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文心雕龙 The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons - Writing the book on lit crit
February 3, 2013, Sunday
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DATING from the 6th century, "Wenxin Diaolong" or "The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons," was the first systematic work of literary criticism in China, and has long been the country's premier treatise on aesthetics.
The masterpiece has been hailed by Chinese scholars and researchers as a book of literary criticism with the "greatest precision" in China's history.
Its author, Liu Xie (AD 465-520), was a writer and literary critic during the Southern Dynasties period (AD 420-589). To escape the battles raging throughout their home province of Shandong, Liu's parents came to Zhenjiang, in today's Jiangsu Province in east China, where Liu was born.
However, his parents died before the boy reached the age of eight. After that, he had to survive on subsidies from a Buddhist temple and lived there for more than 10 years.
Liu was a very bright child who loved reading books, including Confucian classics. With the help of the temple monks, Liu also became well-versed in Buddhist classics. Therefore, it is little wonder that almost all his writings, including his greatest work "Wenxin Diaolong," show clear influences from both Confucianism and Buddhism.
According to records, although Liu once served as a county magistrate and then in some other minor offices in the government, he remained honest and upright and never accumulated personal wealth. Liu endured tough circumstances for much of his life and never married.
He retired young and moved into Dinglin Monastery in the eastern suburbs of today's Nanjing City in east China where, at the age of 32, he concentrated on writing "Wenxin Diaolong."
Liu made use of the rich collection of books in the monastery, assiduously studying treatises and literature on many subjects. It took about five years for him to complete his great work.
Containing more than 37,000 characters, the book is divided into two parts, each with 25 chapters. It focuses on four subjects: the author's general views about literature and his discourses on literary styles, creation and criticism.
The first part of the book contains Liu's descriptions and criticism of more than 30 different literary styles used at his time and before. These include Sao (the elegant poetry of the South), Shi (lyric poetry), Fu (rhapsody), Song (odes), Ming (inscriptions), Shizhuan (history), Lun (treatises), Biao (memorial), Zou (presentation), Zhao (edict) and Shu (letters).
The author devoted 20 chapters in the second part to studying step by step the process of literary creation, such as composition and choice of style, expressions, wording, metaphor and hyperbole. He wrote another four chapters discussing the history of literature and literary criticism and appreciation. These 24 chapters have long been regarded as the gist of the whole book. In the text, Liu also discussed his aesthetic concepts, based largely on Confucianism and other concepts about literature and literary creation. He even wrote a chapter on the relations among objects, the heart (feelings) and verbal expressions.
While many people had claimed that objects could spark feelings in one's heart, Liu believed that the heart could in turn manipulate and sublimate objects, and that the verbal expressions in literary creation could play a bridge in the interaction between objects and human feelings.
Liu also criticized the formalism in vogue at his time and stressed that forms of writing must serve the purpose of expressing the writer's feelings and ideas, even though the ultimate goal is to pursue excellence in both content and language.
Liu's "Wenxin Diaolong" greatly influenced the evolution of Chinese literature for more than 1,500 years. Even today, his many concepts and ideas are still followed by Chinese writers and scholars.
The masterpiece has been hailed by Chinese scholars and researchers as a book of literary criticism with the "greatest precision" in China's history.
Its author, Liu Xie (AD 465-520), was a writer and literary critic during the Southern Dynasties period (AD 420-589). To escape the battles raging throughout their home province of Shandong, Liu's parents came to Zhenjiang, in today's Jiangsu Province in east China, where Liu was born.
However, his parents died before the boy reached the age of eight. After that, he had to survive on subsidies from a Buddhist temple and lived there for more than 10 years.
Liu was a very bright child who loved reading books, including Confucian classics. With the help of the temple monks, Liu also became well-versed in Buddhist classics. Therefore, it is little wonder that almost all his writings, including his greatest work "Wenxin Diaolong," show clear influences from both Confucianism and Buddhism.
According to records, although Liu once served as a county magistrate and then in some other minor offices in the government, he remained honest and upright and never accumulated personal wealth. Liu endured tough circumstances for much of his life and never married.
He retired young and moved into Dinglin Monastery in the eastern suburbs of today's Nanjing City in east China where, at the age of 32, he concentrated on writing "Wenxin Diaolong."
Liu made use of the rich collection of books in the monastery, assiduously studying treatises and literature on many subjects. It took about five years for him to complete his great work.
Containing more than 37,000 characters, the book is divided into two parts, each with 25 chapters. It focuses on four subjects: the author's general views about literature and his discourses on literary styles, creation and criticism.
The first part of the book contains Liu's descriptions and criticism of more than 30 different literary styles used at his time and before. These include Sao (the elegant poetry of the South), Shi (lyric poetry), Fu (rhapsody), Song (odes), Ming (inscriptions), Shizhuan (history), Lun (treatises), Biao (memorial), Zou (presentation), Zhao (edict) and Shu (letters).
The author devoted 20 chapters in the second part to studying step by step the process of literary creation, such as composition and choice of style, expressions, wording, metaphor and hyperbole. He wrote another four chapters discussing the history of literature and literary criticism and appreciation. These 24 chapters have long been regarded as the gist of the whole book. In the text, Liu also discussed his aesthetic concepts, based largely on Confucianism and other concepts about literature and literary creation. He even wrote a chapter on the relations among objects, the heart (feelings) and verbal expressions.
While many people had claimed that objects could spark feelings in one's heart, Liu believed that the heart could in turn manipulate and sublimate objects, and that the verbal expressions in literary creation could play a bridge in the interaction between objects and human feelings.
Liu also criticized the formalism in vogue at his time and stressed that forms of writing must serve the purpose of expressing the writer's feelings and ideas, even though the ultimate goal is to pursue excellence in both content and language.
Liu's "Wenxin Diaolong" greatly influenced the evolution of Chinese literature for more than 1,500 years. Even today, his many concepts and ideas are still followed by Chinese writers and scholars.
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