A Research On The Juyi Anthology

Wang Yangming is the sage with the three immortal deeds which includes “establishing virtues,merits,great teachings” during the Ming Dynasty,obtaining the distinguished achievements in the fields of feat,thought,education and literature.The achievements of feats and thoughts by Yangming that have been highlighted in history,however,cover his achievements as a literati.Recently,the overall research for Yangming’s literature has been far behind his thought and feat in the academic community.The Juyi Anthology,inscribed in the third year of Jiajing(an emperor of the Ming Dynasty),is the earliest collection of poems by Wang Yangming,to some extent,which is the first confirmation of his literati identity and the product of his aspiration to be self-examination after his mature in thought as well.In order to acquire a more distinct cognition towards the independent values of Yangming’s literature,this thesis takes 179 poems and 22 essays in The Juyi Anthology as the research object,exploring the deep thoughts of Yangming’s literature and revealing the styles and features of his creation in poems and essays,by the research method of mutual authentication,reasoning and analysis.The “Introduction” part is the basic work of carrying out research,clarifying the former research results and Yangming’s background of his learned family and lifetime.The next main body is divided into four chapters on the whole.From the perspective of bibliography,the first chapter is primarily based on the historical documents to examine the writing course and the spreading versions of The Juyi Anthology,which are involved with the original edition and publication,the differences between variant editions in the later ages,the situation of the current version,and the bibliographical value of this anthology.The content of the second volume of poems from The Juyi Anthology is researched in the second chapter.This chapter is aimed at illustrating the thought content that is contained in Yangming’s poems and then searching after Yangming’s spiritual world through the method of mutual proof of poetry history and fine reading of the text.In the first year of Zhengde(the previous emperor before emperor Jiajing),Yangming is imprisoned in jail and afterwards demoted to be a minor official in Longchang in Guizhou province on account of his resistance to the misconducts of dynasty.It is the first major setback for the political career of Yangming and becomes the most insignificant turning period for his thought meanwhile.Yangming’s state of mind has also changed with the ups and downs of his life,and the complexity of his thoughts stems from this condition.The melancholy of being unexpectedly subjected to be imprisoned,the anxiety of concerning the disaster that would be implicated with his family,the optimism and open-mindedness of going to the exiled place and avoiding the disaster,the perseverance of overcoming the difficult environment of the strait,besides,the wisdom and calm of having civilized the wild men inthe uncivilized region and even acquired the enlightenment,all of these moods are successively put into poems and delicately refined into beautiful poetry,which constitutes Wang Yangming’s profound spiritual world.The third chapter investigates the essays in The Juyi Anthology.Concretely speaking,under the influence of Confucian literary view of“Taking the literary work as the bear of truth”does this investigation thoroughly expound how Yangming constructs his self-images in essays,which include either the image of the gentleman characterized with self discipline and discretion or the image of the exiled courtier characterized with neither humble nor arrogant in the role of minor official and following Confucian etiquette,from Yangming’s identification and practice towards Confucian value system.Additionally,Yangming’s essays(for instance,Bury Travel Text(《瘗旅文》)are also filled with the deep affection and the respect for life,containing his life consciousness of emphasizing life and his thinking towards life value.The features of Yanming’s essays are characterized with the refinement and stability in writing,the narrative accompanied by expressing emotion,the narration interspersed with comments,the style of being detached and ethereal,and the sufficiency of reason and emotion,etc.The fourth chapter takes The Juyi Anthology’s integration to Confucian classical text as the object of investigation.It expounds the mode of Yangming quoting The Four Books,The Book of Songs,The Book of Changes by closely reading the anthology,exploring his absorption and inheritance to Confucian classics in literary creation,and uncovers the impacts of this mode on his thought,state of mind and literary creation.The final part is the epilogue.The investigation for the life of“be an official but like a recluse”(“Li yin”,吏隐)in the period of Wang Yangming being exiled reveals the guiding significance of this life on Wang Yangming’s enlightenment and his practice of“The Unity of Knowledge and Action”,exploring the connection between the transformation of poetry style before and after Yangming’s enlightenment and his thought turning.Moreover,it draws out the deep thought and the whole styles and features of Yangming’s poetry.Ultimately,the objective and fair evaluation of the person and the literary achievement of The Juyi Anthology would be made in order to strengthen the unique enchantment of Wang Yangming among the literati group in the Ming Dynasty.