Dian Lun Wen is a very important literary theory work, which is of epoch-making significance in the history of China's literary theory criticism, because there was no well-written literary theory monograph before it. Its appearance marks that China's ancient literary theory began to enter the conscious period. Essays on Canon starts with criticizing "belittling scholars" and emphasizes "judging others", and analyzes the creative personality and style of the seven sons of Jian 'an. On this basis, it puts forward the literary values of "four topics and eight styles" and "the great cause of governing the country is an immortal event" and the writer's theory of "literature is based on qi". Although his "Dian Lun Thesis" is short, it raises the following four main questions about literary criticism: He said: "Prose is mainly based on Qi (which refers to talent, that is, personality), and the purity of Qi has substance (which is based on essence), and it cannot be forced (trying to achieve consistency)." Clear refers to handsome and ultra-masculine, while turbid refers to dignified, gloomy and feminine. People's temperament and personality can be roughly divided into these two categories.
Dian Lun Wen put forward the famous conclusion that "Wen is mainly based on Qi", which is the famous "Wen Qi Theory" in the history of literary theory. This is the most outstanding theoretical contribution of Cao Pi's thesis to "Qi" literature and writers. Cao Pi's so-called "literary spirit" refers to the writer's natural endowment and personality temperament in literary works, which belongs to the physiological and psychological categories and has no ethical color. "Writing is based on Qi" especially emphasizes that works should reflect the writer's special personality, which can only be unique to the writer himself. "Although you are father and brother, you can't touch your children." The seven sons of Jian 'an show their abilities, and the reason is the difference of "sex". This view of poetry is also in line with the ethos of Wei and Jin people advocating nature.
Because Cao Pi attaches great importance to the uniqueness and invariance of creative personality, on the one hand, it highlights the decisive significance of the writer's unique personality to his work style, and embodies the spirit of the times of "human consciousness" and "literary consciousness" in Wei and Jin Dynasties. On the other hand, is it possible that the habit of realism can also change the creative style? This is the flaw of his theory. In Essays on Canon, I also put forward some valuable opinions on the attitude of literary criticism. For example, opposing "scholars despise each other" and advocating "gentlemen judge themselves and others" is a good measure of literary criticism and still has practical significance today. In Dian Lun Wen, Cao Pi formally put forward the idea of genre classification and their respective characteristics for the first time. While analyzing the writer's talent and personality, Cao Pi put forward the stylistic theory of "four-body and eight-body". "Ben" refers to the essential feature of the article, that is, expressing certain thoughts and feelings in words; "End" refers to the specific form of expression of the article, that is, the stylistic features or characteristics of the article in content and form. No matter what style, it uses language to express thoughts and feelings, and its "origin" is the same. The difference is that different styles are different in expression, language form, body style and so on.
Then Cao Pi proposed that there are eight genres of articles with "four questions" in style. And I think the style is different, and the style is different.
It's different. There are eight kinds of * * * in four subjects, among which Shu Shu and Shu Lun belong to the pen without rhyme, and inscriptions and poems belong to the prose with rhyme. Its essence is the same, they all use language to express certain emotions. But its "final difference" means that in its stylistic features, the recitation should be elegant, the book theory should emphasize explanation, the inscription should be factual, and the poetry should be gorgeous. Elegance, reason, reality and beauty are "ultimate differences", all of which are about the differences in styles. Therefore, Cao Pi's "literary similarities but differences at the end" is about the relationship between style and style, and different styles should have different style characteristics. "Similarities but differences at the end" is the earliest detailed stylistic theory, and it is also the earliest stylistic theory with different styles. He pointed out that there are two wrong attitudes: one is "expensive and far away, humble and close to the sound", which is a view of respecting the ancient and ignoring the present, which was pointed out in Huan Tan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but it was an academic statement, and Cao Pi once again pointed out in the Paper, which made it new. First, "it is better to be observant than to be wise to protect oneself", "Scholars despise each other, which is natural since ancient times" and "each has its own strengths and weaknesses". This pointed out that the habit of "belittling scholars" was his initial idea. From the perspective of historical development, the author points out the bad habit of belittling each other among literati, analyzes the reasons for this situation, and points out the correct way for literati to get along.