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The Literature Theory of the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasty

The Pre-Qin Dynasty was the embryo period of the Chinese ancient literary theories, the origination of the literature theory appeared after the creation of characters, which was inseparable from the people’s understanding of literature, ideas and cultures, ethics and professional standards, as well as the social status of literature during that period of time when you come to learn Chinese in China.

The literature theories of that period enjoys the following characteristics, the first one to be introduced to people dreaming of coming to study Chinese in China is that the literature theories are mainly manifested in the discussions of the collective culture characters, the second one is that they bear intimate relationship with the philosophy, politics and ideology, thirdly, it was hard to separate the literary theories, the literary criticism, and the artistic philosophies.

At last, the scholars who are interested in Chinese literature and would like to study Mandarin in China may find out that although there was no direct literary theory during the Pre-Qin Dynasties, however, many literary theories of the later dynasties would be able to trace their roots from this period. During the Spring and Autumn period, the Confucius advocated the poetry education, which bears far-reaching influences upon the literary theories of the future generations.

It is noteworthy for friends longing to learn Chinese in China that the scholar Xun tzu had formed wise, lyrical and ambition-expressing literary viewpoints through the inheritance and development of the literary theories of Confucianism. In addition, the literati Lao tzu and Chuang tzu represents the Taoist literary viewpoints, which bears the most deep-going influences on the ancient literary theories. The literary theories of the Han Dynasty must also seem interesting for students longing to study Chinese in China, the scholars of the Han Dynasty uphold the Confucianism of “elegance and humbleness”, and had further formed the principal of adhering to the original theory.

It is agreed by foreigners who’d been to study Mandarin n China that the one who’d established the theory was Yangxiong(53A.D-18A.D), who’d pointed out that he aspirated at the inheritance of the Confucianism and took the doctrines of Taoism and Confucianism as the foundations, advocating the method of illustration with both pictures and accompanying essays.

It can be heard when you study Chinese in China that while Bangu and Sima Qian advocated the memoir way of writing in their literary works History of the Han Dynasty and the Shih Chi, maintaining that literary creation should reflect the reality authentically. The artists expecting to learn Chinese in China must be eager to know during the earlier stage of the Han Dynasty, the literary and artistic trends of thought were further deepened, typifying by Wangchong and Hengtan, with the former one advocating the unity of the true, the good, and the beautiful as well as the original creation and opposing the fabricated, retro-style., which theory had been fully illustrated in his Lun Heng. To the amazement of everyone preparing to study Chinese in China, during the Three Kingdoms Period, Caopi and his work Dianlun had represented the new characteristics of the literary thoughts of this period; Cao separated essays into four categories, namely “Ya”, “li”, “shi” and “li”, figuring out the famous thesis that the essays should take “qi(spirit)”as the mainstay.

As have had been expected by friends before coming to study Mandarin in China, the Wenfu of the West Jin Dynasty was the famous work in the history of Chinese critical literature, which had for the first time in history comprehensively investigated the basic theories on literature creation, and the theory of literature criticism of the Eastern Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties had been carried out following the literary style of Wenfu.

It is noteworthy when you study Mandarin in China that The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons done by Liuxie of the Southern Dynasty can be regarded as the most distinguished work in the Chinese literary theory theories, according to Liu, the Tao is the content of literature, and the essays are the form of expression of the literature. It must seem fantastic for the people when they learn Chinese in China that The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons had established complete theoretical system of literature from the aspects of conception, the artistic characteristics of literary characters, the forms and styles of literature, as well as the writing techniques, which had comprehensively reflected the national traditional of the Chinese ancient literary theories.

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