A survey of the prosperity of literary criticism in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

The literary criticism in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties presented a scene of prosperity, which was closely related to the prosperity of metaphysics at that time. Metaphysics focuses on the study of abstract ontology, with the color of speculative philosophy. Although it is a philosophical thought marked by Laozi and Zhuangzi, it has a great influence on literature. Looking at the four representative works of literary criticism in this period-Cao Pi's Dian Lun Paper, Lu Ji's Wen Fu, Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long and Zhong Rong's Shi Pin, metaphysics is everywhere. Generally speaking, the influence of metaphysics on literary criticism is mainly reflected in the following points. First of all, the talent theory in metaphysics promotes the discussion of the writer's talent theory. The first important question put forward by Dian Lun Paper is the relationship between the author's talent and the nature and characteristics of the style. The book holds that different styles have different creative characteristics and writers' talents are different. For a writer, he can only be good at writing in a certain style. On this basis, he also put forward the famous thesis of "writing is based on qi", which holds that talent is consistent with talent, and its nature determines its talent, especially emphasizing that works should reflect the writer's special personality. After Cao Pi, Lu Ji's Wen Fu and Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long both discussed the style of the works and the author's personality. Secondly, the debate between "being" and "not being" in metaphysics promotes the discussion of the essence and artistic conception of literature. How to conceive art is the core issue in the discussion of prose. In fact, his emphasis on mysterious and quiet spiritual realm is consistent with the thought of "nothing" in metaphysics. Later, literary ontology and literary concepts were also discussed in Wen Xin Diao Long. Zhong Rong's viewpoint of "endless words and endless meanings" is also put forward on the basis of this thought. Both emphasize the role of articles in expressing emotions. Finally, metaphysical rational thinking has greatly promoted literary criticism. From Zhong Rong's account of his writing reasons in The Preface to Poetry, we can see that Poetry, as the earliest extant monograph of literary criticism in China, is directly influenced by metaphysics' emphasis on words and reflections.