A Study Of Kang Hai's Work

Kanghai was a famous litterateurs in the mid-period of Ming Dynasty, also the first principal graduate of Shanxi Province as well as one of the leaders of the contemporary literary circles. His poetry, prose , sangu (a verse for singing) and opera attracted very favorable criticism. Li Mengyang, He Jingming, Wang Tingxiang, Wang Jiusi, Wang Shimao, Li Kaixang and Zhao Shichun highly praised his works. But, owing to various reasons, his literary researches except Zhongshan Wolf were not paid enough attention to. The author of this paper, with the intention of studying local writers, has maden a careful study and reading of the works " Duishan Collection, Pandong Collection of Folk Songs and Ballads, Zhongshan Wolf and Wang lanqing, and, combining various local documents and related legends and collections, tried very hard to dig out new materials to make comparatively an overall discussion on his literary career and creation by way of a new method. The author also has maden a brief probe into some issues bound to the "former Seven talented Scholars".In the introduction part, the paper deals with the research history and status quo of Kang Hai. Chapter One mainly talks about the life, Starting from the literary criticism of "making comments on life by knowing people", the paper makes a study on his life in order to probe into his literary creative origins and personal traits.it further deals with his personal relations with the "former Seven talented Scholars" and Liu Jin, making sure if his official experience had any effects upon his literary career. Chapter Two deals with Kang Hai's literary ideas. Firstly, it makes an analysis of the differences between Kang's literary ideas and those of Li Dongyang and He Jingming, etc. Secondly, it expounds his attention to the ideological contents in literary creation to lay stress on his realistic theory that literary creation should be based on true feeling and ideas,. Chapter Three makes a detailed study of Kang's ideological contents and artistic achievements in his poetry. On the whole, he is cynical, caring for human sufferings, showing interest in pastoral life and individual internal experience. Obviously , his poetry has its distinctive characteristics: forthright, showy, profound, conceived, especially powerful and simple. Chapter Four deals with Kang's prose. His prose is in general pragmatic. Its internal spiritual nature is " direct and frank", Its writing techniques are: using words vigorously, irrefutable proof, distinct arrangement of ideas and good at integrating things discussed with reality; also he had a perfect command of using allusions directly to the point; he loved parallelism, rhetorical questions, exclamatory sentences, long sentences mixed with short ones. Chapter Five deals with his verse for singing. First of all, it is positive that Kang Hai was the first one to revive verse-writing for singing; then it expounds the three thematic tendencies in his writing: detesting the world and its ways, carefree in life, love songs. In the end, it probes into its artistic features: bold but plain, both hard and soft. Chapter Six deals with his two zaju (poetical drama set to music) Zhongshan Wolf and Wang Lanqing. First it makes a summary of the studies on Zhongshan Wolf; then a summary of the distinctive Guanzhong ( a place in Shanxi province) dialects in it, making a list of many dialects still in use to indirectly make sure the copyright. Lastly, it makes a dialectical analysis of the themes in the zaju Wang Lanqing, in which, who seeks for equality, self-esteem and self-respect. The author shows much criticism on society in this play. The rest of the paper deals with what place Kang Hai should take in the literary circle of Ming dynasty,...