The Six Dynasties period (222–589) is seen by many Chinese scholars as an era of “literary self-consciousness” (wenxue zijue 文學自覺) a phrase coined by Lu Xun 魯迅 (1881–1936) to describe the ambitious pursuit of glory by literary masters of the Jian'an reign of the Han (196–220) and their Wei-Jin followers. In my view, the indisputable evidence of this literary self-consciousness is not literature itself but the theorizing of it by Six Dynasties literati devoted to exalting the significance of this nascent belletristic literature and elevating its authors’ status. At the pinnacle of these critical writings are China's first and only comprehensive theories of literary creation, in Lu Ji's 陸機 (261–303) Fu Exposition on Literature (hereafter Exposition) and Liu Xie's 劉勰 (ca. 465–532?) magnum opus, Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons 文心雕龍 (hereafter Literary Mind).1
Written shortly before his death in 303, Lu Ji's Exposition occupies...
