CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE LITERATURE AND LITERARY CRITICISM OF CHINA

A scrutiny of Chinese literary criticism in the 20th century shows that Its fatal drawback is self-effacement caused by westernization in this academic area. On the whole, Chinese literary criticism to date falls into two categories. One is a body of study focused on ethics and human emotions. The other is a bulk of explorations centered round the craftsmanship of literary works. The chief feature of Chinese literary criticism is its humanism manifest in the inclination toward worldly feelings and insights. The preferred mode of its expression is versification, which is marked by unity, imagism and suggestiveness. The core of Chinese literary criticism is the theory of literary creation. Chinese literary criticism now seems to be moving towards a future form of three components: nature-oriented study, style-oriented study, and methodology-oriented study. The first constitutes the basis of Chinese literary criticism. It probes into such philosophical issues as the source and nature of Chinese literature. The second is the branch of literary criticism that deals with such academic issues as the essential rules and transformation of Chinese genres. The third concentrates on such methodological issues as theories of literary creation and approaches to literary criticism.