A History of Literary Thought in the Song Dynasty (Revised Edition)

Author: Zhang Yi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
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 romantic novels during the Ming and Qing dynasties are all well-known examples. Behind these creative tendencies that became fashionable at the time, what common literary thought was dominating—this is the content that the history of literary thought should focus on studying. 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 more singular, while later on, it became more diverse, producing different literary schools within the same socio-economic and cultural background.