Abstract
In The Literary Mind and The Carving of Dragons, Liu Xie quoted from Explications on The Book of Changes and The Book of Documents that "zhengyan (proper words)" and "tiyao (stylistic priority)" are the essential criteria of a piece of good writing. The criterion of "zhengyan" refers to the diction, which can be defined as the appropriate use of words to express what is intended, and as an issue concerning expression, this is essentially about the ideology of the content. When "zhengyan" is combined with "stylistic priority," it may be equivalent to "air" as in "air and bone," which refers not to the thematic content of writing but to the precision and accuracy of expression. The connotation of "zhengyan" can be ascertained from the analyses of the origin text of Explications on The Book of Changes, its relationship with "tiyao" and the contrast between them. The paper also argues that the term "yiduan (heterodoxy)" which Liu Xie borrowed from Congfucius' Analects is used to refer to the course style of writing compared with refined style, which differs from the intended meaning in its original context.
First Page
35
Last Page
38
Recommended Citation
Gui, Qing. 2012. "Critical Explication of "Rectified Words" inThe Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 32, (3): pp.35-38. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol32/iss3/3
