History of Literary Thought in the Song Dynasty (General History of Literary Thought in China)

Author: Zhang Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-02-17
Features: The history of literary thought should not only study the literary ideas of individuals but also the trends of literary thought. Sometimes, a literary thought tendency becomes an unstoppable force, driving the development of literature in a particular period. There are countless examples in history. The Jian'an period, where literature expressed personal emotions and pursued a strong style, became a fashionable trend; the courtly poetry style of the Liang and Chen dynasties; the retro fashion in the poetic circles of the Tang and Song dynasties; and the craze for talent-and-beauty novels during the Ming and Qing dynasties are all well-known examples. Behind these creative tendencies that became fashionable trends, what common literary thought was dominating? This is the key focus of the history of literary thought. Literary thought should not only study the literary thought trends that shaped an era but also the literary ideas of different literary schools. In the history of Chinese literary thought, we can observe a very interesting phenomenon: in the early stages of literary development, the development of literary thought tended to be relatively singular, while later on, it became more pluralistic, producing different literary schools within the same socio-economic and cultural background.