On The Poetry And Prose Of Cao-lu School

This dissertation is a study on the poetry and prose of Cao-lu School. Cao-lu School was headed by Wu Cheng, one of the most famous Confucianists in Yuan Dynasty, therefore, it has been simply regarded as a Confucianist School. Nevertheless, many members of this school were famous writers in Yuan Dynasty. However, few studies were on the literature achievement of this school except a very small number of papers on several members of this school such as Wu Cheng, Yu Ji, and Su Tianjue. This study attemptet to depict the literary impact of Cao-lu School in Yuan Dynasty based on the research of extensive literature works."Introduction" described previous studies on the literary achievement of Cao-lu School, including the relationship between Confucianism and literature, the origin of the name of Cao-lu School, and the methodology of school studies. It showed the lack of literary study of this School and explained the reason of this research as well.Chapter Ⅰ,"The mentality of Cao-lu members in the centralized world", was composed of three sections, i.e. the implementation of traditional Han governance style and the position of Confucianists; the popularity of education to remote areas; the coexistence of ideologies and cultures. Besides, it analyzed the impact of social situation on the literary creation of Cao-lu School.Chapter Ⅱ,"Cao-lu School and the literary trends in Yuan Dynasty", included five sections. Section One generally introduced the literature of Yuan Dynasty so as to show the social environment that Cao-lu School was facing. Section Two introduced the size and characteristics of Cao-lu School. Section Three consolidated a great number of prefaces and postscripts of Cao-lu members and summarized three key literary theories of the School, i.e."Li-Qi and the integrity of literature and Dao","Temperament-emotion and natural poetry writing techniques","Knowledge, experience, talent, temperament and’ nectar brewing method’". Section Four explored the relationship between Cao-lu School and the three main literary trends in Yuan Dynasty, i.e. continuation of "Song style", following "Tang style", imitation of "Qin-Han style". It also introduced the argument on literary styles between Yuan Mingshan and Yu Ji. Section Five described the pilot role of Cao-lu School in leading the "Literary Trend of a Prosperous Society" during the middle period of Yuan Dynasty through the introduction of the courtiers’literary trend.Chapter III,’The studies of the poetry and prose of the key members of Cao-lu School. It included six sections, which introduced the poetry and prose as well as their characteristics of six key members, i.e. Wu Chen, Yuan Mingshan, Yu Ji, Chen Lv, Gong Shitai, and Su Tianjue.