Historical Lineage. Daoist Lineage. Cultural Lineage: On the Transformation of Literary Concepts During the Tang and Song Periods

Author: Luo Ligang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: When it comes to the poetry of the ancients, we may not need to seek interpretations, but when it comes to the writings of the ancients, we absolutely cannot be careless, because the ancients never wrote carelessly. Even when holding a brush, they had profound meanings. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the writings of the ancients from the perspective of literary theory. The author has conducted a meticulous and thorough excavation of literary concepts throughout the ages, leaving no single word unexamined. This book is a work that explores the transformation of literary concepts during the Tang and Song dynasties. The transformation of literary concepts during the Tang and Song dynasties unfolded successively at three levels: the historical perspective, the philosophical perspective, and the literary perspective. The transformation of literary concepts accordingly went through three stages:
1. The period of the Sui Dynasty and the early to mid-Tang Dynasty, under the influence of the historical perspective, literary concepts were fixed as "the alternation of quality and refinement" through comparison with historical concepts.
2. From the mid-Tang Dynasty to the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, under the influence of the philosophical perspective, "quality" was interpreted as the Confucian "way," and the concept of "literature" also underwent a phased change. The distinction between "quality" and "refinement" transformed into the debate between "literature" and "way," ultimately leading to the separation of "literature" and "way."
3. From the mid-to-late Northern Song Dynasty to the end of the Song Dynasty, after stripping away the influence of history and philosophy, the intrinsic attributes of "literature" were fully revealed. External factors to "literature" were dissolved, the sense of the system of "literature" was continuously strengthened, and within the internal system of "literature," the concepts of "correctness" and "transformation" centered on literary genres became the main contradiction affecting literary concepts. Thus, the literary concept of "the alternation of quality and refinement" was ultimately replaced by the concept of "the correctness and transformation of literary genres," achieving a significant transformation in the literary concepts of ancient China. This book is a work that explores the transformation of literary concepts during the Tang and Song dynasties. The entire book is divided into three parts: literary concepts under the influence of the historical perspective, literary concepts under the influence of the philosophical perspective, and literary concepts under the influence of the literary perspective.