The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons

The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (Chinese: 文心雕龍; pinyin: Wén Xīn Diāo Lóng) is a 5th-century work on Chinese literary aesthetics by Liu Xie, composed in fifty chapters (篇) according to the principles of numerology and divination found in the Book of Changes or I Ching. The work also draws on and argues against the 3rd century author Lu Ji's work the Wen fu 文賦 ("On Literature"). Liu Xie wished to give a complete and internally consistent account of literature. One of his ideas is that affections are the medium of literature, and language merely the product.

The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons

Translations edit

  • Liu Xie (1983). The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons. Translated by Vincent Yu-chung Shih. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press – via archive.org.
  • Liu Xie (2003). Dragon-Carving and the Literary Mind. Translated by Yang Guobin. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

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