Abstract
Liu Shipei bases on traditional literary style and combines the characteristics of Chinese characters to explain the noumenon and construct the concept of Chinese literature, resorting to the form of The Book of Changes and the process it has shaped characters. He explores the origin and makes ontological interpretation through the principle of changes in order to demonstrate the orthodoxy of parallel prose, arguing that its essence is “rhymed even lines”. This delimits the boundary of literature, providing a strict logic to explain the necessity of “rhyme” and “even lines”, and constructing a new theory on the unity of literature and truth. The theory of “image accomplishes meaning” that combines meaning, image and language is the theoretical basis to further explain his poetic system drawing on The Book of Changes, and the unity of form and content. Liu Shipei considers the combination of form and content as his aesthetic ideal, and explains his aesthetic preference from the two perspectives of “reality” and “decoration”. The logic of this aesthetic construction is derived from the mutual interpretation of The Book of Changes and Herbert Spencer’s evolution theory.
Keywords
yidao (the way of changes), rhymed even lines, effective reality, energy storage, inspiration and spirit
First Page
70
Last Page
80
Recommended Citation
Li, Ruiqing. 2022. "Liu Shipei’s Interpretation of the Concept of Chinese Literature." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 42, (4): pp.70-80. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol42/iss4/8
