Confucian Scholars and Poetic Education (A Study on Pre-Qin Confucian Literary Thought)

Author: Yu Zhihui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: This book systematically organizes Confucian linguistic thought and poetic education thought. With ample material evidence and meticulous textual analysis, it demonstrates that Confucian literary thought is, in fact, literary talent and educational thought. In other words, the ontology and theory of poetry are, in fact, the cultural and pedagogical aspects of poetry. This paradigm shift is of great significance, as it allows for a renewed understanding of the origins of Chinese poetics, its major traditions, and a series of related issues. The book discusses pre-Qin Confucian literary thought, focusing on its linguistic and poetic dimensions. Beyond briefly covering what has already been elaborated, it is based on the following understanding: the expressions of Confucian scholars like Confucius and Mencius on linguistic issues relativelyly reflect their literary thought, and these expressions have become recurring topics in later Chinese literary theory, even serving as guiding and principal propositions. When discussing their poetic thought, the book takes the study of poetry in the Spring and Autumn period as its background, because in the author's view, this study serves as both the theoretical context for understanding these propositions and is also close to the original essence, as well as an important part of their literary thought. Moreover, Confucian poetic thought, fundamentally speaking, resonates with the poetic wisdom and cultural spirit of our nation since the Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods.