On the Conformity and Violation of Wang Guowei's Poetry to His Poetic Thoughts

Wang Guowei's poetic thoughts formed between Wuxu Political Reform and 1911 Revolution, which mingled the west and Chinese culture. His poetry creation conformed his poetic thoughts at first but violated them in the end. His early poems, in conformity to his poetic thoughts, were of western philosophical theory, which outshone other poems in the late Qing Dynasty. However, poems in his later life were of traditional scholars, which violated his poetic thoughts and were confined to the old ethnics and poetics. This change resulted from his crumbling faith in western philosophy, influence of social thoughts and the aesthetic view of "classic elegance".