A Discussion on the Ethical Worldview Established in Yang Xiong’s Fu Poetry

Abstract

Yang Xiong lived through the collapse of the Former Han and emergence of the Later Han dynasty. His fu poetry creations and their critiques reflect significant shifts in thinking and new ideas, a very prominent one of which is the establishment of a particular ethical perspective. Yang Xiong’s callbacks to the virtues of the Zhou dynasty exhibited in his fu poetry were used to establish his concept of “virtues of the Han”. This is reflected most conspicuously in his “Sweet Springs Palace” and his “Tall Poplars Lodge”. These demonstrate the formation of his standard for literary criticism called lize 麗則 – poetry consistent with Confucian morals – which highlights and elevates fu poetry by true fu poets rather than rhetoricians. The system of ethical thought established by Yang Xiong appears to have been based on his ideas on the Confucian Classics and discussions of fu poetry. This system became a source of imitation and guidance amongst the other great “fu masters” such as Ban Gu and Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han. Yang Xiong’s views went on to become a major focus of fu poetry studies and the fu style as a post-Wei and Jin legacy. Yang Xiong’s original work in establishing his fu poetry’s ethical system still has insights to yield to us.