The Aesthetic Connotation of YANG Wan-li's Wenqi or Literary Spirit Theory

YANG Wan-li,one of the most famous poets in Song Dynasty,had a posthumous collection of poems called Cheng Zhai Collection.The present author notices that YANG's theory of wenqi,or the spiritual vein or literary spirit,of literary articles has attracted little attention to the academic field.In fact,he chiefly accounted for his claim of wenqi theory in Cheng Zhai Ce Wen,an early work of his which was not collected in Cheng Zhai Collection,and hence failed to draw wide attention.But this theory is embodied in all his later literary practices and theoretical constructions.The wenqi theory,or literary spirit theory,was set up as an important aesthetic category based on his philosophical qi or spiritual noumenon,hence bestowed the classical Chinese literary theory with new aesthetic elements and tastes.It not only promoted the status of qi(spirit) and xiang(image) in the aesthetic system of the classical Chinese poetry,but also united organically literary spirit,literary style and literary layout(close to the present grammar).Hence YANG's literary spirit theory made a unique contribution to the ancient Chinese literary aesthetic theory.