Wu Cheng's Neo-Confucian thought and literature

Author: Wang Sumei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: This book is a result of interdisciplinary research on the philosophical thought and literature of Wu Cheng, a renowned scholar of the Yuan Dynasty. The author employs a method that aligns history with logic, placing Wu Cheng at the intersection of the Southern Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty. The research strictly starts from primary sources. The book is divided into three parts: the upper part explores Wu Cheng's philosophical thought, the middle part examines the convergence of his philosophical and literary ideas, and the lower part discusses literary creations influenced by his philosophical thought. The book follows three main threads: the convergence of Zhu Xi and Lu Ji as the central and explicit thread, his theoretical thinking as the implicit thread, and the influence of Confucianism's development since the Pre-Qin period on Wu Cheng as the auxiliary thread. These threads progress together, elaborating in detail how Wu Cheng derived and constructed his own theoretical system based on the convergence of Zhu Xi and Lu Ji's philosophical ideas, proposing several new theoretical propositions. For example: the convergence of valuing virtue and seeking knowledge, the convergence of simplicity and precision, and the epistemological view of pursuing substance and abandoning emptiness. The migration of Wu Cheng's new philosophical perspectives to literary theory significantly enriched and developed ancient Chinese literary theory. In his philosophical thought, he advocated for "cultivating emotions" in morality, while in literary theory, he promoted the concepts of nature and emotion, particularly the propositions of "the authenticity of emotion" and "naturalness," which paved the way for the Xingling theory of the Ming Dynasty. His theory of qi greatly expanded and enriched the concept of qi in ancient Chinese culture, making it a comprehensive summary of ancient Chinese literary theory and the theory of qi. Wu Cheng's idea of the unity of literary principle and literary art, which is both distinct yet integrated, proposed new propositions for the literature of Confucian scholars and literary scholars. Wu Cheng also developed the idea of literary transformation since Liu Xie, proposing the new proposition of "literature not being in harmony with the times." This paper focuses on demonstrating the basis, content, and impact of these new propositions. The lower part reveals the influence of Wu Cheng's philosophical thought on literary creation, introducing the characteristics of his prose and poetry, and deeply exploring the cultural connotations in his poetry.