On Xun Zi's Literary And Artistic Thoughts

Xun Zi, as the last great thinker of the Pre-Qin Confucian School, has made great contributions to the formation and development of Chinese literary and artistic thinking. This paper endeavors to comb Xun Zi's literary thoughts in a relatively complete and systematic way, to explore their theoretical values and their influences on the formation and development of Chinese ancient literary criticism.The Introduction part mainly introduces Xun Zi's life and books, and the relationship among his thoughts on philosophy, aesthetic, literatures and arts. It also discusses the status quo of researches on Xun Zi's literary and artistic thoughts.The First Chapter discusses the relationship between Xun Zi's literary thoughts and the "Dao". It mainly explains the connotations of Xun Zi's "Dao" and its relationship with the "Dao" of Confucius and Mencius. Then, it gives a detailed analysis of Xun Zi's essence view on literature and arts which focuses on using poems to express philosophical principles.The Second Chapter expounds Xun Zis 's symbolic way of thinking. Starting from his "Dao", he adopts the symbolic way of thinking to view the nature and literature, which finally constitutes his literary and artistic symbol system.The Third Chapter discusses the relationship between literature and human nature, which starting from the theory that human beings are born evil presents the objective of literature and art in reforming human nature by using affections.The Fourth Chapter discusses the relationship between literature and society. Literature and art plays an important role in providing assistance to administering our country, improving production and coordinating the relationship among people.The Fifth Chapter discusses Xun Zi's theories on composition, appreciation and criticism of literature and art, form ways of thinking in composition, language requirements of the works, the conditions for subject and object in appreciation and the principles of criticism.The Sixth Chapter discusses the influences of Xun Zi's literary thoughts on later generations, which focuses on analyzing its influences on Yue Ji and Wen Xin Diao Long.