Source: Department of Chinese
Written by: He Shihai
Translated by: Zhang Chentao
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On October 10-13, the Fourth International Seminar on Chinese Stylistics, jointly organized by the Editorial Department of Literary Heritage, the Department of Chinese at Sun Yat-sen University and the Editorial Department of Journal of Sun Yat-sen University was held in SYSU. Over 70 scholars from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the USA and Japan attended the seminar.
Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Literary Heritage Zhu Qing highly affirmed the research achievements on stylistics since the new period, and pointed out the ultimate theoretical orientation should not only return to the past but also aim at the future development of Chinese literature.

Professor Wu Chengxue from the Department of Chinese at SYSU pointed out in his opening address that the prosperity of Chinese stylistics since the new century meant a return to native tradition of literary theory and a return to ancient literature. He thought that in order to construct modern Chinese stylistics beyond the ancient times, it is necessary to inherit the classic paradigm of traditional stylistics, “learn from western knowledge, aided by science and technology, examined by system and proved by entity”, combine language, art, philosophy, religion, history, archaeology and other disciplines, and observe the development and evolution of Chinese stylistics against the extensive cultural background, so as to highlight the unique position of stylistics in literature and the cultural system.

The seminar received 68 papers covering poetry, prose, opera, novel and other literary styles as well as issues in stylistic research. The attendants explored these issues in three plenary sessions and eight group discussions. The main topics included history of stylistics; stylistic form, its origin and evolution; style and culture; stylistic theory and criticism; and peripheral issues of stylistics.