THESIS
2005
Abstract
Xu Xueyi's The Source of Poetry and Difference of Style (Shiyuan bianti) can be said to represent an important work that brought the "archaizing" poetic theory to a new height in the late Ming Dynasty, but it did not arouse the attention of the poets at that time. Due to the re-issuing of Shiyuan bianti in recent years, more and more scholars have started to do research on it. However, most of them focused on the part of differentiating styles (bianti) but missed the part of source of poetry (shiyuan). Therefore, they failed to fully understand the poetic theory of Shiyuan bianti, the combination of affections (qing) and the differentiation of styles....[
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Xu Xueyi's The Source of Poetry and Difference of Style (Shiyuan bianti) can be said to represent an important work that brought the "archaizing" poetic theory to a new height in the late Ming Dynasty, but it did not arouse the attention of the poets at that time. Due to the re-issuing of Shiyuan bianti in recent years, more and more scholars have started to do research on it. However, most of them focused on the part of differentiating styles (bianti) but missed the part of source of poetry (shiyuan). Therefore, they failed to fully understand the poetic theory of Shiyuan bianti, the combination of affections (qing) and the differentiation of styles.
The first chapter of this thesis discusses the background of Xu Xueyi, versions of Shiyuan bianti and the major directions of recent researches on Xu Xueyi's Shiyuan bianti. The second chapter, based on the discussion of how Classic of Poetry (Shijing) becomes the source of poetry, concludes that affection is the starting point of poetic development of Classic of Poetry and it can be considered from two perspectives, the "equilibrium of affection" and the "genuineness of affection''. The third chapter analyzes the relationship between the notion of affection in Classic of Poetry and the development of poetry in China up to the Ming dynasty. Starting from Lyrics of Chu (Chuci) of the Pre-Qin era and going through the Han-Wei, Six Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, the thesis discusses how Xu uses the relationship between poetry and affection to differentiate the characteristics of the poetry of each periods. The fourth chapter analyzes the relationship between Shiyuan bianti and other prevailing poetic theories in the Ming Dynasty, concluding that Xu Xueyi's ideas about affection and its differentiation of styles is a response to what was seen in the Ming Dynasty poetry and poetic critical theory, especially the shortcomings of the "archaizing" school. The fifth chapter concludes the whole thesis, illustrating how Xu Xueyi's poetic development of affection reflects his inheritance of the ideas of the "archaizing" school as well as the innovations he has introduced to it.
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