Abstract
Unlike the literary trend in the Song Dynasty that good poetry is believed to consist in good diction, the poet's talent and learning, and ideas, Yan Yu's employment of "bense", or the fundamental quality, to define the nature of the poetic style and the boundaries of poetry so as to esteem the poetic style. The connotation of bense is related to four major elements, namely, the expression of xingqing (disposition) as the main pursuit, miaowu (subtle enlightenment) as the way of realization, xingqu (the evocation of interests) as the character of expression, and rushen (entering into a realm of supremacy or divinity) as the ultimate purport. Among these four elements, xingqing is the basis for xingqu and miaowu, and rushen is the top criterion of poetry as pursued by Libai and Dufu. The theory of bense is a cure for the disadvantage of the Song poems' tendency to poti, or diverge from the poetic style, thus clearly defining the essence of poetry. Through this, Yan Yu has managed to help people understand what poetry is by returning to canon. At the same time, his theory also offsets the inclination toward extreme divergence from the poetic style, which demonstrates the law of affirmation-negation-the negation of the negation.
First Page
108
Last Page
116
Recommended Citation
Shang, Yongliang, and Yaqing Duan. 2016. "Esteeming the Poetic Style: Yan Yu's Theory of Bense and Its Four Elements." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 36, (5): pp.108-116. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol36/iss5/6
