Tang Xianzu's Poetry-prose Theory

Tang Xianzu is a famous writer and playwright of the Ming dynasty. He left a rich asset of literary works for the later generations, including his dramas well-known in China and around the world, his profound poems, and his literature theory that boasts far-reaching influences. However, after his "Linchuan Four Dreams" were published, Tang's achievements in poetry and prose were greatly shadowed by the immense glory of his Peony Pavilion. In fact, in literary criticism, Tang Xianzu put forward a host of valuable suggestions and ideas in playwriting, prose, novel, and poetry. His theory on prose and poetry that dealt with a wide range was of especial importance.First, under the influence of the trend of the literary thought"heavily-loaded with sentiments"in the Ming Dynasty, Tang emphasized and distilled such concepts as"the world was made for sentiments and sentiments are the sources of poetry"in his literary works. Such features of his not only reflected his unique literary aesthetics but also had great impacts on the later ages. Yet, Tang's thought was full of contradictions, and he was seldom able to truly abandon the feudal ethics of his time. Hence, understandably, Tang maintained a high respect and admiration for the unruly writers such as Li Zhi and the lofty sentiments and aspirations displayed by Da Guang. In the meantime, Tang Xianzu emphasized"inspiration"and"gifted scholar."He loved brief prose and commentaries by Su Shi, advocating for a natural style described as"my writing is to express my heart and my painting is to comfort my sentiment."While recognizing that literary writing depended on a writer's innate gift, Tang held that the most important thing in writing was to follow one's heart.Second, in concrete literary criticism on poetry, the differences and disagreements between Tang Xianzu and the back-to-the-ancients school at the time were not really the opposite. Rather, they even shared many common grounds. The key difference between them was their views on the literary ontology. For example, Tang Xianzu's perception of"true to life"was vitally different from that of Wang Shizhen, as Tang pursued a type of breakthrough in egoism, reflecting a remarkable literary feature of the Ming Dynasty. However, there are some unresolvable contradictions in Tang's literary theory, due to many comprehensive factors, such as the similarities and differences between him and the back-to-the-ancients school, plus the contradictions between sentiment and reason. Nonetheless, such contradictions cannot obliterate the values of his theory.Moreover, there are numerous links between Tang's poetry-prose theory and drama theory. Tang emphasized that"sentiments"need to penetrate any style of literary writing, although his definitions of sentiment varied. In his creation,"natural sentiments"constituted his ultimate emphasis, reflecting different characteristics in different types of writing. By reading between the lines of his works, readers can see that Tang always cared about his world and was always eager to teach moral ethics in his writings.Concentrated on Tang Xianzu's poetry-prose theory, and embedded in the history of literary criticism and the trends of literary thoughts in the late Ming dynasty, this article (thesis / dissertation) attempts to summarize the essential characteristics of Tang Xianzu's poetry-prose theory and the causes of its emergence, and analyzes its concrete literary connotations and its significance in the history of Chinese literature.