Towards A Theoretical Synthesis: A Research On James J.Y. Liu's Poetics Criticism

As an interlingual critic, James J. Y. Liu, who had a thorough knowledge of both western and traditional Chinese theories, devoted himself to interpreting classical Chinese poetics theories as well as towards a Sino-Western synthesis, with the ultimate goal of establishing universal poetics theories which transcends the dividing line between the two schools of thought.This thesis is divided into five parts. The introduction is a brief interpretation of James J. Y. Liu's life experience, which reveals the unique academic background of this critic who lingered between two different kinds of lansigns. The first chapter attaches importance to Chinese characters as well as cultural concepts. His discussion about the character quality, characteristics of lyric poetic language and major concepts which were concerning the spiritual level of the poets proved to be of great use in correcting the long-existing misunderstanding about Chinese poem in western literary world. The second chapter is about James J. Y. Liu's two scholarly poetics treatises: The Art of Chinese Poetry and Chinese Theories of Literature, which show us James J. Y. Liu's attempts of merging the Eastern and Western poetics theories. In The Art of Chinese Poetry, he fulfilled his first attempt by presenting his four poetics views, including the didactic view, the individualist view, the technical view and the intuitionalist view. In the following Chinese Theories of Literature, he made further efforts in building up his framework, which contains metaphysical theories, deterministic theories, expressive theories, technical theories, aesthetic theories and practical Theories, mainly based on his fore-mentioned views. And this was regarded as his second attempt at merging the Eastern and Western poetics theories. The third chapter predominantly probes into James J. Y. Liu's own theories, which consists of the world theory, the imaginary theory and the paradox theory. Besides, we can see how James J. Y. Liu put his theories into practice, using them for studying on Li Shang-yin's poems.In summary, the remarkable academic characteristics and significance of James J. Y. Liu's research lie on his particular position as an interlingual critic. Lingering between two different kinds of lansigns, he can compare one with the other, which benefits him from both sides; Neither imposing contemporary Western critical approaches on Chinese poetics nor sticking to traditional Chinese methods makes his achievements differentiate from both sides.