The life of literature: The ontogenetic concept of qi in Chinese literary thought (Cao Pi).

摘要

An analysis of the terminology used in Chinese literary thought has been long overdue. There may be reasons for a student of modern literature to disregard terms such as feng, gu, qi, and yun etc. in traditional literary criticism. Nevertheless, they cannot be avoided, for these words are central to the understanding of Chinese literature and culture.; My approach to traditional Chinese literary thought is centered around my analysis of the word qi because of the rich and complex meanings this term bears. The purpose of this study is to analyze its semantic components as they are shared across different times and in various fields, such as daily language, medicine, philosophy, art, and literature.; I first analyze the word in modern Chinese with an assumption that the basic meanings found in the modern language can be attributed to the history of the word. The main body of this thesis is accordingly arranged into: (a) analyzing the meaning of the word in general, (b) examining its implications in literary thought in particular, (c) examining its effects in literature in detail, and (d) summing up the findings to reach an analytic understanding of the term.; The entire discussion is inevitably developed around Cao Pi's remarks on qi. Ever since Cao Pi introduced the term from philosophy, it has become one of the most frequently used terms in the history of Chinese literary criticism. By examining how Cao Pi's idea of qi has been understood or applied, I clarify the meaning of the term in its historical context.; It is concluded that in the development of the concept of qi , its basic semantic elements remain consistent through the history and across different fields. An extensive study of the concept of qi also sheds light on various topics in Chinese literary thought, including the origin of literature, vitality, style, individuality, as well as the relation between qi and other critical terms. In this project, I have demonstrated that the usage of the term in literary theory is semantically the same as it appears in daily language, medicine, philosophy, and art.