Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.4, 2020

“Thinking Degradation” and “Thought Level”: On Jiao Hong’s View of “Grandiosity and Simplicity”

 (Abstract)

Cheng Ting

As a kind of expression of “thinking degradation,” “grandiosity and simplicity” actually has rich interpretation space and level of thought. Jiao Hong, a famous scholar of the Confucian school of idealist philosophy in the late Ming Dynasty, understood the times and the style of scholars by means of “grandiosity and simplicity,” and formed his own academic order and poetic thoughts. With Jiao Hong’s pursuit of “sincere study of life” as the “essence,” when facing the “confusion of pleasure” in the late Ming dynasty, he lamented that there was too much grandiosity but little simplicity. The order of learning is that “the three religions can communicate with each other, while Confucianism comes first; everything is learned and poetry comes second;” in terms of the creation of poetry and prose, the thought and internal rules served as the main point, while the sound and image of poetry as the supplement. “Consistency between grandiosity and simplicity” is not only a simple thought of literary theory, but also an ideal of the relationship between grandiosity and simplicity, which has become a portrayal of Jiao Hong’s life experience and world of thoughts.