Zhou Xu's Poetical Criticism and the Poetical Fashion of Early Ming Dynasty

Zhou Xu's poetical criticism theory is well presented in his works of SHI XUE TI HANG(Steps to Poetry),gist of which includes: a poetry origin theory which accepts poems of Han,Wei,Jin and Tang dynasties as the paradox,a poetry creation theory which values imitation and modeling on ancient poetry;a poetry imitating path through differentiated style and form,and a poetry development idea which proposes correctitude while lambastes change.A Review of Zhou Xu's poetical criticism helps to better understand the poetical fashion in early Ming Dynasty,which may result to a more objective view on the importance of early Ming Dynasty poetics in the chain of Chinese classical poetics development history.