A Study On Zhu Yuefan’s Poetics

Zhu Yuefan (1501-1561), also named Zijia or Yepi,born in Baoying, JiangsuProvince, has a masterpiece named ShanDaiGeJi which gathered33volumes. He wasknown familiarly by Jiangsu people in Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. The thesisfocuses on his poetic thought, which are divided into three parts: firstly, analyzing theintension and uniqueness of his poetics from the perspective of his poetry. Secondly,analyzing the origin of his poetics from his family, tradition and the age.And last,analyzing his relationship with “School of Jinling learned from former Six Dynasties’Poetry”, and to draw a conclusion on his literary position in the Ming Dynasty.First of all, Zhu Yuefan formed a poetic theory admired the Six Dynasties’ Poetry.At first, he put forward an opinion that imitation should be discarded whileself-satisfied poetry should be advocated, which against the abuses imitated andslavishly followed predecessors. Then, he formed his unique opinion on poetry’ssentiment adhered to true but euphemistic feelings, which was based on “School ofSeven Poets”, the Six Dynasties’ Poetry and Yangshen etc.Third, he proposed his keypoetics admired the Six Dynasties’ Poetry and WenXuan (a literary selected works byone scholar in the Six Dynasties).Secondly, Zhu Yuefan’s poetic theory on the Six Dynasties’ poetry wasprofoundly rooted. The first one, his family has a tradition that has always beenadvocating freedom, indifference to wealth and status, traveling and Confucianismwhile against imitation. And then, the Jiangzuo (south of the lower reaches of theChangjiang River) he lived in has a healthy atmosphere upholding the style of the SixDynasties’ poetry which talented, improvisational and self-confident. The last one, theenvironment of his age sprang up the style of the Six Dynasties and early TangDynasty.Finally, in the late period of Jiajing, Zhu Yuefan formed a poetry associationtogether with He Liangjun, Huang Jishui, Guodi and so on. The new as sociation wasfamous as “School of the Six Dynasties in Jinling”, which was quite different from“School of Seven Poets”,“School of the Tang and Song Dynasties”(also two schools of poetry well-known about Jiajing period.). Their poetries havesomething in common, which are advocating the Six Dynasties’poetry and Yangshen.They encouraged each other and created lots of luxuriant and beautiful poetries whichhad exerted great influence on Jingling’s literary circle at this period.