The Discourse of Chinese Literary Theory and the Dialogue Between Western and Chinese Literary Theories

Chinese literary theory has been taken as centred round the categories of qi (airs), fenggu (wind and bone), shenyun (spirit and tone), bixing (comparison and affective images), miaowu (enlightenment) or yijing (artistic ideal) etc. However, from a discourse analytic perspective, I argue that it has also reflected other unique ways of literary production and interpretation. Specifically, I show that Chinese literary scholars have strongly believed that what is written doesn't give the fullness of what is said; what is said does not give the fullness of the concepts in the mind, and so the only way to convey meaning is to ‘establish images’. In addition, I draw on previous research and engage in a critical dialogue between Western and Chinese literary theories by making it more specific and systematic. Four basic principles and five methods of theoretical dialogue are outlined.