"Katharsis" And "The Book Of Poetry Serve To Stimulate The Mind"

"Katharsis" and "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind" are important poetic theories in the early West and China.Both of them point to the effect of literary works on the emotion of the receiver,and both are related to the promotion and purification function of the reader’s emotion.The main body of this paper has three parts.The first chapter discusses the starting point and logical thinking of the propositions of "Katharsis" and "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind"."Katharsis" indirectly pays attention to the recipient’s emotion in the tradition of poetic imitation and production."The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind" is a theory naturally developed in the tradition of "Poetry to express one’s will" and "Analogy and allusion".The second chapter discusses the object of the function of "Katharsis" and "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind".The objects of "Katharsis" are pity(eleos)and fear(phobos)in real life.Through tragedy,"Katharsis" can trigger moderate feelings of pity and fear to replace and transform with the feelings of pity and fear that the viewer may have more or less in daily life.The objects of the function of "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind" are,on the one hand,the moral spirit related to "Zhi(志)",and on the other hand,the active state of the spirit of natural life related to "Ren"(仁).The third chapter discusses the intertextuality between "Katharsis" and "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind"."Affective image"(兴)not only arouses positive emotion,but also clarifies and purifies the state of paralysis and obscenity.The "Katharsis" function of tragedy is to "purify" while arousing rational,moderate feelings of pity and fear.Both "Katharsis" and "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind" refer to the function of art works to promote and purify the readers’ emotion,which is an important basis for the comparison between them.The conclusion part summarizes the comparison between "Katharsis" and "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind".Confucius’ understanding of "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind" is partial to moral emotion and natural feeling,while Aristotle’s "Katharsis" is partial to aesthetic emotion and logical rationality.However,in the broader social and historical context,we should make a comprehensive aesthetic,ethical,rational and political understanding of "Katharsis" and "The Book of Poetry serve to stimulate the mind".