History of Chinese Medieval Poetry

Author: Wang Zhongling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: This historiography of literature for the first time combines aesthetics and literature to elaborate on the subject, and successfully revolutionizes research and writing methods. The principles of innovation include: history as the creation of theory, holism, establishing a scientific logical structure, and grasping the progression of literary history from the construction of national culture—psychological dynamics. Therefore, as stated in the book's "Epilogue," it is a work that "emphasizes the logical progression of poetry history's various stages from the development of national thinking, the evolution of social trends, changes in aesthetic tastes, and the construction of aesthetic psychology, in order to showcase our nation's four hundred-year spiritual history and focus on the elucidation of art philosophy." The book is divided into two volumes:
Volume 1, with five parts, elaborates on this period's literary movements from a high-level conceptual perspective: the evolution of aesthetic tastes from "beauty" () to "elegance" (); the replacement of the Han people's (prolific customs) with the minimalist style of (simplicity in learning), which gave rise to the aesthetic principle of "summarizing much in little" (); the realization of the "true beauty" () concept, forming three characteristics of medieval literature; and the tendency of literary development toward a new aesthetic ideal: "subtle elegance" ().
Volume 2, with seven parts, provides a detailed discussion of the development of poetry history from the Wei to the Sui dynasties, and explores the three logical elements inherent in some secondary conceptual starting points, as well as the expansion and progression of the three sets of contradictions they form, serving as the deep logical thread that permeates the entire process. On one hand, the book connects and integrates the development of national thinking, social cultural progress, and changes in literature itself through the mediation of the construction of aesthetic psychology. On the other hand, it links the highly abstract concept of logical elements with the concrete realities of poets and their works through specific historical processes. The author summarizes the literary development of the Wei, Western Jin, Eastern Jin, Southern Dynasties, Northern Dynasties, and Sui periods in four processes: the rise and fall of literati culture and mystical discourse, the vulgarization of style, and the integration of the northern and southern schools. All poets discussed in the medieval period are comprehensively integrated into these four processes, each occupying a specific position. As a result, the entire book solidifies into a highly rigorous and cohesive whole, completely transforming the fragmented, isolated, and (lacking coherence) research approach. It avoids both impoverished historical determinism and blind randomness.