A Study On Shigui

In late Ming Dynasty, the Poetics of Jingling School exerts a greater influence than Gong’an School. Shi Gui, a poetry anthology compiled by Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun represents the Jingling School’s achievement in poetry critique and wins enormous notoriety. The existing researches on Shi Gui, which were mainly scattered in monographs and single academic pieces, focus on the edition study Shi Gui and the examination of such core concepts-like "spirit"(精神),"true poetry"(真诗) and "serenity and sublimity"(深幽孤峭)in the book. These investigations, each focusing on one aspect of Shi Gui, fail to research into such issues as the poetic theme, the aesthetic category and the selection criteria of the anthology. Therefore, the present thesis, Based on the existing scholarship, the present thesis constitutes a further investigation into the un-examined aspects of Shi Gui.Chapter One, an overview of Shi Gui, mainly falls into three sections. In the fist section, the author discusses the creation background of Shi Gui (the temporal background of Shi Gui itself and the spatial background of the poetic thoughts in the anthology) from two aspects, namely, the situation of poetic circle at that time and the construction of Chu customs by the poets in ancient Chu region. In the second section, the author studies the completion time, the selection criteria of Shi Gui, and the compilers’expectations. In the last section, the author investigates the influence of Shi Gui and the evolution of the anthology’s criticism by drawing from the criticisms of poets from Ming and Qing dynasties.Chapter Two expounds the poetic thoughts of Shi Gui from three aspects. First of all, the author analyzes the compilation principle of the anthology, that is, to explore the "spirit"(精神)of predecessor poets to enlighten the later generations. Shi Gui adheres to the compilation principle of "spirit"(精神)and "true poetry"(真诗)and carries it out throughout the book. Then, the author elucidates the aesthetic style of Shi Gui and contends that the aesthetic style of the compilers Zhong and Tan can be summarized as "serenity and sublimity." The poems in general seek for "depth" and "serenity" and the poets as individual exhibit characteristics of "seclusion" and "sublimity." Finally, the author points out that such aesthetic categories as "thickness,""depth,""plainness,""strangeness,""serenity" and "gracefulness" which abound in the commentary portion reveal the commentary orientation of Shi Gui and argues that what Shi Gui pursues is an elegant style that differs from a sublime and grand poetic style.Chapter Three examines the features of the commentary in Shi Gui. The author first discusses the style and layout of the commentary in Shi Gui and then elaborates the characteristics of the commentary from two aspects. In the selection of poems, Shi Gui displays three unique features:the inclusion of love poems, the inclusion of poems dealing with special subject matters, and the veneration of pastoral and leisure poems of Tao, Xie, Wang, Meng, Chu, Chang. The features of Zhong and Tan’s poetry selection is in accordance with their aesthetic pursuit. As to the commentary, Zhong and Tan adopts various approaches to the selected poems. They may comment on the poems’styles; they may comment on the poets’writing techniques and they may appreciate the poems from a Buddhist or Taoist’s perspective. These methods may well have been used in other commentaries but in Shi Gui, they display distinctiveness in that Zhong and Tan weighs every word in the poems and invest considerable efforts in every detail. Their commentary pays special attention to the poets’spirits and feelings and shows solicitude for the writers’"seclusion" and "loneliness." The commentary of Shi Gui does not take the fixed commentary as its standard.Shi Gui is a fine specimen of Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun’s poetic thoughts. Studies of it can facilitate us to get a panoramic view of the poetic thoughts of Jingling School and grasp the evolution of poetry in late Ming Dynasty.