On Liu Xie's Learning Thoughts In Book Of Poetry

Carving a Dragon at the Core of Literature, written by Liu Xie during Qi Liang Period in Nan Dynasty, is the most important work in the criticism history of China ancient literature. It pays high attention to the Book of Poetry which is the first poem anthology in China literature history, while it contains almost all the literature works in and before Song Qi Period in Nan Dynasty. Of the 50 articles in this book, 22 clearly mentioned the Book of Poetry; plus other citations unclear, there are totally 35 articles and over 80 points comprehensively commenting on the Book of Poetry. The incisive thoughts of Liu Xie on the Book of Poetry have great influence on the evolution of aftertime poem theories, as well as the spread and research on the Book of Poetry. Undoubtedly, the achievement of Liu Xie in criticizing the Book of Poetry is valuable heritage of literature criticism. With the development of research on book Carving a Dragon at the Core of Literature, Scholars gradually published some papers concerning Liu Xie's criticism on the Book of Poetry. However, the research is still superficial. In this case, this paper will go deep in this way.This paper includes four parts in regard to the research on Liu Xie's learning thoughts in the Book of Poetry. The first part researches the origin of Liu Xie's thoughts in criticizing the Book of Poetry. Liu Xie thoroughly summarized the abundant experience of literature creation and literature criticism from Qin Dynasty to Song Qi Period of Nan Dynasty; the book Carving a Dragon at the Core of Literature was written on the basis of the summarization. Similarly, Liu Xie's criticism on the Book of Poetry also absorbed the achievements of other ancient scholars like Confucius, Mencius and other culture celebrities from Qin Dynasty to Song Qi Period in Nan Dynasty. Therefore, we cannot clearly grasp the whole system of Liu Xie's thoughts in criticizing the Book of Poetry until we understand the origin of it. Part two researches on the contradiction between Liu Xie's standpoint of splitting the difference and the appreciation and criticism of literature when studying the Book of Poetry. On one hand, Liu Xie thoroughly absorbed the achievements of other ancient scholars in studying the Book of Poetry, focusing on moralization in politics and ethics; on the other hand, he also emphasized the literature value and appreciation value of the Book of Poetry at the height of consciousness in literature. Part three studies the signification of the true-life genius in the Book of Poetry confirmed by Liu Xie. In Liu Xie's viewpoint, writing with sufficient affection also features largely in the Book of Poetry. This paper also looks at how Liu Xie commented on the artistic characteristics and achievements in the Book of Poetry. Firstly, he summarized the analog and association techniques used in the Book of Poetry and fundamentally established the theory system which is of ethical characteristics. Secondly, combining the writing features of the Book of Poetry, Liu Xie pointed out that literature should not only be gorgeous but also be elegant which has great positive effect on the healthy development of literature.