LIU Xie's Theory on Poetry

The Principle and Technique of Literature.Understanding Poetry《文心雕龙·明诗》, Wenxin Diaolong, literal translation: Carving a Dragon in the Heart of Literature) is the first piece in LIU Xie's theory of stylistics, a chapter seecially and exclusively devoted to the poetic patterns. the chapter, Unidrsanding Poetry, offers a clear discussion on the origins and developments of poetry, the evolutionary history of the four-characte and the five-character five-character poems, the poetic styles, patterns, functions, as well as their writing peculiarities, etc.. It is reasonable to say that the piece is the summation of the theories of poems and songs of the period from the pre-Qin Days through the Qi and Ling Dynasties, serving as a history of the development of poems and songs of this historical period.