Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.4, 2024

 

The Critical Historical Significance of “Conceptual Antithesis” and the Li Bai and Du Fu Debates

(Abstract)

 

Gu Weijia

 

The use of “conceptual antithesis” as a method for critiquing individuals or theories is a common practice in Chinese classical literary criticism. This phenomenon is particularly prominent and typical in the Li Bai and Du Fu debates, a discourse that not only pertains to their personal dispositions, artistic styles, and moral values, but also extends to the study of their paired legacy in modern and contemporary times. The debate represents an intuitive reflection of Li and Du’s extreme achievement in each of the two opposing poetic styles of romance and reality, and is closely related to critical traditions such as the “structure of dichotomy,” “the opposite is the movement of the Tao,” and “the theory of positivenegative harmony,” which are themselves deeply rooted in both Chinese and Western cultural concepts and thought patterns.