On The Acceptance Of "Canglang Poetry" In The Ming Dynasty

Cang Lang Discourse on Poetry is one of the classic works in the history of Chinese literary criticism. In later Southern Song Dynasty, YAN Yu wrote Poetry Characteristics, Poetry Styles, Poetry Approaches, Poetry Appraisal and Poetry Textual Criticism these five chapters, recalling the ideal poetic model in Tang Dynasty. These five parts were compiled into one book during the Ming Dynasty as a tendency towards respecting the ancients, idolizing the Tang poets. Ming poetic theorists received Cang Lang Discourse on Poetry and reacted to it by creating their own poetry criticism. The process of finding these records of reception is to interpret YAN Yu’s poetics and to systemize the Ming poetry criticism. This research focuses on typical theorists’reception during early, middle and late Ming literary periods, inspecting the theories they received or denied, analyzing the strategies they hold, as to outline the change and development of Ming Poetics.The introduction part explains the value and feasibility of this research. Firstly, Cang Lang Discourse on Poetry itself is controversial and profound, and needs to be defined in the modern time. Ming Poetics kept wonderful records of reception, appraisal and explanation on Cang Lang Discourse on Poetry, while these records need to be categorized according to the reception difference, to be explained in their contribution to the development of Ming Poetics.The first part contains chapter one and two. Chapter one shows the current research situation of YAN Yu and his work, followed by the research methods of this thesis. Chapter two discusses the background of YAN Yu’s theory, shows its criticism against Song poems and defines important concepts as "Considering Poetry as Zen (yi chan yu shi)","Poetic Pleasure (xingqu)","Intuitive Enlightenment (miaowu)", and "Modeling High Tang Poems (yi shengtang wei fa)".The second part consists of chapter three to six, analyzing representative poetic reception in the sequence of early, middle and late periods of Ming Dynasty, and categorizing the positive and negative attitude toward YAN Yu’s theory. Chapter three analyzes YAN Yu’s reception situation among ten theorists of early Ming, who were separated into two groups by their attitude toward YAN Yu’s respecting Tang while belittling Song. Most of them agreed with YAN Yu, while only few wanted to support Song poems. Chapter four lists fifteen middle period theorists, whose remarks tend to amend or backwash YAN’s theory. Positive and negative receptions are almost equal. Positive reception focuses on restoring ancient poetics, respecting to High Tang poems, poetic styles, emotions, pleasures and enlightenment, while negative receivers ask attention for Song poems to widen the study approach, demand personality not imitation. In late Ming period, there are seven theorists showing different reception styles. Some of them focused on poets’"Natural Disposition and Intelligence (xingling)" derived from YAN Yu’s theory, some cared "Poetic Styles (gediao)" while adding poet’s disposition and poetic charm into it, some only pursue "Poetic Charm (shenyun)" without style limits, and others even totally deny YAN Yu’s theory by against concepts like "Modeling High Tang Poems","Intuitive Enlightenment" and "Considering Poetry as Zen".Chapter six draws conclusion of Ming reception of Cang Lang Discourse on Poetry. Firstly, the general survey of three periods in Ming Dynasty shows that respecting Tang poems is the main trend, while different theorists held different reception attitude toward YAN Yu’s High Tang standard. Most early theorists support YAN Yu in admiring Tang while belittling Song, representing the hope of literature prosperity in early Ming. Theorists in middle Ming are separated equally in groups of supporting or belittling Song poems, and want to have their own voice in front of YAN’s theory. During the late Ming period, theorists tend to amend, misinterpret or even oppose YAN Yu’s remarks, as a reflection of the complicated social situation. After that, the research summarizes all theorists’ attitude toward concepts like "Considering Poetry as Zen","Intuitive Enlightenment","Poetic Pleasure" and "Modeling High Tang Poems", etc. In this way, the reception situation of YAN Yu’s main concepts is restored, and the relationship between Ming Poetics and Cang Lang Discourse on Poetry is clearly explained. Lastly, it shows that there are still some points need to be deepened in the further research.