Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind

Library of Chinese Classics: Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind

Written by Liu Xie (the Southern Dynasties)

Translated into English by Yang Guobin

Translated into modern Chinese by Zhou Zhenfu

Publisher: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

Publication Date: 2003-12

Language: Chinese and English

ISBN: 7560029965

Library Binding: hardcover, 2 volumes, 799 pages

Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind written by Liu Xie (c. 465-521) marks the culmination of early Chinese literary criticism and literary theory. It represents a systematic explication on a host of important issues ranging from the origins of literature to literary genres, imagination, style, rhetoric, literary appreciation, writers' moral integrity, and the relationship between literature and social change. It is the first literary critical work of early Chinese literature history. It is also a classic text of Chinese culture. Liu Xie's outlook of literature is predicated on Confucianism, with elements of Daoism and Buddhism incorporated as well and his viewpoints are couched in language at once compelling and poetic. According to Liu Xie, literary creation has to be an organic whole under the control of mind, thought and imagination, or with his own words, "the literary mind is that mind which strives after literary forms... Since from time immemorial literary writings have always adopted an ornate style, and yet I am not implicating myself in the type of dragon carving style". Accordingly, the first part of his book consists of descriptions and critics of 34 different literary styles: Sao (elegic poetry of the South), Shi (lyric poetry), Yuefu (songs of the Han Music Bureau), Fu (rhapsody), Song (odes), Zan (pronouncements), Zhu (sacrificial praying), Meng (oaths of agreement), Ming (inscriptions), Zhen (exhortations), lei (elegies), Bei (epitaphs), Ai (laments), Diao (condolences), Zawen (miscellaneous writings), Xie (humorous writings), Yin (enigmas), Shizhuan (historical writings), Zhuzi (speculative writings of the Masters), Lun (treatises), Shuo (discussions), Zhao (edicts), Ce (scripts), Xi (war proclamations), Yi (dispatches), Fengshan (sacrifices to Heaven and Earth), Zhang (memoranda), Biao (memorials), Zou (presentations), Qi (opening communications), Yi (discussions), Dui (responses), Shu (letters) and Ji (notes). His brilliant and incisive comments on individual writers and their works, unprecedented in the history of Chinese literary criticism, exert a far-reaching influence on later generations,

In the second half of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, Liu Xie developed his own proposals for a good writing composition, expounding flexibility, choice of style, emotion and expression, musicalness, parallelism, metaphor and allegory, hyperbole, choice of words, literary flaws, organization, and so on.

The English translation is based on Zhou Zhenfu's modern Chinese translation of the original work. The translator has also conducted an extensive study of recent annotated editions and other modern Chinese translations. The present translation aims at faithfulness, clarity and naturalness.

Table of Contents



Volume I



Introduction

Chapter 1 Tracing the Origin to the Dao

Chapter 2 Venerating the Sages

Chapter 3 Modeling on the Classics

Chapter 4 A Proper Understanding of Apocrypha

Chapter 5 Evaluating the Sao, or the Songs of the South

Chapter 6 Illuminating Poetry

Chapter 7 Yuefu, or Poems of the "Music Bureau"

Chapter 8 Interpreting Fu, or Rhyme-prose

Chapter 9 Hymn and Eulogy

Chapter 10 Prayer and Oath

Chapter 11 Inscription and Admonition

Chapter 12 Mourning-Song and Epitaph

Chapter 13 Lament and Condolence

Chapter 14 Miscellaneous Writings

Chapter 15 Jesting Rhymes and Puzzles

Chapter 16 Historical Writings

Chapter 17 Philosophical Writings

Chapter 18 The Treatise and the Speech

Chapter 19 The Edict and the Decree of Enfeoffment

Chapter 20 The War Proclamation and the Dispatch

Chapter 21 The Sacrificial Address to Heaven and Earth

Chapter 22 Laudatory Address and Statement on Government Affairs

Chapter 23 Report and Memorandum

Chapter 24 The Discussion and the Examination Essay

Chapter 25 Epistolary Writing and Miscellaneous Records



Volume II



Chapter 26 Shensi, or Imagination

Chapter 27 Style and Natural Endowments

Chapter 28 "Wind" and "Bone"

Chapter 29 Continuity and Change

Chapter 30 Choosing the Style, or Natural Tendency

Chapter 31 Feeling and Art

Chapter 32 Casting and Cutting

Chapter 33 Prosody

Chapter 34 Paragraph and Sentence

Chapter 35 Parallelism

Chapter 36 Comparison and Metaphor

Chapter 37 Hyperbole

Chapter 38 Allusions

Chapter 39 Choosing the Right Word

Chapter 40 Concealed and Evident Excellence

Chapter 41 Flaws in Writing

Chapter 42 Nourishing qi, or Vital Energy

Chapter 43 Organization

Chapter 44 Summarizing the Art of Writing

Chapter 45 Literature and the Times

Chapter 46 The Forms of the Natural World

Chapter 47 Literary Talents

Chapter 48 An Appreciative Critic

Chapter 49 Moral Integrity

Chapter 50 My Intentions, or Postscript

Notes

Appendix I A Brief Chronology of Chinese History

Appendix II Glossary of Personal Names