A Study On Thought Of Bao Shicheng’s Literature And Art Theory

This dissertation studies Bao Shichen’s literary theory. First, through analysis of Bao Shicheng’s works, further summarizes his literature and art thoughts. Then combining the social background in the late Qing Dynasty and the academic development of literature and art, revaluate the historical significance of Bao Shicheng’s theory.The first chapter focuses on Bao Shichen’s life, emphasizing his growth, his studying experience, and his interaction with other scholars and poets. This chapter also portraits the social influence posed by the Confucius classics, and researches Bao’s academic thoughts to lay a foundation for further study afterwards.The second chapter discusses Bao’s prose theory and his thoughts on literature system. Through his criticism on Confucius classics from previous ages, we analyze his ideas on prose and literature, and we also provide a systematic comparison between his theory and the ideas of Tongcheng School.The third chapter introduces his thoughts on literary creation, which occupies most of Bao’s system info. He holds a thought-provoking idea that the legendary literature, like poem, song and fu could can be written with reference of prose creation method. So, this chapter clarifies his literary creation by its aesthetic category.The fourth and fifth chapter analyzes Bao Shicheng’s theory of calligraphy creation. As Bao Shicheng literary thought and calligraphy thought are relevant, so we need to treat them as a whole. This chapter focuses on analyzing Bao’s calligraphic ideas on aesthetic attributes and composition skills, and we pay attention to the relationship between his innovative calligraphic ideas and his creative literary thoughts.The final chapter is the summary of the dissertation. This chapter concludes the connotation of Bao Shicheng’s calligraphy theory, and analyses the inner connection between his literary ideas and his academic thoughts to evaluate the era significance of literature thought of Bao Shicheng.