Outline of the History of Science and Arts

Author: General Xu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-01-01
Features: This book is a comprehensive monograph on the relationship between Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism and ancient Chinese literature and art. In the history of Chinese thought and culture, Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism undoubtedly holds a unique and important position. Since the late Southern Song Dynasty, it was revered as the official philosophy and became the ruling ideology of feudal society in China's late medieval period. As a major turning point and transformation in the structure and connotation of ancient Chinese thought and culture, Neo-Confucianism had a significant, even dominant, influence on the evolution and transformation of overall social trends and specific ideologies. This influence was particularly complex in the field of literature and art. Various literary and artistic genres either accepted Neo-Confucianism through intuitive resonance or intertwined with it through collision, though to varying degrees and in different ways, yet all clearly shaped their essential characteristics and forms as a result. This book analyzes the nature and evolution of Neo-Confucianism, explains its historical inevitability, and explores the mechanisms connecting it to literature and art, using the development of intellectual history as the vertical axis and the social psychology of the Song-Ming era as the horizontal axis. The main research focuses on the relationship between Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism and literature and art, including the nature, form, and evolution of the history of literature and art within the Neo-Confucian atmosphere, the reflection and complex manifestations of the development, evolution, and disintegration of Neo-Confucianism in the field of literature and art, and other related issues. It emphasizes the grasp of the nature, connotation, and developmental trajectory of literary and artistic genres such as poetry, ci poetry, classical prose, fiction, drama, and painting during the late medieval period, exploring the varying degrees and ways in which these genres are connected to Neo-Confucianism. Both specific discussions and macro-level integration are employed, aiming to reveal the deeper essence and manifestations of the relationship between Neo-Confucianism and ancient literature and art in a comprehensive and profound manner. Therefore, this book not only delves into the intellectual historical roots of the formation and evolution of the literary and artistic history of China's late medieval period but also expands the study of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism to the field of literature and art, demonstrating new approaches to the study of intellectual cultural history and literary and artistic history through the integration of different disciplines. The book utilizes a wealth of original materials from intellectual history and literary and artistic history, striving for depth in the discussion and avoiding superficiality. It further aims to develop a macroscopic perspective, elevating the topic to a theoretical level and avoiding one-sided generalizations.