a person minds when he speaks is his ideas, but when he gets the idea, he would forget the words.

This opinion was further developed by Wang Bi (1980: 609), who thought that the function of phenomena or objects was to preserve ideas, just as the function of speech is to express phenomena:

Phenomena are the tools of ideas, while speech is the tool of phenomena, so that as long as the goal—to preserve ideas and express phenomena—is achieved, the tools will lose their meaning of existence. One cannot hold on to the tools and forget the purpose. (See Wang Bi’s A Concise Explanation with Examples of the Book of Changes).

The third group thought that speech could adequately fit with ideas. One of the supporters was Ouyang Jian, who held that there was an unalienable tie between the name and object, and speech and reason. Objects set in place by their names and reason became smooth by speech, which proves that speech could express ideas fully and completely.

The debates on speech and ideas by the metaphysicists from the Wei and Jin Dynasties had an evident impact on Lu Ji and Liu Xie’s theories of artistic imagination. It is not only reflected by the fact that their theories are founded on the trilateral relations between objects, ideas and speech, but also by their compromise between full expression and partial or lack of expression. Lu Ji, for example, remarked:

I always worry whether my ideas may fall short of their subjects, or whether form and content rhyme.

And Liu Xie also said:

[because] ideas, being intangible, rush in like a miracle; words, being concrete, cannot be easily made ingenious.

Both acknowledged that there was a difference between objects and imagination, and between language and the mind. However, they also tried to find the key to smooth imagination and overcome the contradiction between objects, ideas, and speech.

Here the influence of Ouyang Jian, who held that ideas and speech could match perfectly, can be easily felt.

The debates on speech and ideas were not the only philosophical issue that influenced the literary theories on artistic imagination in the Middle Ancient times. There were also other issues, such as Zhuangzi and Xunzi’s theories of the void and stillness, which exerted great influence on the literary theories. These will be illustrated in greater detail in the second chapter of this book.

In recent years studies on the literary theories of the ancient Chinese literature have laid much emphasis on the philosophical origin of the literary theoretical categories, but one important factor is neglected, that is, the existing condition of literary composition.

The subject of literary theories is literary phenomena with their core being literary composition, which, compared with philosophical categories, has a more direct and specific influence on literary theories. Many of the issues in ancient Chinese literary theories are induced or summarized from historical or contemporary literary phenomena, and are therefore founded on the practice of literary composition. As a result, the research of the Middle Ancient literary categories cannot circumvent the existence of literary composition.

In The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, Liu Xie proposed two important concepts, feng gu (wind and bone) and yin xiu (concealed beauty), which are concerned with image and style. The literary existence beneath the two concepts is that from the end of the Han Dynasty on to the Qi and Liang dynasties, Chinese poetry developed basically on a path extending from masculinity to femininity. Liu Xie commented on the poetry during the Jian’an era in his The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons this way:

A look at the works of the time shows that they were full of feeling. In an age of war and turmoil, when the world was corrupt and the people were discontented, poets pondered deeply and wrote with a poignant pen. Their works were spirited and impassioned (Chapter 45 Literature and the Times).

And in Chapter VI Illuminating Poetry, he said:

Generous of spirit and open in displaying talent, they cared not for ingenious minuteness in description, striving only for clarity in expression. These are their common characteristics.

To sum up the comments of Liu Xie, Jian’an literature had such features: the poems were sadly impassioned, substantial and forceful in emotion or consciousness. In diction and expression, they were direct, concise and fluent, and with distinct images. It is the style that Liu Xie respected and endorsed. This style of literary writing, in his opinion, was gained from the Confucian classics. It could be seen that the proposition of feng gu, or the literary backbone, was established on the actual conditions of two historical periods resembling in literary styles. One was a continuance of the literary tradition of the Confucian classics, and the other was the literary tradition of the Jian’an era appreciatively described by him.

However, poetry began to become pathetic, after the royal house of Sima were forced to flee south. When it reached the Yongming years in the Qi Dynasty, the literary style that permeated was a soft and gentle one that carried subtle meanings. Yin xiu, meaning literally concealed beauty, as proposed by Liu Xie, was closely related to the poetic style of the period. The characteristics of such style, like oblique expression, hidden emotion, and exceptional lines could be verified from the poems of the Yongming poets.

Besides, the proposition of shi yuan qing (literally, poetry is derived from feelings) by Lu Ji, the disclosure of brightness or colorfulness as a feature of literary writing, and the evolvement of the connotations of bi xing, were all based on the literary practice.

Philosophical categories and literary composition were not the only influence on the categories of literary theories. They, together with the political background, social tides, and lives of the literati, made up a particular field of culture and played a vital role in the formation of literary theories. The concept of feng gu, or the literary backbone, for example, originated in literary composition, which was related to the methodology of the metaphysicists and the simplistic lifestyle of the literati in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. In examining the literary categories of the Middle Ancient times, I shall put emphasis on the philosophical origins and literary composition to explore the reasons of their formation.

3

The literary categories of the Middle Ancient time are a sum of the laws of literature, which represent the understanding of literary phenomena at the time.

Such cognition is both universal and special. The rules of literature as summed up by the literary theoretical categories in the Middle Ancient time are mostly interlinked with the literary theories of the other peoples in the world and those of the Chinese people in other times. These include the role of social education, lyricism of literature, artistic imagination in literary composition, literary style and personalities of the authors, inheritance and originality in literary development, and others. They share many similarities with other literary theories.

In turn, these literary theories are the consequences of social and cultural background, literary existence, and the mindframe of the Chinese people, which marks them with distinct features:

1) Generalization

Philosophy blossomed in Wei, Jin, and the ensuing Six Dynasties, with metaphysics and Buddhism being the most prevalent schools of thought at the time. Compared with the Confucian scholars of the Han Dynasties, the metaphysicists at the time overtook empirical thinking and moved toward speculative thinking. The debates on being and nothing, on talent and nature, and on speech and meaning were all about issues independent from the empirical world. These philosophical propositions testified the height of theoretical thinking of the time. Buddhism, another school of thought that prevailed at the time, was introduced into China during the Eastern Han Dynasty and trended to mainstream during the Six Dynasties. Many of the well-educated society associated themselves with and were erudite in Buddhism. He Shangzhi, a scholar of the Song (Liu) Dynasty⁵, listed, in his reply to Liu Yilong, Emperor Wen of Song, dozens of the distinguished Buddhist adherents of the time, including the prime minister Wang Dao, and the late emperor Liu Yu. It showed that Buddhism had taken roots in the literary circle. When Prince Jingling of Qi built a royal mansion at the foot of Hill Jilong, many of the famous poets and writers were invited, among whom were the eight friends of Jingling. A lot of them were influenced by the Prince’s belief in Buddhism. Worship of Buddha was very popular at the time. When the Qi Dynasty was superseded by Liang, belief in Buddhism reached its peak. Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of Liang, was a devout follower of Buddhism, and naturally, the literary circle also became fanatic or even unctuous towards Buddhism. The literary critic Liu Xie, for example, entered the Buddhist Dinglin Temple twice, took part in the famous debates on spirit and flesh, later converted to Buddhism, and eventually died there in the temple.

The fundamental tenets of Buddhism consist of two closely related aspects: one is about the life of mankind, which explains the nature of the myriad of phenomena in life, and the other points out the ways of ridding the tribulations of life. The former is about the ideals of ethical religion and serves as the most fundamental part of the Buddhist tenets. The latter starts from man’s life and explores the relationship between man and the universe, seeking the truth of the universe and forming the world views of the inconstancy, first cause, and selflessness or voidness. They both serve as the philosophical foundation of the ideas of ethical religion (Fang Litian 1988: 117).

Buddhism is very rich in philosophical thinking, including how to interpret life and the universe. On one side, they are vivid, popular, and simple. On the other, they are abstract, obtuse, and analytic. When the literate class in Wei, Jin and the Six Dynasties accepted Buddhism, they were more open to its rational and analytic side (Sun Changwu 1988: 63). As a result, Buddhism and metaphysics chimed in readily, which helped the localization of the former and the enrichment of the latter. It is notable that the Buddhist analytic thinking conferred the scholars of the time power and depth in theoretical thinking, which directly impacted the establishment of the literary theories during this period. Take The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons for an example. Liu Xie set Tracing the Origin to the Dao as the first chapter, in which he explored and analyzed the origin and roots of literary writing. It showed his intention and courage in seeking the ultimate truth of things. As a result, the literary theory categories of this period were more generalized compared with those in the pre-Qin period and those in the Tang and Song (Zhao) dynasties.

For a start, the concepts were clearly defined and uniform in name and reality. The concepts in the ancient Chinese literary criticism were sometimes not definite. They might have different usages in different historical periods, and critics might employ them according to their own interest or convenience. This even occurred in the same historical period or when they were employed by the same critic. It was quite common that the name and the reality did not suit each other. Things changed for the better in the Middle Ancient period.

As an epitome of theoretical works of literary criticism of the period, The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons paid special attention to the unity of names and reality. Whenever Liu Xie introduced a concept, he would take pains to explain the name in the first place. For example, at the beginning of Chapter XXVI, he wrote,

An ancient said, My physical form is on the sea; my heart lingers in the court. This is shen si, or miraculous imagination, at work.

In Chapter XXVII, he wrote,

Each writer follows his own heart and the differences between one and another are as clear as different faces.

These explanations were mostly figurative, but nonetheless, they regulated the contents of the theoretical concepts. The concepts introduced by Liu Xie all served a specific theoretical purpose. When they were proposed, he had taken into full consideration the mass of existing literary issues, therefore they were well targeted and could solve the existing problems.

There were, indeed, some ambiguous concepts, which aroused different interpretations by the later generations. One case is the literary backbone, or feng gu, which literally means wind and bone. Some believe it refers to writing and diction, others think it is about style, while still others maintain that it is concerned with the principle of image creation. In my opinion, there are two reasons why the term leads people astray. One is the concept itself appears in a figurative form, and since images are equivocal, they may cause difficulties in understanding. The other one is when Liu Xie described feng gu, he had no knowledge of the modern literary category, while modern scholars habitually understand or define the term with a modern eye. The results, therefore, may be quite different from those of their forerunners. There are other concepts which may result in fewer or more misinterpretations than feng gu. The more a concept is misrepresented, the more we should look beyond the ancients, and take other factors into consideration, such as the historical background and subject of modern interpretation.

A second reason is the rich connotations of the concept. The literary theorists and critics of this period tended to trace the literary phenomena to their origin and examine many things in their discussion. For example, in discussing ti xing, or style and personality, Liu Xie related a series of issues that were associated with style and personality: a writer’s style and his personality, the differences between nature and nurture, the role of inborn qualities and acquired learning, the types of styles, and the changes in styles, etc. In Chapter XXIX, Tong Bian, Liu Xie discussed the relationship between inheritance and change in the development of literature, and suggested that the writers study current trends to renovate, to avoid aberration and to refer to established conventions.

In addition, Liu Xie also made a historical survey of the changes of literary styles in nine dynasties beginning from the Yellow Emperor and ending till the Song (Liu) Dynasty. He combed and outlined the literary course of decline from simplicity to aberration, while combining historical accounts and his comments.

In brief, the literary categories of the Middle Ancient period are clear in concept, rich in theoretical connotations, and capable of summing up assorted literary phenomena.

2) Reality

The propositions of the literary categories in the Middle Ancient period are clearly related to reality. This is reflected in two aspects: One is the previously explained precondition of literary concepts, that their preposition and formation is based in the solid foundation of litereay existence. The other is the targeting of literary categories. As the former has already been covered, the emphasis will be laid on the latter.

The discussions of the literary theorists were not vague and devoid of content; they proposed a question and then tried to solve it by combining theory and reality. The theory of wen qi, or literary wind, as proposed by Cao Pi though a figurative concept, was a metaphysical issue about the literary style and the author’s personality, which coincided with the problematic development of literature. It came to pass that when literature progressed to the Jian’an era, there was a trend that the literate class, represented by the Seven Learned Men (Kong Rong, Chen Lin, Wang Can, Xu Gan, Ruan Yu, Ying Yang, and Liu Zhen), began to rid themselves of political and moral bondages, and to pursue individualistic styles of writing (Cao Pi: A Discourse on Literature). However, the pursuit of individualistic styles posed two questions for the writers and the critics of the time. First, how did individualism in literary composition come into being? Second, how to overcome the notorious habit of scholars denouncing each other? Concerned with the two questions, Cao Pi put forward his theory of wen qi, attributing the writer’s personality or individuality to his natural endowment, and concluding that the writers should respect each other’s individuality, instead of despising and attacking the others’ disadvantage by virtue of his advantage. The proposition of wen qi, therefore, was visibly targeted at reality.

Among the literary theorists of the Middle Ancient period, Liu Xie was one who indulged more into metaphysical thinking. Despite his metaphysical tendencies, Liu Xie mostly targeted his theory and criticism at the issues in real existence in the development of literature. In Chapter XXVII Ti Xing, or Style and Personality he advanced elegancy as a model style. In Chapter XXIX Tong Bian he argued that one must take the Confucian classics as models. Erratic and superficial style of writing needed to be rectified. This will be discussed in detail in the following chapters.

4

The literary theorists of the Middle Ancient period created a substantial number of literary concepts and categories. I will not attempt to handle every one of them in this book. That would be a Herculean task. Instead, I will choose some of the most important and influential ones as the objects of explanation and analysis.

There are four chapters in this book—the Virtue of Writing, the Art of Writing, the Literary Style, and the Literary Changes—which fall roughly into four theoretical categories: the nature and characteristics of literature, literary composition, literary style, and literary development.

They are arranged according to historical and logical order. The logical order runs parallel to the historical development. In the history of Chinese literary theories, the earliest category to appear was the nature of literature. Poetry expresses the mind was the general guideline for the Chinese poetics. With the development of literature, its artistic characteristics were gradually recognized. For example, the bright or colorful nature of writing and the techniques of comparison and metaphor were discovered and analyzed in the Han dynasties. And then, the genres of writing came to be recognized by the writers and literary critics by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The theory of style originated in the Wei Dynasty and ripened in the Qi and Liang dynasties, when it was systematically analyzed. The knowledge of the literary styles could only be obtained after literary composition became a voluntary activity. That occurred in the Wei Dynasty and broughtforth the theory of literary style. The literary change occurred earlier, but they did not materialize as a literary category until the Six Dynasties—or the Qi and Liang dynasties, to be exact. The order of arrangement of the four chapters is observed to coincide with the historical reality of literary theoretical development.

At the beginning of each chapter, the origin, formation and development of the theoretical category in question will be outlined. This could be seen as a brief history of the category. Some basic facts which are relevant will also be included to facilitate better understanding.

Next, each of these concepts or categories will be analyzed in four subchapters, in which their connotations, contents, and significance will be discussed.

In the postscript of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, Liu Xie said:

If some of the ideas here coincide with past opinion, it does not mean that I have copied them but that they are irrefutable. If they differ, it does not mean that I deliberately set out to contradict past opinion but that I have no reason to accept them as true. Whether my views differ or not from other people has nothing to do with whether these people are ancients or moderns. My foremost concern is to combine close analysis with unbiased judgments.

It is evident that he was quite confident in his theoretical statements. My purpose for writing this book is to exchange opinions with fellow scholars and peers in the field. I am fully aware that these opinions of mine are far from perfect, so I am always open to criticism.

CHAPTER I

Wen De, or the Virtue of Writing

1. Overview

While the ancient Chinese had long taken cognizance of the nature of literature, it would be centuries before a system of theoretical categories was developed.

The earliest concept of the nature of literature, shi yan zhi, or literally poetry speaks for the mind, was traditionally attributed to the Canon