Abstract
Zeng Guofan's theories on poetry and prose, born against a background of cultural shock and political turbulence, comprise rich content, including an accent on the interrelation between literature and change of times, an encouragement of practical studies, a stylistic view of the inheritance and combination of both masculinity theory and femininity theory on ancient style prose, an attention to functions and styles of ancient style prose with an opinion of combining parallel and non-parallel proses, an attention to formations and functions of official prose and other forms of practical writing with a pursuit of honest expression and stylistic innovation based on rich argumentations, and an accent on aesthetics of harmonious rhymes. On the one hand, these ideas represent a tendency of inheritance and maintenance of orthodoxy; on the other hand, they manifest a modern consciousness of remedying the literary fashion to accommodate to the need of times through appropriate innovation and pragmatic approaches. This dialectical unity reflects the moderate posture of Zeng Guofan and his fellows in terms of making appropriate innovation based on inheriting traditional theories of poetry and prose; at the same time, it tells more about the time marked by an internal reform and the search for a path for modern Chinese literary theories.
First Page
6
Last Page
15
Recommended Citation
Zuo, Pengjun. 2017. "Zeng Guofan's Theoretical Ideas on Poetry and Prose and their Modern Significance." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 37, (4): pp.6-15. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol37/iss4/22
