Wangruoxu Aesthetical Ideology Study

Wang Ruoxu’s aesthetical ideology can be summarized as "Suppress Su and Advocate Huang", which can be seen from Hu Nan Poetry, Argumentative Prose, and Poems. His proposals of "ideology-centered writing","spontaneous writing" and "unity in form-and-spirit writing" have played a very key role in changing King dynasty’s writing style.The thesis is divided into three parts. Part one is going to elaborate Wang’s aesthetic views, which can be achieved by the macroscopical introduction of his three proposals mentioned above in The Collection of a Hu Nan Old Fogy. In the second part, Wang’s aesthetical influential factors will be discussed in details, with Zhou Ang, Bai Juyi, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and Confucianism included. The third part is the evaluation of Wang’s aesthetical achievements and shortcomings. His achievements can be summarized as his endeavors in anti-formalism and criticism in artificial writing. His shortcomings come from the lack in theoretical supports and hypercorrectness in poetic criticism.