Between Text and History: Exploring the Meaning Generation Model of Ancient Chinese Poetics

Author: Li Chunqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: This book attempts to explore the deep cultural logic behind the formation of ancient Chinese poetics concepts. The complex relationship between the utopian ideals of the ancient scholar class and social-political power is one of the main factors determining the fundamental value orientation of ancient Chinese poetics, especially Confucian poetics. For the ancient Chinese scholars, any spiritual pursuit that could not be realized in real life could be achieved in the world of poetics or aesthetics. To trace the process of this poetics concept replacing social-political ideals, the book briefly discusses the interactive relationships between poetics and the study of the Son, classics, metaphysics, and Taoism at the academic level. Additionally, it analyzes the meanings and historical evolution of several important poetics categories such as "literature" and "Dao," "affection" and "intention," and "nature" and "beauty," striving to reveal the meaning-generating model of the consistent poetics of ancient China from three levels: poetics concepts, poetics categories, and literary practices.