Ye Shi’s Ideas Of Neo-confucianism And Literature Thoughts

YeShi is a master of Yongjia School, he inherits a thought of Xue Jixuan, Chen Fu Liang,and he helps to develop the Yongjia School from the shapeless one to a system of thoughtwhich can even makes Zhu Xi worried. YeShi not only carries forward the academic ideologyof Yongjia School, but also actively participates in literary creation and literary activities,gaining the reputation of “man who masters the great achievement of this dynasty”. YeShican be described as a politician, a scholar as well as an author. His thought is also a complexorganism. Different ideas in his system collide and integrate with each other.In this paper, it chooses the relationship between philosophy and literary thought ofYeShi as the main research topic. Firstly, it analyzes the doubt that YeShi questioned aboutthe Neo–Confucianist inheriting "Taoism" of Confucianism. On this basis, Yeshi inherits“Taoism” of the Confucian orthodoxy. He has laid a foundation of academic which focus onhumanistic pragmatism. He participates in the activities of literary creation and the theoryclaim in the process of writing article with the identity of Yongjia School scholar. He putsforward his unique insights into the relationship of Literary logic, forms the concept of"combine Zhou Cheng and Ou Su cleft ", and forms the literary thought of “writing is usefulto the treatment and education” as well as the composition principle of “if writing has norelation to the education, all the work will be useless.”Secondly, it discusses the materialist view of Ye shi’s. These ideas form the basis ofUtilitarianism of Zhe dong-school. He thinks Tao exists in the reality of the matter. Heunderstands the world with the dialectical concept of development, and criticizes theliterature from perspective of the dialectic development. According to the Neo–Confucianist’s idea of "the tend respected for the Old-style Poetry", he proposes thedeveloping literature view of "respect for both the Old-style and the modernism". Hisdeveloping literature view has the outstanding performance in the guide and support of"YongjiaSiling" in the late Southern Song.Thirdly, it has explored Ye Shi’s ideology of unification of morality and utility, showinghis literary criticism viewpoint of “equal emphasis on both moral education and artisticexpression”.External world is the expression of the moral education of poetry. The externalworld and the moral education of poetry need to be unified. The moral education of poetryneeds to combine with social utilitarian life. This is the unification of virtue and utility whichYe Shi advocates. The unification of virtue and utility reflects that within the literary criticism.It means not only improving of internal virtue should be taken care of but also the artisticexpression of poetry.“Equal emphasis on both moral education and artistic expression” is Ye Shi’s literary criticism viewpoint. At this guidance of literary concept Ye Shi forms his poeticideal followed the style of late Tang Dynast.Finally, it has explained YeShi’s ideological characteristics of “Zhong-he”and his plainpursuit of literary creation. Characteristics of YeShi’s ideology of “Zhong-he” affect hisaesthetic pursuit. He pursues “the style of Zhong-he” with highest aesthetic standard in ourtraditional society. It shows that he fully agrees on the poem teaching concept of“BeingTender, Honest and Sincere” during his literary creation and criticism. The spiritualconnotation of “Zhong-he” is very rich. The literators’ literary pursuit is the concreteexpression of “Zhong-he”.As a thinker and a writer of Nan dynasty, YeShi’s ideology is a huge treasury. The studyof his academic ideology and literature ideology can not only inject vitality and energy intotraditional concept but also expand new field for literature research and criticism. Under theprofound literature background, pluralistically and comprehensively investigating theacademic ideology and literature ideology of a great man is a feasible way especially at thebackground of studying the developing academic across the fields and subjects.