Ancient Chinese Literary Theory System

To construct Chinese literary theory system, we should take three things into consideration: (1) to be based on such classical Chinese approaches as Liu Xie's in his Carving a Dragon at core of Literature; (2) to reflect spirit of present times, namely, take for reference corresponding present Western literary theory system; and (3) to follow Kant's system-constructing principle, i.e. the so-called system refers to unity of various kind of knowledge subject to one concept. Therefore, ancient Chinese literary theory system can be conceived as a detailed outline framework based on Tao (philosophical and moral principles of a text), Sheng, Wen (writing), and Reader—— a coherent framework unified by Tao.