Preliminary Discussion of Li Tiaoyuan's Theory on Poetic Nature

As a famous Ba-Shu poet and scholar in Qing dynasty, Li Tiaoyuan devoted 40 volumes of theoretic works dealing with poems, ci, fu and qu.From the perspective of human development, he believed that poem was 'music in nature', and that the human's emotion should be in harmony with natural sound.From the perspective of philosophy, he maintained that all things originate from Qi and human is also 'formed from Qi', and that "worry, sorrow, happiness and anger are the demonstration of human's Qi".Thus, he distinctively put forward that 'poems should express the mankind's disposition'.Furthermore, he voiced that poems should convey the human's real sentiments, i.e.'every words flow from the composer's heart'.This kind of theory on poetic nature was a significant breakthrough over his predecessors.