Tang And Song Literary Thought Study

This paper is an attempt to analyze the evolution, the system and the value of the literary concepts of the Tang-Song school(唐宋派) based on the study of their theories and works.The first chapter reviews the backgrounds, the motives of the initiators and the time indicators to give an overall account of the formation of the concepts"Wen Yi Ming Dao"(writing for Dao/文以明道) and"Shi Fa Tang Song"(learning from the rules of the Tang and the Song dynasties/师法唐宋) and expounds the connotation of former proposed by Wang Shenzhong(王慎中). It intends to point out the complexity and compatibility of Wang's concept and its founding role for the Tang-Song school.The second chapter discusses contradictory ideas on the relationship between literature and Dao by Tang Shunzhi(唐顺之) and his creation of the theory"Ben Se Lun"(writing for what it is/本色论) under the influence of mentalistic philosophy of the Yangming school. It attempts to explore the inherence of Tang's academic and literary thoughts, the differences between the original connotation and the theoretical values of"Ben Se Lun", and the striking pulling force posed by the differences.The third chapter elaborates the major development stage of the literary concepts of the Tong-Song school by probing Mao Kun's(茅坤) mind on Tang's literary concepts, the concrete meaning of"Shi Fa Tang Song"and the course of its evolvement. It indicates the apparent misplacement of Tang Kun when he accepted Tang's thoughts and comments on the key role he played in giving priority to literature over Dao.The fourth chapter discusses the relationship between Gui Youguang (归有光)and the Tong-Song school. It analyzes the impact of the philosophy of the Yangming school on him and points out the special contribution he made to the literary concepts of the Tang-Song school by comparing his ideas with those of the above- mentioned people, namely, Wang, Tang and Mao.The conclusion part summarizes the paper's overall view and comments from the perspective of history and the angle of the origins of thoughts.This paper basically holds that the literary concepts of the Tang-Song school witnessed a gradual evolution, unfolding its multifacetedness during the process and correspondingly, the works by this school gradually show a transformation from highlighting Dao(道) to prioritizing literature. The Tang- Song school thus facilitated...