Zhu Xi's Poetry and Prose: Oneness of Literature and Ideology

Zhu Xi advocates orthodox, traditional, elegant and classical. This state of mind of his repre- sents state of mind of those men of letters of his time. He introduces to world of literature idea that all different doctrines stem from one , and extends it to concept of the oneness of literature and ideolo- gy. In meantime, he makes a distinction between literature that disseminates ideology and lyrical poetry, while admitting multi-value of poetry and promoting poetry which incorporates instinct with reason.Mind and reason infiltrating each other accounts for richness of layers in his poetry and uniqueness of texts in his works. His understanding that literature is meted in ideology makes his style easy and natural,and that is why in his works importance is attached to presentation of ideas rather than to beauty of language.