On the Literary Thoughts of CAO Zhi

Known as a distinguished poet in Jian-an Period, CAO Zhi was alsoan influential literary critic. His literary thoughts are embodied in the following three aspects: his love for literary arts; his emphasis on the relationship between literary criticism and creation, maintaining that literary critics should beliterarily well-cultivated, and attaching great importance on the aesthetical demand of literary works; and his advocation of learning from the past and reforming and creating. On the whole, his theories and ideas not only broadened the horizon of literary criticism at that time, but also revealed the core of some issues. As a result, it can be said that CAO Zhi contributed a great deal to the arrival of the Age of the Conscious Literature, having great impact on the history of China's literary criticism.