Abstract：The theory that “Humanities Bring Up Civilization”(人文化成 ) was originated from the view of literature (文) in the Book of Change (《周易》文说), which can be valued as primitive aesthetics. It was introduced into the category of literary theory as a term by Liu Xie (刘勰) , Xiao Tong (萧统) and his brother Xiao Gang (萧纲), and became the basic principle of literature in the Qi and Liang Periods under the background of the flourishment of literary atmosphere as well as the popularity of the view of the distinction between the literary method and the narrating method (文笔说). The historical works in the early-Tang Dynasty inherited this view from the Qi and Liang Periods, making it even more popular and turning it into a common view in the then literary criticism. However, this view gradually faded out after the prevalence of the sentiment of “returning to antiquity”(复古) in literature in the early-Tang and the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. Traditionally, scholars usually regarded this view as a critique of Qi-Liang literature and expounded it only in terms of “returning to antiquity” in literature and moral indoctrination, but failed to present the whole truth of the spreading of the theory that “Humanities Bring Up Civilization” from the Qi and Liang Periods to the Tang Dynasty. In my opinion, this theory, at least in the process of its application, also functioned to decorate the ruling group’s cultural governance and their literary creation.
Qian Zhixi. On the History of the Spreading of the Literary View that “Humanities Bring Up Civilization”From the Southern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty[J]. Journal of Peking University(Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2022, 59(5): 72-84.
