Abstract

This dissertation describes and analyzes the theoretical perspective Liu Xie takes toward literature in Wenxin diaolong, a work that stands out in classical Chinese literary criticism for its systematicity. Different from Donald Gibbs, who classifies Liu Xie's theory as the "expressive theory," and James Liu, who names it the "metaphysical theory," the author employs Wai-lim Yip's framework, in which the socio-cultural/historical context is located at the center, from which radiates to the orientations of the universe, the author, the work, and the reader. Integral to the dissertation is the central concept wenxin, which has been ignored for long and on which no substantial study has done. The author reveals that Liu's perspective toward literature is a synthetic one: consisting of the wenxin of Heaven, the Sages, and literature, which correspond to the cosmological order, the social order, and the aesthetic order in Yip's diagram, and which cannot be separated and have to be viewed as a whole. By comparing Liu's tripartite perspective with prevailing Western theories such as the mimetic and expressive, the author points out that Liu's perspective is characteristic of the traditional Chinese belief in the union of Heaven and Man, inter-discipline among philosophy, history, and literature, and combination of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. ;After setting up his approach and exploring the meanings of wenxin, the author discusses in Chapter Three the integrated theory which combines the outside world and the writer's inside, "scenes" in the work and the writer's emotions and feelings. Then in Chapter Four the author illustrates the ideal reader in Liu Xie's work: a perfect understanding between the reader and the writer via the medium of wenxin. In Chapter Five, the author examines the social functions of wenxin, an interaction among the writer, the reader, the work, and the world. In the conclusion, the author suggests changing the current disciplinary name "Longxue" to "Wenxinxue" . ;From this dissertation, one may gain insight into the understanding of the latent systematic viewpoint behind the fragmentary statements that dominate classical Chinese literary criticism